Canteen - London

Dodging through the rain in South London on the only day this year close to being 'April', I meant to visit Brixton Village after spending the afternoon drinking a few Doom Bar (4.0%) in The Bedford. Diverted to Canteen under the Royal Festival Hall, I found a surprisingly empty (for a Saturday evening) restaurant sitting behind a drenched and, therefore, deserted cheese and wine market.

Canteen modern, clean, light, glass, wooden, etc. It served pie and mash, which seemed an unlikely option. A squat pie, aside a small portion of greens and scoop of mash. Again, clean.

The one let down? The pudding. A small (a theme here) apple crumble served in a ceramic pot. A bowl would be so much better. I know it doesn't fit the image, but it cools the pudding down in time for you to eat it. Burning the roof of my mouth was an overly sweet crumble topping, a purée of apple, and a flavourless custard.

It's not a good choice for a modern restaurant - homely puddings. Crumble should be the epitome of rustic. Uneven chunks of apple beneath a bobbling surface of crumble. No vanilla custard, nothing fancy. It's one item I just don't think a chef can do better than I could at home.

Eat the pie; go home for the crumble.

The Royal Oak - Oxford

Burgers seemed to be the vogue of 2012, with every pub putting out the 'best burgers' sign, and gourmet burgers even venturing outside of London.

With all this choice comes the need to differentiatie. Experiment. Try creating a signature burger as a break from the norm. If memory serves me correctly, The Royal Oak offered up a pork and chorizo burger alongside the traditional plain. I opted for the latter and perched on the only remaining seat in what is a surprisingly large maze-like pub, just north of Oxford City Centre.

It's hard to imagine how a pub could fail in this area. The academic audience on the doorstep, although quiet in the summer, is large, thirsty, and growing. Wooden floors, lots of seats, ale on taps, and giant Jenga. Done. I've never seen the place quite so full as it was on this particular visit though.

The burger arrived aside a pint of Doom Bar (4.0%) from a chatty waitress (bar staff? server?) and informed me that this was an excellent choice, freshly made today. I like the enthusiasm, but for the price I would expect fresh. What I disliked with this, as with all burgers, was the size. The sheer bulk of meat soaks the bread and ruins the taste - for heat to penetrate the centre, the poor thing is left bone-dry at the edge. And you can't even fit it in your mouth.

I'm sure many will disagree. Meat is king. But I like my food to be balanced. The right amount of meat for the right amount of bread. My advice...concentrate on the classic before taking on the signature.

Anyway, a good pint and good chips couldn't be sniffed at. And as it was about 10.00pm I did finish the lot.