Fulham cafe The Malt House is a cut above your regular British tavern - Metro

Restaurant review: If you found French chef Claude Bosi on TV many years ago purAeing a chicken pie and as a sauce serving it, you may suspect him of understanding nothing about pub grub. With his foie gras ice cream and mackerel and berries, he epitomises fancy-pants, cutting-edge modern food, therefore is he actually the most useful person to run a renovated Fulham boozer? In reality, Bosi can be as much a as a restaurateur. Until 2010, he now owns the Fox & Grapes in Wimbledon and ran The Bell at Yarpole near Ludlow. Heas also a and served sausage rolls at Hibiscus, his recentlyArefurbished two-Michelin-starredArestaurant in Mayfair, although these were sausage rolls served with HP Sauce created from truffles. The menu at The Malt House may be foie gras and truffle-free however it preserves a touch of the type of avant-garde, free-flowing imagination can be found at the mothershipArestaurant. Maybe not surprising once you learn that head cook Marcus McGuinness spent some time working with Bosi for seven years. Therefore along side publication fish and chips, thereas lemon sole with Moroccan ras el hanout spice, peanuts and wild lime, and cod with asparagus and pomelo (a kind of Asian grapefruit). Whilst the pubas tasteful decoration of bent wood chairs, treatment tongue and groove, British Racing Green switch back leather banquettes, simple wood tables and olive green walls what appears on the plate, however, is as removed back. A Devonshire crab salad is just a pile of white meat thrown with perfect small cubes of Granny Smithas apple, lovage chiffonade, wasabi mayo and a portion of cooked bread. Two bloated scallops are roasted and come with puy lentils and more perfect small cubes, this time around wild fennel-flavoured saucisson. They make for a stark and relativelyAdear (A13 and A14 respectively) start to the dinner but are faultlessly cooked and delicious. The exact same can be said for the rest we eat. A shepherdas cake, mixed and matched from the good worth set-lunch menu, comes in a mini iron casserole and features ideal small cubes (have youAspotted the growing pattern yet?) of hand-chopped lamb topped with precisely piped and vigilantly browned mash. A acheeky butcheras cuta of beef works out to be spider steak, which usually ends up as mince. Baked moderate unusual, itas gloriously sensitive and packed with flavour. The hollandaise it comes with is manufactured with butter infused with burned hay and includes a smoky caramel note. Edges of triple-cooked chips, confit potatoes and hispiAcabbage are excellent. Bread and butter pudding with marmalade ice cream beats Gary Rhodesas previously benchmarkAversion and thereas high quality chocolate brown in a rich dAlice served with moreish salted caramel and a refreshingly natural bayleaf ice cream. Support isnat as constant as the food, which range from a switched-on, eager manageress to an extremely listless and tired waiter (awhoas obtaining the scallops?a). But a memorable lunch is spoilt by a slight front-of-house hiccup canat. It appears the great British bar is secure in the hands of the crazy Frenchman; only donat let him near a blender. Dinner for just two with water, wine and support fees A120. 17 Vanston Place, Fulham SW6.Awww.malthousefulham.co.uk