Warm beer/Lousyfood — NOT!
Brits' claims of mediocrity invalidated by fine fare
By Erica Wayne 05/31/2007
Brits is a pub on East Colorado Boulevard. It took over the space of an unsuccessful Caribbean restaurant whose move to central Pasadena has seemingly brought it fame, fortune and great reviews. Meanwhile, its neighbor, La Grotta di Capri, languished in similarly underappreciated circumstances until it gave up the ghost a couple of years ago.
Brits immediately jumped at the opportunity to expand its pub into a full-scale restaurant with what its adverts term "warm beer...lousy food." Almost as soon as it opened, we decided to check it out and, since we didn't trust our own Yank opinion, we brought along a couple of Brits as a taste panel.
Brits
1770 E. Colorado Blvd.,
Pasadena
(626) 578-1301
Beer and wine/Major cards
We were entertaining our visiting friends the Hendrys, late of Altadena and now living a pastoral existence in southwest Scotland where they were born and bred. I hesitated to suggest an excursion to Brits, since they were hell-bent on scarfing all the sushi and tamales they could find. However, having been to Saladang, El Portal, Fu-Shing, Kabuki and El Cholo in a single week, they were surprisingly agreeable to the idea of sampling something a bit closer to home.
Having noted the Pasadena Weekly's citation of Brits' fish and chips in the 2005 "Best Of" issue, I expected little else. But the moment we laid eyes on the lunch menu, our horizons expanded. There were five appetizers. Sausage rolls ($5.75), banger bites ($5.25), Scotch egg ($5.95), curried veggie samosa ($5.25) and chips and gravy ($3.75) all looked good.
Having suffered pub lunches of bangers (with or without mash), we agreed to exclude them. Same with the chips and gravy: We wanted ours crisp, with fish and a sprinkle of malt vinegar, not bogged down in a brown puddle. And that's what we ordered for a main course ($7.95), along with Cornish pasty ($6.95), shepherd's pie ($7.25) and chicken curry ($7.25).
Drinks were in order, and we asked what was available. Bass ale, Boddingtons beer and Tetley bitters and Beamish's Irish stout could all be had, served in imperial pints. As soon as they arrived, we knew that Brits was having us on. The beers were ice-cold, giving a lie to the first of Brits' allegations.
The starters disproved the second, as Brits' food was far from lousy. It wasn't even just OK. The sausages were done up in fine puff pastry that would do a French boulangerie proud. We expected the samosa to be of the thick-shelled, British take-away variety, but it was far better than that: six miniature turnovers of short pastry filled with fragrant potato-green pea curry.
Our fish and chips were sublime, with tempura-like crusting and thick chips that kept their crunch. The pasty's filling and that of the shepherd's pie were similar — ground chuck with onions, peas and carrots — but there seemed to be subtle differences in seasoning. I preferred the flaky pasty, but our visitors loved the mash-and-cheese topping on the "pie."
We'd ordered curry with trepidation, knowing how lukewarm Brits are toward over-spicing. But, if Brits in England look askance at cayenne, Brits in Pasadena knows how to season. The curry was perfectly acceptable, a generous helping served atop a heap of basmati rice with a side cup of mango chutney to tart it up.
Most of our food disappeared as we downed our pints, but there was still enough to pack up for lunch the next afternoon. And, lacking room, we had to forgo apple pie ($3.95) with Birds Custard (according to the Hendrys, a dubious British treat) and French vanilla ice cream with Melba sauce ($2.75).
We were 98 percent satisfied with our lunch. The thing we missed most was a ploughman's lunch. The salads were Cajun and Caesar, with nary a hunk of Cheddar or Stilton, with pickles. Brits had just begun remodeling its newly colonized space. But, things being what they are, I never got back to see the finished product.
Until last week, that is. That's when the Hendrys informed us that they would be visiting again in August and were looking forward to another Brits meal. (Seems all they get in Castle Douglas is haggis and dumbed-down Indian.) So we visited to see how the interior and menu looked after two years.
I'm happy to say that both are doing fine. The dining room is pub luxe: comfy upholstered chairs, dark wood, blue-and-white walls, white linen and Union Jack placemats. Even better, there's nary a picture of Charles and Camilla. The menu's basically unchanged. Prices are still modest (albeit a bit higher at dinnertime), fish and chips are still magnificent, and Bird's custard turns out to be heavenly crème anglais.
And now I know why the food's so good. It turns out the owner, Peter Holder, was formerly a chef for Queen Elizabeth II! No kidding, it's on the menu. No way would she would accept soggy pastry or underseasoned curry — although I must remember to ask if HRM ever hankered after a banger bite. I'm not a royalist, but since Holder's stint as "chef de cuisine" at Buckingham Palace helped hone his considerable talents, cheers to him and up the queen.
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