Maroush St John's wood | Crockers Folly — Restaurant in London

A few weeks back, I was invited to Crocker’s Folly to experience their traditional Lebanese style dining. Upon entering, I was amazed at the beautiful chandeliers, wooden paneling, and gold-coated interior; it was truly a beautiful sight. Opened in the mid-1890’s Frank Crocker originally decided to turn the building into a hotel. However, despite being a true entrepreneur, this venture did not come to be as fruitful as Crocker anticipated, which later lead to Crocker’s demise, hence the restaurant being called Crocker’s Folly. In 2004, the restaurant was acquired by the Maroush group and was reinvented as Crocker’s Folly, which they are sure Mr. Crocker would be proud!

Traditional Maroush Hummus The menu had such variety that initially I was spoilt for choice, however, the headwaiter suggested a mixture of dishes to try. For starters, I opted for the traditional Maroush hummus. There was no way; I was about to enter a Lebanese restaurant without trying their traditional Hummus! Which is made of chickpea puree, sesame paste, and lemon juice, and is served with freshly baked warm pitta bread.

King prawns Next to be served were the king prawns; pan king prawns topped with pine nuts and chilli. The prawns are thoroughly marinated and seasoned well, as the flavour can be tasted throughout the prawns. A great tip, I would suggest is squeezing the lemon all over the prawns for an added burst of flavour.

Bastorma Carpaccio with rocket I am a huge fan of Carpaccio of any kind, therefore when the beef Carpaccio was presented I did feel like all my dreams had come true and were in heaven, especially as it so aesthetically pleasing. The Carpaccio is thinly sliced Bastorma smoked beef fillet, which is marinated with special spices and served with rocket and fresh olive oil. Once again, Folly did not disappoint with the flavour, this is every Carpaccio addict’s dream as the special spices liven the beef with flavour. The texture of the beef is chewy but soft, and despite being with a guest, and this dish is best shared, I decided to have the Carpaccio to myself. I would say it is a must try dish from the menu as it is quite filling and it was my favourite.

Halloumi Meshwi Due to my allergies, I could not eat the grilled Halloumi cheese, however, my guest did try the Halloumi and said it was better than Nandos, and everyone loves Nandos Halloumi cheese. All jokes aside, she described the cheese as soft and dewy but with a rubber texture, well seasoned with a hint of spice.

Jawaneh One thing I, of course, can eat is chicken wings, so I was here for the Jawaneh, which are charcoal grilled marinated wings served with garlic sauce. As the wings are a bit on the spicy side, the garlic sauce is perfect, as it aids in giving the wings a more savoury/sour taste. However, I will add that the wings do not taste charcoal grilled and the portion is quite small, so it is better to get this dish for one rather than to share. As usual, I ended up being a greedy diner and eating the majority of the wings!

Soujok As if there were not enough options already, Soujok was finally brought to the table, which are homemade Lebanese spicy sausages, sautéed in tomato sauce. Squeezing a lemon over the Soujok, allowing the lemon juice to drizzle over the sausages and entwine with the tomato sauce is my tip to you. The lemon juice aids in bringing out the flavours, as this dish is full of flavour. The sausages are a little harder than usual but overall this is a must-have dish!

Fruit platter Finally, to clean my palette was a plate of fruit, serving all my favourites, Watermelon, Kiwi, Pineapple, Melon, and Strawberries. As a lot of spices and flavours were ingested the fruit aided in neutralising my stomach.

Overall, the food was great and positively full of flavour. I loved that Folly’s serve traditional Lebanese food, as it is one of my favourite cuisines, alongside Nigerian and Japanese. The staffs are also Lebanese, which is appreciated, as the staff had vast knowledge of the culture and cuisine in depth, and were able to talk...

Crocker's Folly in St. John's Wood is another rather classy gastropub with delicious food, a great wine list by the glass and an absolutely excellent chocolate mousse dessert. But it all comes at the price of slightly uninspired music and maybe a little too much splendour.

After a complete revamp, Crocker's Folly on the border of St. John's Wood reopened in October 2014 as a classy gastropub. The interior is shiny and impressive, albeit a little bit overwhelming. Crocker's Folly is a grand place - but I thought that it all is probably a little bit over the top. For example, the tables are beautiful, dark wood, only maybe a little bit too shiny and too large. Perhaps it is just me who gets a little bit intimidated by these large polished surfaces.

The music did not add much to the atmosphere. I thought it was a little bit too loud, and I do not see how such a classy place on one side and standard lounge music on the other side go together. It just sounded wrong for this environment on a Sunday afternoon.

Browsing through the wine list, it becomes obvious that Crocker's Folly is a venture backed by Maroush Group, as it features quite a few Lebanese offerings. Overall, I think the wine list is really great with a good selection by the glass.

