Holly

[Winot]

Peckham on a Saturday night...only when you're eating at Holly.

A small pleasant room and smaller garden just off the high street. Well spaced comfortable tables.

A short hand written menu:

Chicken terrine with red and yellow pepper sauce

Organic gravad lax

White asparagus with hollandaise sauce

-------------

Brill (came with some sort of short green gnocchi-like pasta)

Osso Bucho

Vegetarian stew with shitake mushrooms

-------------

Pine nut tart

Mint and lemon sorbet

?

The terrine was hearty, rough and strongly meaty. Good stuff. The sauce too acidic, didn't really add much. Tried some gravad lax; very good. Starters all about a fiver.

Then had the veal -- again quite hearty, good flavour and nice and tender but served with a wintery veg stew which seemed inappropriate on a summer evening (£15). Didn't try the other options but the brill was deemed perfectly cooked but came in a small portion (and was almost £15). Veg stew looked uninteresting but was only eight quid.

Puds were all about £4. I had the pine nut tart which had nice pine nuts but soggy tart. The sorbet was astonishing however -- chef had crammed in an amazing amount of mint. There was another pud that I forget and maybe some cheese.

Wine list fairly short and good value. We started with an uninteresting white rioja -- a bad choice. Then lots of bottles of Somerset Hill pinot noir (1999 or 2000) from SW Australia at £24.50 -- excellent cherry fruits and smoked meat bouquet, long finish and surprisingly un-tannic. Available from BBR for £10.95 so not a bad mark up.

Service was pleasant and informal and they coped well with our rowdiness.

Holly prides itself on its sourcing, particularly of organic produce, and the cooking is solidly competent. I came away feeling it needed some va va voom however -- particularly in its menu choices. If you're going to restrict choice to 3 starters and 3 mains you'd better make sure they are stand out dishes which shout "eat me". So it's "steady work and progress but could do better" on Holly's report card.

7/10

[Holly Moore]

In the headline, please specify "Holly the Restaurant" as opposed to "Holly the Eater"

Come to think of it, my act also would probably benefit from some time on the whetstone..

Edited June 10, 2003 by Holly Moore (log)

[Gavin Convery]

I think the prices are a bit too steep for the area - I had lamb shank which was hearty but not really sophisticated enough for the price. I did think the desserts were outstanding and I loved the pine nut ricotta tart which didn't strike me as soggy although admittedly I only managed to cadge a couple of mouthfuls from my wife. Still if you live in Peckham you haven't really got much choice....and as it's easy enough to get into town I wouldn't make a special journey to Holly's.

[Winot]

Gavin,

Have you ever tried The Peckham Experiment just down the road?

W.

[circeplum]

i have. i thought it was quite a sweet little place, trying really hard but not really cutting it on the food front. a bit of a labour of love. but then i did have a christmas dinner (with all the trimmings ...) so it's probably my own fault.

for my money, the best restaurant in the area is thailand on lewisham way. despite looking like a bombsite, it's dishing up some fabulous - and quite unusual - thai food. there was a beef dish called something like bole lope (this is rubbish, but it's close) which was chargrilled with pepper leaves and completely fabulous.

m

[Gavin Convery]

But then if you want thai, I always find it better to go to Mantannah in Norwood which is not as ridiculously cramped and also does unusual dishes especially vegetarian - in fact there is a whole vegetarian menu which is the equal of the meat/fish one.

[Tonyfinch]

Arancia is also in the area. Good, basic, rustic Italian. Cheap. There's probably a thread on it from way back. Agree with Gavin that Mantannah is much better than Thailand, although to be fair the only time I went to the latter they'd just changed ownership and were in some disarray. Put me off going back, though.

[Gavin Convery]

Yeah, Arancia is cool - a bit rough around the edges in the most unprepossesing part of Bermondsey but extremely cheap and close your eyes and you could almost be in Italy.....