I was in Stratford to see what mischief the RSC had wrought on Shakespeare in its most recent production of Macbeth. Mischief had indeed been wrought. Best not to think about it.
Dinner was needed the following evening and I chose The Opposition, three or four shops down from the Garrick Wing of the Shakespeare Hotel where Lucy The Labrador and I love to stay so by the time I arrived at the restaurant very little distance hade been travelled. The Opposition makes up a part of a row of bistros including the well thought of Lamb’s of Sheep Street and has an attractive frontage and an even more attractive interior - more spacious than you might think when you first arrive because there are four dining rooms that make up the ground floor dining area, atmospherically oak beamed with exposed stone walls. Even though the pre-theatre dinner crowd had already moved on to see the rubbish the RSC was delivering at the theatre a stone’s throw away, the restaurant was still full of diners and for want of a better word, buzzing. And thereby might be the problem.
The specials, written on a blackboard but also featured on the crowded paper menu, looked too tempting to resist. I had the starter of Cornish crab and avocado salad. It looked as though it might have benefitted from me arriving an hour earlier - the avocado was browning and the peashoots in the salad looked exhausted and were not a pleasure to eat (and I did not). The crab was nice enough but this starter did not rise above the middling
The main was Fillet of plaice with samphire, caper butter and seasonal vegetables. This was a nice piece of plaice but the cooking was tragically inaccurate with the fish, though not inedible by any means, being well over which seems to me to be a great waste and misfortune. The way food was flying out of the very busy kitchen seemed the likely cause - it was clearly too difficult to apply the necessary attention which a fine piece of pricey fish deserves compared with a dish of lasagne or a plate of tortellini. The vegetables were mainly cooked satisfactorily, it was pleasing to have plain buttered new potatoes than being served with some cheffy twist applied to them.
For dessert I had a depressingly inelegantly presented ‘fresh vanilla rice pudding with plum compote’. Again this was too tempting to resist and the rice pudding was very reasonable and nicely bucked up by the plum compote but I couldn’t help feeling that more could have been made of this dish.
The service was excellent. I sat next to a charming couple who said they had visited The Opposition four or five times and “had never had a bad meal”. From my experience I doubt that the restaurant does serve any ‘bad meals’ but my meal was full of faults which I do not like to see when I am paying well over £60 for a three course meal plus drinks. It’s sad because it’s a lovely place with plenty of atmosphere and fine service.
Rating:- 🌛.
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