26th April 2013

I always rather think of The Ship, Wandsworth as a bit like Facebook in person.  You’re bound to bump into someone you haven’t seen for a while, and it has a nice familiar feel.

On a weekend with good weather, it’s heaving.  The crowd spills out around the beer garden, people sit on tables – it’s a lot of fun.  There’s an outside BBQ serving fab burgers and you can watch the river as the day goes by.

With all of this, I’d somehow managed to never try the restaurant inside.  I’ve been missing out! The food is fantastic.

To get to the restaurant you walk past the big bar and into a cosy, comforting space at the back of the building.  The kitchen is open and you can see all the fresh food being plated up.

There is an à la carte menu, but also ‘Pub Favourites’ which are written up on boards – this is good news if you’re a classic fish and chips or pie lover!  The mains on the menu vary between about £12 – £17, and then it’s a bit more for steak.

I was starving, so I was pleased when some bread arrived without prompt. The butter was deliciously rock salted on top.

So now I had to challenge my indecision and make a choice about what to eat… I was torn between Fish Pie and Duck.  Duck won – but only on the condition that I could order a Scotch Egg to start.  O thought this was weird, until he tried it.

Woweee check out the runny drippy egg.  Just what I needed to kick off my meal.

The official title of the Duck was: Seared Duck Breast with Spring Onion Mash, Wilted Bok Choy and Blood Orange Jus.  Happily, The Ship have actually written a blog post with the recipe – so if you want, you can recreate it yourself!

The real winner for me was the combination of the spring onion mash and the sauciness of the jus.  It was one of those dishes where you need to get a bit of everything on each forkful. The duck was very tender.

O is a boy, so he wanted steak.  It turned out to be an epic choice.  Ribeye Steak with Braised Shallots, Red Wine Jus and Hand Cut Chips.  (300g of manliness.. there is a 400g option as well and I think I’d have to fast for a day to take that down).

Just look at it!

Cooked perfectly to order, O was pleased (and so was I because I got to eat some).

Sadly, we couldn’t stay for dessert.  But I will definitely be back – you should go too.

Here is the website, if you need any more information.