The interior was pretty simple, except with heads of hares hanging off the walls! Most of the pictures were of hares and other games.
The bar area was absolutely crowded and many had to stand on the pavements. I had to push my way through the bar area to find myself at the reception of the dining area.
There are round table booths on the sides of the dining room and round tables down the middle. Unfortunately, my table was one of the round ones down the middle of the restaurant. It felt really crammed. I could touch the back of the person behind me when I laid back onto my chair.
I had the Honey Roast Salmon with Beetroot and Horseradish as starter, and my guest had the Crisp Bone Marrow. The portions were bigger than the usual starter I had to say. I was more than half way full after finishing my Salmon starter.
As for main dish, my guests had Roast Pollock from the Billingsgate section; Braised Rabbit leg with faggots, peas, bacon with mustard sauce; and I had the Yorkshire Wood Pigeon with puy lentils.
Usually I expect my pigeon to be cooked pink with the centre moist and soft, oozing with woody and oaky flavours... but this dish had completely let me down. There were 4 pieces of the pigeon, and all of them were over cooked, not by a little, but by far! The meat was flaky because it was all dried up. It tasted like I was eating a piece of a chicken liver.
And of course, pigeon is usually served on the bones, however, I found many small broken bones while trying to cut through my bird.
It was horrible, but I did not want to make a big fuss over the dish. So I left half of the remaining dish on the plate - untouched.
My horrific experience with the main dish had stopped me from even looking at the dessert menu. I knew I would not be coming back to The Jugged Hare ever again.
Food rating: 4/10
The Jugged Hare
49 Chiswell Street
London EC1Y 4SA
http://www.thejuggedhare.com/
