Whitehall

I guess Friday was just all about the UK because after Meyers of Keswick we went to dinner at Whitehall.  It doesn't feel overly British, but you will see a good deal of gin on the cocktail menu.  They also feature not one but four of my favorite gastropub touches: subway tile on one wall, exposed brick on the others, wood planks for the ceiling, and filiment lightbulbs galore.  It's my favorite vibe.  Dark with enough pizazz that it doesn't feel run of the mill, but not so fancy that you have to dress up if you don't feel like it.

We all went the app route since we had been snacking all day.  My Mom had the crab pasta and loved how light it was.  Though she would have loved anything on Friday night (because that was the day I introduced her to rosé and she just looooved it - new meaning to rose colored glasses), I think this dish was, indeed, quite good.  Albert got some oysters (very good - it may not be a cooked dish, but at least they know how to pick em) and the chicken and pork terrine, a major departure for him but one he enjoyed.  I actually thought it was a very well balanced terrine that was just rich enough.  I ordered two apps thinking we would all share one of them.  The sharing didn't happen so I was very full but it's hard to complain.  I had the asparagus salad with fried egg and caerphilly (a favorite cheese I once picked up at Murray's).  I also got the pea fritters with mint yogurt.  I wish they put on just a bit more yogurt because it really made the dish.  The fritters were bigger than I expected and the inside was nice and creamy, not dry as I worried it would be upon seeing the size.

Whitehall is British, but not in a Ginger Spice, Union-Jack-flag-as-a-dress sort of way.  It's the kind of British I can really appreciate, like a marriage proposal from Prince Harry.