The Drapers Arms
44 Barnsbury Street
N1 1ER
Tel: 020 7619 0348
Date of Last Visit: Friday, October 12th, 2007
The Victims: Feathers, Jill
The Damage: £35 quid each
The Background: I’m going to let Feathers do most of the commenting on this one. But I’ll give you the background. Jill was in town from the US and Feathers wanted to do dinner and on a Friday, well, I believe in making a booking. Big pet peeve–wandering around town, just "looking for somewhere good." (Feathers would never do this to me. I just wanted to mention it.) So I called around a bit and everywhere was booked, but then I struck gold with The Drapers Arms. And it all worked out very very well.
Over to Feathers: Atmosphere was romantic with great candlelight. I thought about kissing Krista.
My soup had a lovely robust flavor and I like it when I can add my own toppings to make it cheesier, creamier or crunchier. Yum! [Krista: It was a fish soup of some sort, right?]
Krista said I ordered the boring dish but I love butternut squash with feta and the rosemary was the perfect herb. The speghetti was perfectly cooked and the sauce was creamy but not too rich like an
alfredo. [Krista: Yes, I was very surprised by the deliciousness of the vegetarian spaghetti.]
The Service: My favorite part of the night was Jill (the visitor from the US) said Krista should say, "Great food but OK service." Meanwhile, Krista and I thought it was very good service. Welcome to England. Americans like nothing better than a recommendation and the staff was more than willing to accomadate. I also love when you ask about a dish and they give you a lukewarm response. It means that they aren’t just saying everything is good. Krista asked about (what dish was it?) and she said it was fine so Krista went straight for the highly recommended pork chop and she got the best dish of the night.
And More from Krista: I thought Jill’s scallops were wonderful. They were topped with a delicious garlick-y pesto of some sort. A very generous serving too–six or seven very large scallops. (No idea of provenance.) The lemon tart was smooth and silky, although I do perfer lemon tart when it’s a bit more solid. Other things I liked–the bread was great. I like hummous, but I thought that was a bit of an add choice. (There was butter too.) Oh yes, and my pork chop was fantastic. It was served with beans–and my only complaint is that I could have used some more beans.
Oh yes, and we had two JUGS OF TAP WATER! We didn’t even have to ask for the second.
And Hello to Our New Friends: Out front on our way out, we met Rory and Leonora. Rory lives around the block and Leonora is his mom and he was taking her out to dinner. (And enjoying a smoke break.) They were kind enough to take a photo of us and we enjoyed a nice chat out front about how delicious the Drapers Arms was, Americans in the UK, my blog, and many other things. Feathers invited them to her Christmas party and she is very serious about her Christmas party invitations, so perhaps we shall see them again.
What made me love The Drapers even more was that a staff member came out mid-conversation to check in with them and make sure everything was okay and did they want anything else, etc. It was quite friendly.
The Verdict: We’ll be back. For sure.
