Drum and Monkey, Harrogate; 8 Mar 09

Yesterday was a good day for food. I started off with a cardiac breakfast at my hotel, the Crown, in Harrogate. And after a 4 train journey back to Cambridge I enjoyed my weekly steak which is the one meal that I’m allowed and expected to cook. In between was lunch at the Drum and Monkey, small but perfectly formed.

I was in Harrogate for some boring political event. I spent 2 days ‘in the company of people with whom I am comfortable’. I’d had 2 heavy dinners first at Vivido, where 3 of us half way intelligent men found ourselves outnumbered by 5 intellectual amazons, and then at Brio, where we started with 10 and ended up with 5. Some people don’t have any stamina.

Then it was all over. I checked out of my hotel at about 1300 and had a train to catch at 1530. Just right for lunch and I was thinking about Loch Fyne where I’d lunched 2 years ago. But I crossed the road from the hotel and within 20m I’d come across the Drum and Monkey which was clearly a fish restaurant. So why walk any further?

It must have been a neighbourhood pub once because there’s a bar and seating for maybe 25 (5 at the bar itself) at a number of old sewing machines. Evidently there’s an upstairs for when it’s busy but yesterday it was not.

It was just about perfect. Scallops to start followed by halibut with a splendid Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. No desert but an espresso to shut down the taste buds. Just about perfect but was the halibut just a little dry and why were the potatoes so ‘perfect’ (completely bereft of skin)? And to be honest it wasn’t a real espresso machine but it tasted fine.

Harrogate is one of my favorite places and the Drum and Monkey is another reason to go back.