The Salisbury

Sunday, April 19, 2009 - The dining room is large and sunny with a glass roof, and looks modern, but is too happily corporate for my taste, a little like the cafeteria in a German youth hostel. But the menu is wonderful. It starts with English tapas: egg and crayfish mayonnaise, fingers of welsh rarebit, sweetbreads and foie gras on toast, corned-beef pasties with HP Sauce. All made fresh and perfectly conceived. You can have steak and chips; sausage and mash; or smoked chicken and waldorf salad. Again, exactly what you’d want in a smart pub in Fulham.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 - A relaxed and calming space, it’s open-plan around a C-shaped bar with cream tiled walls, sharply colourful sofas and a bank of dining booths in vivid royal blue…Food is a strength. Mains look appetising (venison pot roast, chicken and cep pie), but I followed a chalk board (“It’s all about the small plates, baby”) and ¬ordered from the bar snacks: rich feta with oily peas, crayfish in spiced mayo, smoked duck breast with chutney and pickled artichokes, all on a wooden platter at £10.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - The Salisbury, owned by Savoy-trained Jamie Sherriff, whose other pub is The Spencer Arms on Putney Common, is fortunate in its abundance of space. The entrance area has room for table football and the dining part at the back allows plenty of room between generously proportioned tables… Mussels with saffron, garlic and a bowl of chips were pale plump creatures with that virginal quality that lasts only for minutes after having been steamed open. They were obviously cooked to order and timed precisely…. The Salisbury is tricky to find if you don’t know Fulham like the back of your hand, but worth doing so. It has a menu (and a drinks list) for our times.