266. Lamb’s Of Sheep Street

 

  A beautiful autumn afternoon. The dog and I had a quiet, slow amble along the bank of the Avon up to Holy Trinity Church having arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon a hour or so before and settled into our regular room at the Shakespeare Hotel. I thought I was going to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre that evening to revisit the latest, rather successful production of Richard III but when I looked at my tickets I discovered that I had a seat for a day later (fortunately I was staying at The Shakespeare for a couple of days) which raised the question of where I should dine this first evening.

 Returning to The Shakespeare, the answer became apparent as I passed the Michelin-listed Lamb’s of Sheep Street, two or three doors down from the hotel’s side entrance. As shown in Blog 262, Lamb’s has held a Michelin recommendation for far longer than any other restaurant in the town - continually since 2000 (during which time period many other Stratford restaurants have fallen by the wayside). The Lamb’s restaurateurs must be doing something right. I dropped in on the restaurant and reserved a table for later in the evening.

 Later in the evening … the restaurant was busy enough so that casual droppers in could not be found a table. I was given a table in the pleasant, cosy downstairs dining room. The atmosphere was absolutely spot on and the service equally pleasing - polite, efficient, patient. The menu is a little perplexing what with 2 or 3 course meals at an excellent set price, ‘fish specials’ and a quite extensive à la carte. I was in a mood for fish but the choice was skate, which I always feel to be inadequate almost anywhere it is served or a seafood linguine, but there was hake on the set menu but not on the à la carte. I enquired about the availability of the hake as an à la carte item and the waitress revealed that the hake was well and truly available.

  So as a starter I had a pleasing crayfish cocktail with sliced avocado, pink grapefruit and shredded salad leaves - pleasant and enjoyable but not particularly startling with flavour - perhaps some more citrus might have done the trick.

  The hake was cooked beautifully - a grand piece of fish treated properly by a chef who clearly knows how to cook fish. It was accompanied by well cooked basmati rice, very edible spinach and a very mild curry sauce which might have benefited from a little more heat though to be fair the dish was all about the hake and if it had been completely unaccompanied it would have lost nothing.

  For dessert I chose caramelised hazelnut parfait which was certainly not lacking in flavour nor texture. However the dish would have benefited from having an additional flavour - something sharp perhaps - to contrast with the unremitting flavour of the parfait.

  So - a good meal, far from outstanding but with some excellent elements particularly the hake. It’s nice to have a straightforward three course meal at a reasonable price and Lambs delivers just such a meal. A visitor to Stratford can do a lot worse than dine there. Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.