The Dog House — Restaurant in England

I just had an absolutely lovely meal with great friends at The Dog House. The service was friendly and hospitable, and the atmosphere warm, inviting, and lively. It’s not a small restaurant, and it was positively bursting with activity on the Saturday night of our visit, which bodes well for its popularity, especially as a fairly new establishment. Everything at The Dog House is cooked on an open fire grill, which is the unifying factor in an otherwise diverse menu.

The whole mackeral with pickled chili and fennel was absolutely divine, tender on the inside, with a nice char on the outside. The charred hispi cabbage was a memorable side dish; it’s hard to imagine a dish doing a better job of transforming the humble cabbage into something so intensely flavorful and mouthwatering. The crispy new potatoes with black garlic aioli were similarly unexpected and complex, a nice twist on an old classic. I found myself scraping out the inside of the ramekin with a few remaining chips just to make sure the fantastic aioli didn’t go to waste. Which brings me to the chips. I’m American, where we call chips “French fries,” and where nearly everyone serves them but few do it well, and I must say that these were the very best, lightest, crispiest chips I have ever had, and they were served piping hot. Few things are more disappointing to me than a tepid chip that has been sitting under a warming lamp until it goes limp or shifts to the texture of cardboard. That’s NOT a problem you will encounter here.

Along that vein, it is clear that everything at The Dog House comes straight off the grill to the table. That means every dish didn’t arrive at the same time, and a few of us had to wait a while for our mains, but all of that is preferable to food sitting in the kitchen until it’s cold. We were comped a dish for our extra wait, and the hostess checked in with us multiple times so we knew we were being taken care of. In a meal with so many positive qualities, one can easily write off the lag in service to a busy night at a new restaurant that is still working to hit its stride.

Our other guests had the curried monkfish- I had a bite, and it was fabulous- the bavette, and the pork ribeye, all of which received great reviews from our table. The aforementioned chips were ordered and reordered several times for the table.

I grew up in California, which is ground zero for the culinary fusion movement, the benefits of which have been the introduction of a whole lot of fantastic pan-continental flavors used in innovative ways. On the down side, this type of food can try too hard to be different and loose focus, sometimes putting more emphasis on exoticism for its own sake and elegant presentation than on taste. As such, it’s always lovely to encounter great quality food that does such a good job of delivering the unexpected. There is enough here at The Dog House that is familiar enough to be comforting, but there is always a welcome twists that transforms something humble into a taste experience you simply won’t find at a typical pub. This isn’t the place to go for traditional pub grub, but if you are looking for something new and different that stands out in a very positive way amidst a sea of the same old fare, give the Dog...

After really looking forward to our meal the initial impression was great. Busy, great atmosphere and met with a smile from a friend we knew. Bar was pretty dirty from drinks which could easily have been taken care of but onto our table. Again everything seemed great. Ordered drinks. Great. Ordered food and was told it was ‘tapas’ style. We ordered the starters. Bread never arrived. Starters were really good. We had ordered the cotes de boeuf, sides came out….. half an hour later the beef. We then needed to ask for cutlery. Sorry but ‘tapas’ style does not work well with an £80 piece of beef. We eventually called someone over to order a second drink as the first had long gone, and the empty glasses remained. The table next to us had the same issue with servers. We were told by the owner that unfortunately they were understaffed that night, I pointed out that sat at 2 different tables on her phone and drinking red wine may have helped that shortage in hands. We also pointed out we only had 2 drinks and would have liked more, the owner responded with “well I’ve walked past plenty you didn’t ask me”….. my wife made it clear we maybe should of been asked if we’d like another?? As well as the table of 4 next to us. We were asked if we wanted something off the bill (besides the 3 things we didn’t order and the 1 thing that never came) to which we responded no as the food was fine but the night was let down by the service and arrogance of the owner. A real shame on a night without kids. We left an hour earlier than planned and would not go back. Instead of taking our feedback on board and thanking us we had attitude and a...

A chance suggestion resulted in four of us having dinner at The Dog House tonight, 5th June. We decided to go for the Tapas style, sharing plates option so we could try and sample everything that we ordered. We had scallops, the whole Sole, monkfish kebab, Bavette steak and the Pork ribeye, along with crushed new potatoes with a mustard and garlic sauce and skinny fries. We were not disappointed, the food was excellent. Sorry, no photos, we were too busy chatting about the quality of the food! The service was very good with most of the fish orders arriving simultaneously but with a very acceptable couple of minutes gap before the other meat plates arrived. The Staff were very helpful as we took time to decide what to order. There is a good range of beers, wines and other drinks. A bottle of Rose was shared and I should mention the Cruzcampo lager, which was light and crisp. It is originally from Seville but nowadays also brewed in the UK. For an early evening Wednesday dinner, the tables were comfortably busy without being crowded. There was a very comfortable atmosphere the entire time we were there. We will definitely...