EPL : Arsenal 2 Tottenham 2
Sept 1, 2019 9:42:51 GMT
MrFurious, nutsberryfarm 🏜, and 2 more like this
Post by staggerstag on Sept 1, 2019 9:42:51 GMT
In Islington, a stone's throw from Angel station, and nestled between a Royal Trinity Hospice store and the Herbal Inn health and feelgood shop, is the Steam Passage Tavern. As you enter you begin to wonder if you wouldn't have done better by going instead to the large restaurant directly on the other side of Upper Street - called Thai Square. Because the Steam Passage is very noisy, fine if you just want a pint and some peanuts but we're here for a full sit-down lunch. It's all wooden seating and tables with a few soft-topped stools placed near the bar. Most busy pubs operate a maximum stool count at the bar but not this place. You're already two deep before you even get to the bar because of the lounging bar flies squatted along the counter.
Let's have a crack at the house burgers, which can be bought as part of a deal including a drink (pint, wine, lemonade, whatever, but no spirits or cocktails) The so-called Brilliant Burger comes in three sizes, double, triple and quadruple. We'll go for the 4 patty one, served with chips and a pint of Guinness (£11.29) The pint is served at the bar and your food is brought to where you are seated.
£11.29 for a fat boy burger, chips and a pint seems too good to be true. And it is. The girl drops the grub on the tiny table and asks without delay if we want the dessert menu. Not yet. The chips are not very appetizing to look at, pale, almost soggy, and looking in need of another dip in the fryer. And there aren't many of them to a portion, little over a dozen. The seasoned beef patties are plonked between the bread one on top of the other with nothing between them - the slice of cheese is at the top, a leaf of lettuce squashed between the bottom patty and the lower bun half. It needs ketchup or mustard, anything to juice it up, give it some moisture. For a four patty burger it isn't that big and can be bitten into without too much of a mess. I'd say it was only a 3 napkin job. Unfortunately the seasoned beef tastes just like a high street chain patty without the relish - in other words, like cardboard. You can't even taste the streaky bacon flavour glaze that's supposed to adorn them. More ketchup is definitely required just to give the thing a taste and pretty soon your table has become a bloody mess of spilt sauces and bits of lettuce and suddenly the meal has become a 6 napkin job, three for you and three for the table. What a let down. Only two thirds of it is finished and most of the chips are left untouched.
At least the Guinness is good, though the barman did need to be cautioned for lifting the resting 3/4 full glass too abruptly before beginning the topping up process. "Easy, easy, please," you cry, watching the ale nearly slopping out of the glass.
The other burger at our table is the triple decker soya burger, patties battered and with a Reggae Reggae jerk barbecue mango and onion sauce (£10.29 with chips and small wine) Same story with the chips, although the sauce on this burger did actually taste of something so there was no need to molest the patties with ketchup.
Perhaps it is a bad day for burgers and chips and maybe another choice would have been better and there are lots of items on the menu, pub classics, super sharers, foot longs, grills - but at the end of the day it all comes from the same kitchen so who knows?
That's quite enough of this place and I wish now we'd gone across the road to Thai Square. I believe the Steam Passage Tavern is a Stonegate Pub Company venue, and it seems, in London anyway, that Stonegate owns a hefty number of pubs and bars. I've noticed this. The next pub you pass on your travels, in London or without, is likely as not a Stonegate joint. If they're helping to keep pubs open, okay, but we don't want to be swamped like f***ing T*sco or f***ing S****burys (omnipresent greedy bastards whose names I cannot even bring myself to fully type in my disgust at their monstrous duopoly of the market place in every f***ing town, city and village in the UK)
And sort out your burger meals, Stonegate, for crying out loud. Unimpressed.
My Easi-Trav portable barometer informs me that come kick-off time it will be 19c with a west north westerly wind going at 12mph with no chance of rain and humidity at about 40%. Visibility will be almost 10 miles so there can be no excuses weather-wise not to expect a decent game of football.
Arsenal were outclassed last week at Anfield losing 3-1 with a consolation pot by Torreira the only sign of life from them. Tottenham succumbed to a home defeat at the hands of Newcastle on their last outing and are two points adrift of the Gunners in the table.
