THE OLD FRIZZLE - the Rustic Chic Oxymoron

The Wimbledon Theatre rises gloriously on one of the many intersections on Wimbledon Broadway. A fine building oddly built on an irregular street corner but nevertheless a source of charisma for this modest urban conglomerate. Opposite the crossroad, another venue sits strategically on a street corner and its building faces both the main and side stree. Location has been home to different chains and independent food & drink joints fading in and out; and now the Old Frizzle has taken up the challenge with its bright white decor and large window panes - almost a house of glass!

At first sight the Old Frizzle appears to be your usual independent gastropub. From the moment you step in, you are likely to fall into discussions of idiosyncrasy with your fellow diners. The place is very rustic, with that saloon-ey flare of by gone era. Old chairs and sofas with no consistent style or colour. Early 20th century lamps above the wooden bar. Even an old large analogue radio with speakers that could potentiall pick up both BBC and Moscow radio stations. It is an old pub then. Your eyes then move the well laid out cutlery and napkin on most tables. and the general orderly tidyiness of tables and chairs can only suggest dining tables and restaurants. So it is a restaurant. Not quite...and I think the discussion can carry on in a loop. Place was empty for lunch on a Thursday but we know in the evenings seems to be packed. Is perhaps the place more populare for drinks? Yet, the layout is not a spacious as a pub for stand-up drinking or informal table gathering. It is more inclined to a restaurant and sit-down meal. Ok - let not get stuck in a loop again!

Staff was kind enough to provide water and glasses as we sat down, without us having to ask - quite rare in our Wimbledon Eatery adventures so far. Bottle and glasses were simple and retro; the same applied to the the menu style: dull grey sheets of papers on a clipboard with a font resembling the end of XIX century. The flare of old fashioned seemed to be everywhere and we agreed it worked well. Unfortunately, once we ordered, the food delivery took longer than expected in what was almost an empty restaurant!

The menu was not all in one page and you had to flick through a few sheets. The lunch menu offer was not entirely appealing as both choice and cost did not seem to show better value than having a main or a starter from the menu à la carte. Most of us opted to choose from the latter. In general, almost all items looked pricey or at least they appeared to be for items you did not expect to be. The halloumi, green beans, olvies and asparagus salad was apparently almost 10% more expensive than the burgers!

Still disappointed so far? To be honest, we all enjoyed the meals that came to our table - proper pub grub. Apart from slight underseasoning and slight imperfections, we were impressed with the chips, the battered cod, the cumberland sausages. Both salad and burgers could have done with a bit more of salt; and the potato mash felt crumbly rather than creamy. The desserts, however, were an ultimate winner with probably the fluffiest Eton Mess or the smoothest Chocolate Brownie we ever tried so far - and which we recommend! Shame dessert prices turned out to be as expensive as the lunch menu offer. Again, the clash between price and what is on offer fail to make the place and the food justice. We indeed ate well but would you come here that often?

Our verdict is as follows:

Quality of Food        3.80
Hygiene                     4.00
Value for Money      2.80
Speed of Service       2.60
Quality of Service    4.20
Ambience & décor   4.80

The Old Frizzle gets an overall rating of 73.2%