Dipsophile should first declare an interest. He has known the current landlord of the Phoenix for over thirty years. Last year, when the pub was refurbished, Dipsophile helped to document the project in photographs.

After extensive building work the pub reopened in March 2008. Since then we’ve been for the odd drink, but we had never eaten there. Until now – and it is a pleasure to say that we can recommend it wholeheartedly.

In the dark and gloomy days just after the New Year, we joined some friends at the Phoenix for Sunday lunch. There were seven of us.

Most of the party chose the roast (roast chicken, lamb or sirloin of beef, served with carrots, green beans, cauliflower cheese, braised red cabbage, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, £9.95).

But Dipsophile has a jaundiced view of pub roasts, having seen too many plates of wafer-thin frozen beef microwaved and served up with watery gravy. So Dipsophile chose the sausage and mash (pork and herb sausages with wholegrain mustard mash and gravy £6.95) and Dipsophile No 1 son chose ham, egg and chips (£6.95).

Just for completeness, we should mention that they also do a main course of fish and chips (haddock, chips and mushy peas £6.95). They also do starters (home made soup, garlic bread, prawns, gnocchi, terrine, priced between £2.50 and £4.00 or so) and puddings (chocolate brownie and ice cream, chocolate and orange bread and butter pudding, mulled wine poached pears, ice cream, Banoffee pie, all at £2.95).

So how was the food? Well, Dipsophile should have ignored his prejudices. The Phoenix roasts were absolutely fantastic. Thick cut, tender roast meat, served with lashings of vegetables cooked just right and roast potatoes done to a turn; Yorkshire puddings that would have made Norah Batty green with envy; and wonderful gravy.

At this point there might have been wailing and gnashing of teeth, Dipsophile and son having missed out on the roast. But our food was superb – really tasty, unctuous bangers and mash, and a large portion of proper ham, egg and chips that ultimately defeated even our seventeen year old eating machine.

The afternoon passed in a relaxed way. Several of the party had puddings and the verdict was just as good as the main course. Our drinks were an eclectic mix of gins and tonic, real ales (they keep four) and a Rioja (good and reasonably priced).

At five it was finally time to go (we’d arrived at one!). The bill including a couple of bottles of Rioja was about £95 or, including a tip, £15 a head. As the late Bill Deedes used to say “Shome mishtake shurely?” In fact there wasn’t a mistake. It’s just very good value for money.

Certainly for Sunday lunch the Phoenix is highly recommended. Do catch it while winter is still here and an extended lunch fits the bill. In summer, the garden running down to the river means the place takes on a different (but still very pleasant) atmosphere and you might want to be outside.

As for the rest of the week, we assume that the quality and the friendly service we noted on a Sunday will carry through to their weekday menus. We look forward to finding out if this is the case.

Logistics

The Sunday menu is served from 12 noon to 7pm. They do not at the time of writing operate bookings, so do get there early if you want to eat.

If arriving by car, you’ll probably be able to park in The Avenue and walk the 50 or 100 yards to the pub.

The Phoenix   26-28, Thames St, Sunbury-On-Thames, Middlesex, TW16

                        Tel: 0871 917 0007   

Bibi apparently still say it’s in order to BYO if you wish. You might wish to phone to check that before taking any wine along. Their contact details are on my post of a couple of weeks ago (click the tag “Bibi” to go straight to the earlier post)

Parvinu has now been open for a couple of months. Mr & Mrs Dipsophile visited on a recent Friday evening to see how it was getting on.

We’ve remarked on the wine list before (see below) but now we’ve found something we like drinking (the Chilean chardonnay, £18.50) and we spent a relaxed half hour getting the feel of the place.

It was fairly full, with a very pleasant crowd eating and drinking in a relaxed atmosphere. There were even groups of people drinking and chatting at the great oval dining table, which made it look like a party in some vast Italian villa – really unusual.

Parvinu is a very distinctive place and there is certainly nowhere like it in the area. Given the current economic climate, the upmarket positioning is brave, but it was busy the night we went and we hear that it is generally well frequented.

We hope it continues to do well; in the interest of Parvinu moving from good to great, we put together a (last) list of things we thought could be improved:

The bar. We’re not sure it’s a good idea to have people eating there because it makes it difficult for people to buy a drink – and when they do get served the transaction tends to annoy the people eating at the bar. We would remove the bar seats to give drinkers a clear run.