The service was very friendly and all service staff were very attentive. One of the staff was always walking around with a bread basket, ready to provide another slice of tasty bread to everyone who fancied. The bread comes with a circle of butter, sprinkled with salt - it looked beautiful, but I must admit that I missed salt and pepper mills on the table. The bread comes from Maroush Bakehouse at the moment, but they might start baking their own. My favourite bread was the slightly darker seeded bread, it was absolutely delicious.

Throughout my stay, my waitress continuously topped up my tap water, before I could even think of asking for more - that is service how I like it.

As I decided to leave the wine for another visit, I ordered a glass of fresh orange juice which tasted lovely and was strong in colour.

I ordered the onglet steak, medium-rare as recommended. The meat was relatively dark with a good flavour. However, the peppercorn sauce is not my most favourite interpretation of a peppercorn sauce - I found it too much like an onion-peppercorn sauce. More pepper and less onion, please. When the waitress brought me the dish, she asked if I would like some pepper on it. Of course, and the freshly ground pepper made the already tasty onglet even better, but I would have preferred to have a little salt and a little pepper mill on my table to fine-tune my plate.

I enjoyed the thinly cut, perfectly salted skin-on fries and liked the home-made mayonnaise. It was perhaps slightly too heavy, but great in taste and a good complement to the ketchup.

After I had finished my main, I was tempted by the dessert menu. The chocolate mousse with, I think, mango sorbet, was outstanding. It was clearly the star of my late lunch. This dessert was a great combination of strong and deep chocolate flavour with a slightly stingy fruitiness from the sorbet. The flavour and texture sensation of chocolate glazing, creamy chocolate mouse and soft sorbet was completed by crunchy crumble sprinkled across the plate. It was without question one of the best desserts I have had recently.

I considered rounding my lunch off with a coffee, but when I was told they use Illy coffee, I decided to walk down the road and enjoy a nice cup extracted from Monmouth beans at D1 Coffee, just a minute away from Crocker's Folly, instead.

Overall, Crocker's Folly is another great option in the area. Facing strong competition in Maida Vale, it will be interesting to see how this new gastropub can establish itself in the neighbourhood. If they just would serve a different coffee and replace the dreadfully poppy soul and lounge tunes with classical music or some nice jazz, I might pop in more often - if my...

11/01/18 - After my previous review, I was touched to see that the management behind Crocker's Folly do care about customer service and they wanted to know where they went wrong to improve. Natalie, from management was in touch, apologized and requested that we give this gastro pub of the Maroush group another chance. As skeptical as I am with restaurants, I do believe in second chances, and to my surprise, they cleaned their act up and restored my belief in the Maroush chain.

We had dinner on a Friday evening again. Both the pub and the restaurant were lively. On this occasion everything was on point, from food to service. We were served by Zecharaiah, who was very polite and extremely attentive to all of our needs. He served with a smile! The food, was served in a timely manner and all was full of flavor. There was nothing to fault!

We tried an array of dishes to include Hommos, Kibbeh, Halloumi, Soujok, Jawaneh, Crockers Arayes, Shish Taouk and Kafta Meshwi. The food was excellent.

Will definitely be returning for a meal very soon!

26/10/18 - Went to Crocker's Folly for dinner with some friends and surprised by the terrible service received from this restaurant that forms part of the Maroush Group. Hands down one of the worst table service restaurants in London. They are a real shame for the London hospitality industry. The restaurant was not even full, only one large table, and service was the slowest service ever experienced. Apparently they cannot service a few tables efficiently. We ordered a few mezzes and three wraps. When we finally received our food, they brought two Shish Taouk plate (not wraps - charged at £18 a plate as opposed to £5.50 wrap price) and one shawarma wrap. When we questioned the two plates, the waitress said "this is what you ordered". Shocking, considering before we ordered we specifically asked if we could get Shish Taouk wraps. The waitresses English was poor and despite us telling her we ordered wraps she insisted we didn't order. After a huff and a puff she took the plates away and and brought back 4 wraps. Given the situation, we just ate the food. The wrap bread was cold and well below the Maroush standards. When the bill came they charged £36 for both plates and when we queries it, instead of being polite the waitress was extremely rude and said 'you will have to speak to the manager and he is busy'. When the manager came, he said we were charged for the two plates because you cannot order wraps at the table... Yet we had a lamb shawarma wrap at the table. Then he said we had to pay for both because they gave us four wraps. We said we didn't order them, so he said he would deduct one plate as a favor but it was in no way the restaurant's fault... This was extremely unpleasant and uncalled for on a Friday night... A shame that this distasteful customer service ruins a beautifully decorated...