Walking on water

We walked up towards Wimbledon Village and met friends for a walk around the common. They’d brought Charlie, pictured, out with them. As we walked past Rushmere Pond we saw that it had frozen over and the birds were walking on water. Charlie headed straight out onto the ice. I was worried it wouldn’t be strong enough but he’s only a little dog and was having a lot of fun.  Last night I said it wasn’t too cold on our walk back to Waterloo. I guess it was cold enough overnight to keep the water frozen.

Our walk ended on Ridgeway at a pub named Rushmere. I’d didn’t realise until later that both the pond and the pub carried the same name.  The pub was reasonably quiet and we had a nice seat with a view to the terrance. We watched the hardened smokers pop outside for a cigarette before running back indoors to keep warm.

I went for the tempura soft shell crab on a brioche bun with sriracha mayo and fries.  It was delicious. But the service wasn’t great.  One burger was, somehow, delayed and didn’t come until about 15 minutes after all the other meals. I don’t think we wouldn’t have minded had anybody said anything but we got a quick apology when we specifically had to chase the burger and no further mention. It was a bit of a downer because, my food at least, was lovely.

It’s been a weekend of eating out and a bigger contrast could not have been between lunch and dinner. M & R had booked at table at The Ivy Tower Bridge for the 1917 menu: two courses for £19.17 (1917 is the year the original Ivy restaurant opened in the West End). Here, the service was very good.  I opened for the The Ivy original shepherd’s pie (made with both lamb and beef ) and toped with cheddar mash. It was lovely. When I looked the menu up in advance, I’d thought I’d go for - what seemed to be - healthier baked butternut squash with mixed grains but I changed my mind last minute. PY went for the squash and, like last night, I had food envy. This time, however, the report was that it was delicious.