The flat lighting in the main room. We think that more upbeat lighting could make the main room an absolutely stunning space, rather than the rather gloomy one it is at present.

The soup posters. We still don’t like these, but totally accept that, as Homer Simpson said “beauty is in the eye of the beer holder”

Otherwise, that’s it – no more gripes. We look forward to future visits and will be actively looking to add the “cool” tag to this place as and when it achieves that hard-to-define status.

P.S. We still haven’t eaten there, but some people have added  comments at the end of this post. More comments would be welcome, both on the food and in general.

P.S.S. Parvinu’s wine list and menu are on their website, here

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The Riversniffers are divided on this new addition to the St Margarets drinking/eating scene. Some reckon it will be a great success. Others have their doubts. So Dipsophile hand-picked a panel of seasoned drinkers from the editorial team and paid a visit on a weekend lunchtime. These are the findings of the group.

 What we like

The space It is big – and the furniture, fixtures and fittings are of high quality and give an upmarket impression. Large gilt mirrors, burgundy leather sofas, zinc and wood-topped tables make for a club-like atmosphere.

The spectacular oval dining table – set in its own semi-private area, seats 15 and would be great for a celebrating a significant event.

The loos – magnificent

The photographs – fabulous, distinctive black and white photographs on some of the walls

What we’re not keen on

The lighting – is subdued to the point of gloom. The lighting is so dim that we found ourselves chasing round the room looking for a light to read the wine list by. We also found the little pendant lights over the tables irritating, as they barely enable the reading of menus and generally seeing what you are eating/drinking.

The Riversniffers thought that the lighting should be more dramatic, with pools of bright light contrasting with darker areas to give a more upbeat feel to the place.

The posters on the wall – we thought the pop art posters on the wall clashed with the club-like atmosphere of the rest of the space. Bare walls would actually be an improvement on what’s currently there.

The wine list – is extensive, but our panel found it to be pricey and to some extent obscure. What do we mean by that?

In the UK at present the most popular white wines would probably be sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and maybe Pino Grigio; in reds, maybe Rhone, Rioja or some variety of (ordinary) claret. These volume tipples may be regarded as something of a cliché – and our guess is that Parvinu are trying to avoid being clichéd. Indeed, their wine list is rich in regional varietals.

But if you’re out for the evening with a bunch of friends and you’re looking for something that is familiar to most of the group, what might you choose? Well in whites, the cheapest chardonnay is a Chilean at £18.50, the cheapest sauvignon blanc is £19.50 and the lowest priced French chardonnay (a Chablis) is £32. There isn’t a Pino Grigio. In reds, there’s a Cote du Rhone at £23, a Rioja at £27 and a claret at £62 (admittedly a Grand Cru Classe 1997!)

In fairness we should leave the fabulous claret out of this debate. But we suspect the rest of the prices are slightly beyond the range of most everyday wine drinkers.

They’re also more than the local competition. For example, in an establishment not far from Parvinu you can get a Chablis for £16, just half the price. I suspect the Parvinu example would be better quality but for everyday social drinking would you rather have one glass or two for the same money?

Conclusion (for now)

Parvinu is aimed firmly at an upmarket clientele, with pricing to match. Whether this positioning survives in the current economic climate remains a subject of debate among the Riversniffers.

Any comments?

We wish Parvinu success, but we feel they may need to tune the offering. Riversniffers would be particularly interested in your comments (especially if you’ve eaten there, which we haven’t had a chance to do yet).

Two cool Richmond establishments in ten days. Dipsophile’s cup runneth over.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t serve alcohol (and that’s a serious drawback as far as Dipsophile is concerned) this place is so cool it’s sub-zero.

Looking out over the newly restored and replanted Terrace Gardens, the building has an air of peace. It harks back to an earlier Richmond. To a time before the IT salesmen and the financial services people moved in; before the property prices went beserk; before anyone had ever heard of a collateralised debt obligation.

The food is vegetarian, organic and/or Fairtrade.. Sample prices: pot of tea for one/two £1.45/£2.10; coke 90p; slice of pizza £2.10/with salad £5.40. There are vegetable samosas, filo spinach and ricotta parcels; also lots of fresh fruit. You get the drift – the food is good and it’s not going to break the bank.

