We ate Christmas Day Lunch here, and whilst £70 per person is on the dearer side of life, the quality of the food was very good - and no one has to argue about who is washing up the dishes. We arrived at 1pm and were seated. Drinks took a while to come round but we were in good company, so all was well.
First came the glasses of prosecco, followed by the shallot & thyme vèloute - a creamy white sauce served with a slice of garlic bruschetta style bread. It was surprisingly tasty!
Starters came in closely after - we were a little shocked at the portion sizes, but looking back, the food was very rich, we probably would have been so uncomfortable at the end of the lunch if given more! I chose the pork terrine which came complete with crackling, pickles and mustard. The terrine was firm and coarse, with compacted layers of chopped pork; it was delicious.
For mains, I chose the turkey, which came with duck fat & rosemary roasties, cranberry stuffing, pigs in blankets (just one...), honey glazed roots (just two...), Brussels tops and jus. Again, disappointed in the size of my portion, but it was VERY filling. The 5 of us who ordered turkey really enjoyed it, the other 4 chose the sirloin steak, which came accompanied by dauphinoise potatoes, green beans, wild mushrooms and Port jus. The only downside was there was no horseradish or sauce for the steak. Other than that - there was not a morsel left on those plates. I'd say that's pretty successful!
As for the dessert, again, portion size was disappointing on arrival - but oh wow, SO rich, I'm glad it was small! The chocolate marquise came served with hazelnuts and clementine sorbet, which was out of this world. The Christmas pudding my brother in law received was ridiculously small though - it was like it was shaved off one pudding and there wasn't enough to go round all the covers on Christmas Day... still. He enjoyed it!
The biggest shock, however, was paying for drinks at the end of our meal. As we had prepaid weeks before, we were aware that paying for drinks was separate. We racked up a small £60 tab between the 9 of us, but when we went to pay, it was £130... what we were not informed about, was an added (optional) 12.5% gratuity - but not to the total of the drinks, no no, but to the total of all covers... which is a tad cheeky! 12.5% of £630 is a lot! We would have gladly left our own tip, but adding £70 without our knowledge or consent left a sour taste on a special day. Still - don't let that put you off, that's never happened to me on other days eating and drinking here - it was just Christmas Day.
Regardless of our Christmas experience, this is still probably my favorite pub in Ealing so I will give it a solid 4 for all the other times that have been amazing here. With Sunday roasts as good as they come, I would definitely recommend The Grove to all. read more