Brew Wharf, Borough  

Borough Market can be one of the happeningest, funkiest, liveliest, sparkiest, even edgiest areas in London. What a pity its newest venue is none of these things. Brew Wharf is the restaurant and beer-focused add-on to the "wine attraction" (yes, they really call is that) which is Vinopolis. And if the place has a saving grace it is the beer. At three quid a pint Brew Wharf Bitter or Best are not just what counts as a bargain round these parts - they are splendid beers. The unusually delicately flavoured Meantime Raspberry and various other draught brews are only 20 or 30 pence more. And bottled beer fans should be in pig heaven with dozens of classic as well as more esoteric labels such as Goose Island IPA, from Chicago, or Coopers Sparkling Ale from Australia. But do you want to drink beer here? The blueprints probably looked pretty good. Take three giant railway arches to give these vaulting roofs and cool brick walls, slice and splice a few hundred trees into as many tables and chairs and throw in your own microbrewery. Just somewhere in the mix they seem to have missed out - there's no magic, there's no style. As a pub it's soulless and, in its primary purpose of a restaurant it doesn't work. On this lunchtime visit not a soul was dining in the huge restaurant area with the half dozen lunching groups happier to huddle round the bar - the tables and seating arrangements are much the same. The uninspiring menu doesn't lack confidence in its pricing. Tomato soup is £5.25 and the "rotisserie du jour" at £14.95 was an unexciting slab of turkey. Wine starts at £17.50. "Discretionary" service of course adds another 12.5 per cent. Nothing wrong with any of it - but we could probably have got just as good, and probably more exciting for half the price in any number of nearby places.

reviewed:
29/11/2006

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