It's the start of the Old Man's birthday weekend and I had intended to book somewhere beforehand, but rather than imposing my will on him I let him choose to which I got the predictable response to the question: What do you fancy eating? - "I don't mind... food". You give people choice and they don't know what to do with themselves.
After 20 questions on what to eat (ending in "something meaty") we decide on The Cambridge Chop House and choose from their Pre-Theatre Menu of 2 courses for £12 served until 7pm on weekdays.
As a starter, I choose Warm Ham Hock Salad & Treacle Dressing, which I thought sounded interesting. In reality it doesn't really work. The flakes of ham hock fell apart nicely, the rocket leaves and boiled egg: fairly standard, the thin slices of fennel: a nice touch, but the treacle dressing did not go and there was just too much of it. Actually ruins the dish.
My main of Wiltshire Cured Ham, Duck Egg and Chips was better. The fried egg was cooked nicely with a runny yolk, the chips were irregularly chunky and all the better for it and the ham was tasty too, though meanly cut like supermarket sandwich ham. Overall it was slightly disappointing.
The pre-theatre menu was apt. After dinner the Old Man looks at his new watch as we walk away from the restaurant, when I ask if he's missing something on TV, then paradoxically states that he doesn't watch TV followed by he's missing Channel 4 News. At which point we are walking past the Cambridge Arts Theatre and I whip out tickets to Yes, Prime Minister; he's genuinely surprised and spend the evening genuinely Laughing Out Loud. Success.
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