Shack Life Quarterly

223 Grove Road
Victoria Park
London
E3 5NZ
Map

The Crown occupies an ideal location on the corner of Grove Road and Old Ford Road across from Victoria Park. Formerly the site of a Spanish Tapas restaurant and a previous pub also called the Crown, the newly reopened Crown is a fresh and welcome addition to the Victoria Park scene. Downstairs there are a variety of seating choices including comfy chairs, big tables with chairs and high tables with benches. Upstairs is a dining room with about 12 tables.

Our first visit to the Crown was during opening week in April 2008 and the place was bustling. We didn’t get a table in the dining room but instead we sat on stools at a bar-like area outside the dining room. The menu was limited but considering they had just opened we thought we should cut them some slack.  We have been back for a drink in the evening, but hadn’t returned to eat until recently.

This time we got a table in the dining room and the menu was considerably bigger, but we don’t feel the quality of the food lives up to the price. For starters we had the Beetroot Soup and Melon and Parma Ham. The soup wasn’t very hot (although it didn’t seem to be officially a cold soup) but the Melon and Ham was great. We both ordered the Rib Eye steak which came with a tin pot of chips for £17. The steak was definitely not good enough quality to be charging that much for and the chips were a bit hard. To spare our waistlines and pocketbooks, we passed on dessert.

I’m not sure I’d go back for food, but its definitely a nice place to go for a drink. The bar service is prompt and the cider is cold.