Rakish charm - The Rake, Borough Market

Good things, according to a hackneyed old phrase, come in small packages. A view which might be applied to both my destination and my companion on a sunny Friday evening in London town; although I suspect the latter aka the Rock Star, might be bemused by the description. However the venue, The Rake in Borough Market has no such qualms and what a nice little find it turned out to be.
Although I can hardly claim it to be a 'find'. After all the Rake in its relatively short reinvention as beer bar extraordinaire has picked up a host of awards, including the Class Bar Awards 'Best Beer Experience' and the Time Out Best Bar Award. In fact I've been reading about it for a few years now and was more then a tad embarrassed after having made several half-hearted attempts to find it and wondering if in fact it had been closed, only to find it a mere 20 metres away from Black and Blue. A place I've frequented only about 20 times over the last year. Nevermind, find it we did and settled into sampling the wares and to find out what all the fuss is.
Well the fuss is justified. First and foremost it has something in the vicinity of over 100 beers, with a healthy selection of wine and ciders to boot. And as per the photo below, there is some seriously good beer going. The Rock Star and I hit a couple of pints of Veltin which pulled off the neat trick of getting us very drunk, very quickly while still tasting good. Remarkable. Then of course is its Borough Market location, which has become a social destination in its own right over the last two years. However unlike its fellow market bars, the Rake is a sun trap that is also relatively free of traffic and noise - gold dust in these parts. And finally the service and the ambience oozes charm and is very efficient that makes it relaxing and enjoyable. Which is what you are after in a pub. Finally to the issue of size, which seems to be a regular cause for complaint on the other blogsites I've read about this pub. It is small but they do serve you quickly. I'm sure it gets busy from time to time, but thats just pubs in London right. Small with rakish charm. I think that about captures it.

Fishing in the Market - Applebees, Borough Market

Dieting is an ugly word in the small New Zealand town where I'm from. People don't talk about or understand the concept. They certainly don't do it. So when I met the Northerner and Heavy D at our old favourite the Golden Heart for a couple of after work sharpeners, and explained to them that yours truly was 'counting calories', they were sceptical to say the least. 'It's a health thing' I claimed as I sipped on my cranberry and slimline tonic and looked longingly at their lime topped lagers.

Disbelieving friends aside, the other challenge I've encountered is finding 'good food' to eat that meets my carefully prescribed menu plan. When bread, red meat and chips are off the menu it tends to eliminate a lot of my favourite casual eating haunts.

Fortunately fish is one of the recommended dishes and happens to be a personal favourite, so having sufficiently bored my two friends with my nutritional conversation points , the Northerner and I rocked down to the wonderful Borough Market and dropped into Applebees.

This place does fish, shellfish and more fish with a serving of steak thrown in for good measure. No hip or pretty young things here, but a good collection of locals and people celebrating Friday night lights, which gave it the necessary buzz that the Northerner and I look for in a post-drinks eating place. The food was superb, the drinks were top quality and fairly priced, and the service was flirtatiously inefficient which worked just fine for the tipsy clientele. It's not as loud as nearby Black and Blue, as upmarket as Roast, nor as busy-crowded as Wright Brothers Oyster Bar, but it's a fine little venue nevertheless, and a hands down winner on the fish front. Whether it worked for my diet will be revealed in Monday's weigh-in.