Hope & Anchor Launch.

Back at the end of September I was invited along to try out the menu from the launch of the new concept bar Hope & Anchor. I must admit I am a little late writing this post, I totally blame the madness of wedding planning on that one! I still wanted to share the experience with you guys as I thoroughly enjoyed the venue, not only did it have the seal of approval for interior design but the menu was also really good. I was brave enough to try things I wouldn't normally have done, which is always a good sign if you ask me!

I really enjoy going along to new menu tastings, it's a great way to get to know the dishes and have a taste of a variety of things you wouldn't necessarily have gone for. I'm definitely a 'play it safe' kind of girl normally because getting a dish you end up hating is the worst when you are looking forward to some grub. I have to admit that I really enjoyed every single bit that came out, even things that I would never have gone for normally, I even went back for seconds on everything, so you know it's good! 

The first of which was this Roast potato, apple and bree stack. I love apple and roast potato but I've never liked bree, Nick encouraged me to try it (I always use him as a tester for new foods and he gives me the green light if he think i'd like it!) and it actually tasted pretty good, I went back for seconds and thirds of this one! I wasn't sure if I liked it after the first try so obviously had to go back for a second to make sure....

Then we had a classic fish and chips with a pea puree. I love fish and chips and I am a major mushy pea fan, this tasted as good as you expected it to really. The peas were so good and the fish was really crispy and full of flavour. You can't really go wrong with fish and chips though!

I think my ultimate favourite was this blackened cod, spring onion and giant cous cous. The cod was peppery and spicy (hot) and the cous cous was lovely. I think the whole thing together was just really complimentary and this was the one I went back for until it had ran out. Nick is really into his hot food and although this wasn't anything crazy it had enough heat to have him going back for more! I'd really like to try this as a main meal to see how it works, the small mouthfuls were nice but I would suspect it would be a little dry as a big dish?

The other dishes we also tried were good, they were snapped up before I could even get some photos of them! Including some steak that was pink in the middle and I was brave enough to try, it came with a mushroom ketchup that I was thoroughly expecting to hate but turned out to be really tasty!

I was generally quite impressed with the food menu, the classic dishes were present but they'd done nice enough little twists on them to not make them the bog standard pub/bar food you expect. Nick and I were discussing going back for a date night at some point in the near future as the place was stop on, the interiors was everything I love and really made me think about finally painting the feature wall in the living room a nice olive green...but that's a story for another time!

As always, let me know what you think if you've been here before or if you've been tempted enough to add it to your list of places to visit! I always love hearing from you in the comments below.