Dipsophile lingered over a pot of tea for one. Softly in the background the Mamas and the Papas played - “California Dreaming” and then “Monday, Monday”. For a while Dipsophile was transported back to his misspent youth.

The interior features a high ceiling, a stripped pine floor and a wood burning stove. There are second hand books and posters for bands and gigs and alternative therapists. In fact the Hollyhocks Café is redolent of the sixties, and has an almost hippy feel.

The legend under the framed duck on the wall says “Who gives a duck?”

Indeed.

The Verdict

Elysian. Not to be missed.

Other notes

Now open all year round. It does get very popular at weekends. An off-peak visit would be best to appreciate the atmosphere. Opening times vary according to the season and the weather, so if you plan to go at the beginning or end of the day then please phone ahead to check they are open.

The parking along Petersham Road is non-existent. If you go by car it may be best to drive to the top of the Hill. Try to find a meter on Friars Stile Rd, then walk down through the Terrace Gardens to the café.

Hollyhock Café, Terrace Gardens, Petersham Road, Richmond TW10 6UX Tel: 020 8948 6555.

 

Dipsophile has been drinking in this pub for more than thirty years. Not continuously, you understand (Oliver Reed-like figure lurches briefly across the reader’s mind), but on and off since John Foster was the landlord in the Seventies.

To read the press today you’d think binge drinking was a modern invention. But Richmond folk have always liked a drink (just look at the number of pubs in the town) – and many of the older Riversniffers learned their binge drinking in the White Swan in the Seventies.

In those far off days, gatherings of 15 or so Riversniffers were quite usual. Massive rounds were bought, packets of cigarettes chain-smoked, even yards of ale drunk at the bar. Sometimes sessions lasted from opening time (5:30pm, for those that can’t remember when pubs had an opening time) until chucking-out time, even later if there was a “lock-in”.

Then people got in their cars and drove home.

At this distance it all seems surreal – like an episode from “Life on Mars”. One can’t believe today how politically uncorrect it all was – but it did happen.

But we digress. Back to the point, which is to let you know what the White Swan is like today.

We had guests for the weekend, and we booked a table for four.

The menu is typical gastropub (which for us is a good thing) and it was varied enough for us to have a hard time choosing. In the end, all four of us had the filo prawn starters. Then for main course two of us chose the salmon fillets with couscous, one the chicken breast stuffed with feta and one the lamb chump.

The starters arrived in very short order, but didn’t raise any great enthusiasm. Although perfectly OK, the filo prawns looked and tasted a bit average.

The main course was a different story. Decent sized portions, beautifully cooked and very satisfying – so much so that when it came to the pudding we could only manage one (very generous) portion of chocolate cake between the four of us.

Drinks included some top-notch London Pride, a good bottle of Pino Grigio and really good coffee with the pudding.  Service throughout was attentive and friendly.

The bill, including a 12.5% service charge (added for tables of four or more) came to £120. For four, we thought this was reasonable given the quality of food, drink and service.

The Verdict

The current management arrived four years ago, and they run the place with relaxed informality. They also manage the very difficult feat of keeping the pub and the eating sides of the operation in balance, so that both drinkers and diners feel at home.

The place is probably better run now than it ever was, and we can recommend it unhesitatingly, either as an interesting and civilised pub or as a place to eat, or both.

Afterword

After writing the above, Dipsophile thought that he was missing something. It was only after some reflection that he realised what it was.

The White Swan is in fact one of the few (the very few) places in Richmond which is “cool”. On the Top Gear “cool wall”, the White Swan would be way over on the right hand end. It is futile to try to pin down exactly what makes it cool – it just is. You’ll know what I mean if you go.

Final thoughts

If you are eating you should book ahead, as they get quite busy evenings and weekends.

The pub is also not that large and these days it does have to balance the pub and the dining aspects, so if fifteen of you want to re-run one of those “Life on Mars” binge sessions then you should probably choose one of the town centre pubs. Leave the White Swan to go its own, cool way.

The White Swan, Old Palace Lane, Richmond, TW9 1PG

Tel: 020 8940 0959