The Hound Chiswick - Party for 8? This is the Place to Book

Article by guest author Peter Brooker

This used to be the place. Back when it was The Crown, it had half price Tuesday. We gorged on Rock Oysters, Bavette Steak and craft IPA. It had the best steak in all of Chiswick at the time. But that was then.

The venue itself hasn't changed much, aside from the new outdoor retractable glass roof over the beer garden which ensures all year round outdoor dining. We hosted the wake there for Anastasia's Mum some years back. I've celebrated numerous birthday's there.

Now it's The Hound, and the staff have all changed. My name is still on file, but no one recognises me. There is no familiarity. It's like having all your frequent flyer miles wiped.

The ambiance is really the best thing about The Hound, and that's also remained over the years. I saw Gary Kemp eat here once. That tells you something.

"At least you can hear yourself talk in this place," the wife says. And this cannot be said for many pub restaurants.

There is a big screen outdoors, but the waiter is unsure whether they play sports. "Just stop interrogating people," the wife tells me.

Nevermind. I hope they don't play sports. If they do it should just be exclusively Test Cricket or Tennis. The kind of sports that appeal to a different class where people come to enjoy a good craft ale and a Sunday Roast, rather than the beer and a burger-football shirt wearing crowd that one can't seem to dislocate from the Wetherspoons crowd of the early 2000s.

The Bavette steak is long gone. Instead I opted for the BEER BATTERED FISH & CHIPS Mushy Peas, Tartare Sauce, Lemon and the wife ordered the FLAT IRON STEAK Skinny Fries, Watercress, Whisky Peppercorn Sauce. We paired it with a bottle SECATEURS A.A Badenhorst, Swartland, South Africa.

Red wine with fish, I imagined James Bond's disapproving look.

The fish was entirely too battered, the steak had no adventure to it. The wine did not disappoint, and South African wines rarely do.

The waiter had no brown sauce.

I'm reminded that I once bought a bottle of HP sauce and left it behind the counter here some years ago. I'm tempted to ask if he could go look for it. But common sense prevails.

That all said, we’re coming back for the wife’s birthday, I’ll bring my own condiments.