Mesut Ozil (remember him?) is available for Arsenal following another of his illnesses last week and Deli Alli should make the Spurs squad following his hamstring issue.
I have predicted the away win here but the Head-to-Heads are fiercely against me with Spurs coming out on top in just 2 of their 27 visits to Arsenal in the EPL, the last win being nine years ago.
North London derby history :
Arsenal 77
Spurs 58
Draw 50
Arsenal 6/4
Tottenham 17/10
Draw 13/5
COYS
Let's have a crack at the house burgers, which can be bought as part of a deal including a drink (pint, wine, lemonade, whatever, but no spirits or cocktails) The so-called Brilliant Burger comes in three sizes, double, triple and quadruple. We'll go for the 4 patty one, served with chips and a pint of Guinness (£11.29) The pint is served at the bar and your food is brought to where you are seated.
£11.29 for a fat boy burger, chips and a pint seems too good to be true. And it is. The girl drops the grub on the tiny table and asks without delay if we want the dessert menu. Not yet. The chips are not very appetizing to look at, pale, almost soggy, and looking in need of another dip in the fryer. And there aren't many of them to a portion, little over a dozen. The seasoned beef patties are plonked between the bread one on top of the other with nothing between them - the slice of cheese is at the top, a leaf of lettuce squashed between the bottom patty and the lower bun half. It needs ketchup or mustard, anything to juice it up, give it some moisture. For a four patty burger it isn't that big and can be bitten into without too much of a mess. I'd say it was only a 3 napkin job. Unfortunately the seasoned beef tastes just like a high street chain patty without the relish - in other words, like cardboard. You can't even taste the streaky bacon flavour glaze that's supposed to adorn them. More ketchup is definitely required just to give the thing a taste and pretty soon your table has become a bloody mess of spilt sauces and bits of lettuce and suddenly the meal has become a 6 napkin job, three for you and three for the table. What a let down. Only two thirds of it is finished and most of the chips are left untouched.
At least the Guinness is good, though the barman did need to be cautioned for lifting the resting 3/4 full glass too abruptly before beginning the topping up process. "Easy, easy, please," you cry, watching the ale nearly slopping out of the glass.
The other burger at our table is the triple decker soya burger, patties battered and with a Reggae Reggae jerk barbecue mango and onion sauce (£10.29 with chips and small wine) Same story with the chips, although the sauce on this burger did actually taste of something so there was no need to molest the patties with ketchup.
Perhaps it is a bad day for burgers and chips and maybe another choice would have been better and there are lots of items on the menu, pub classics, super sharers, foot longs, grills - but at the end of the day it all comes from the same kitchen so who knows?
That's quite enough of this place and I wish now we'd gone across the road to Thai Square. I believe the Steam Passage Tavern is a Stonegate Pub Company venue, and it seems, in London anyway, that Stonegate owns a hefty number of pubs and bars. I've noticed this. The next pub you pass on your travels, in London or without, is likely as not a Stonegate joint. If they're helping to keep pubs open, okay, but we don't want to be swamped like f***ing T*sco or f***ing S****burys (omnipresent greedy bastards whose names I cannot even bring myself to fully type in my disgust at their monstrous duopoly of the market place in every f***ing town, city and village in the UK)
And sort out your burger meals, Stonegate, for crying out loud. Unimpressed.
My Easi-Trav portable barometer informs me that come kick-off time it will be 19c with a west north westerly wind going at 12mph with no chance of rain and humidity at about 40%. Visibility will be almost 10 miles so there can be no excuses weather-wise not to expect a decent game of football.
Arsenal were outclassed last week at Anfield losing 3-1 with a consolation pot by Torreira the only sign of life from them. Tottenham succumbed to a home defeat at the hands of Newcastle on their last outing and are two points adrift of the Gunners in the table.
Mesut Ozil (remember him?) is available for Arsenal following another of his illnesses last week and Deli Alli should make the Spurs squad following his hamstring issue.
I have predicted the away win here but the Head-to-Heads are fiercely against me with Spurs coming out on top in just 2 of their 27 visits to Arsenal in the EPL, the last win being nine years ago.
North London derby history :
Arsenal 77
Spurs 58
Draw 50
Arsenal 6/4
Tottenham 17/10
Draw 13/5
COYS
