I meet up with friends a couple of times a year (at least) to see a show in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre (yesterday was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - a brilliant fun musical). We usually meet for lunch at 12 and catch the 2:15 matinee, which means we can then go somewhere for a drink and a chat after, and still have plenty of time to catch our trains home.
Usually we meet at Regent's Park's Garden Cafe, which is decent reasonably priced grub, and 10 minutes from the theatre. But when we met up in June (for Peter Pan), one of my friends mentioned that there was now a place doing BBQ, called Smokehouse. "Chris, you like BBQ, shall we try that next time?" So that was were we lunched yesterday.
I didn't expect much, but at the same time, how bad can it be? The answer is horrendously bad. It certainly looked the part, with a big bold sign, an indoor counter doing drinks, burgers and pulled pork, but also with an outdoor BBQ grill. My friends sensibly opted for the cafe option (2 for pulled pork, one for a fish finger sandwich !?!?!), but I thought I would try the grill and see what their hot dogs were like. Result - a precooked, warmed up cumberland sausage, drenched in a very liquid but otherwise flavourless relish. Genuinely disgusting.
We usually manage to stuff ourselves for not an awful lot of money. My sad sausage in a bun cost me £6.50.
Fortunately, it didn't spoil the day, but when we come back next year, we'll be dining at the Garden Cafe again.