Tide End Cottage 8 Ferry Road, Teddington, Greater London TW11 9NN
Reviewed 21 March 2009 lunch time.
Teddington
Teddington is in London, England on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. Teddington might be unknown to you but Alfred Hawthorne better known as “Benny Hill” lived in Teddington 
The Tide End Cottage
The Tide End Cottage is a pub located very close from the bank of the River Thames, probably 1 minute walk away.
It is a fairly small pub and we decided to go to the garden area located at the rear of the pub. It is protected against the sun but it wasn’t needed as it was a nice sunny day. When you enter the pub you cannot miss the big plasma screens displaying the sport events (Italy-France rugby game when we were there).
It is a pub so you have sandwiches (all £3.95), oven-backed jacket potatoes (all £4.45) but also more regular meals like fish and chips etc.
As a starter we ordered Moules in Garlic Butter which are Irish mussels served in hot garlic butter (£5.95) and a Chicken Liver Parfait (a rich, smooth chicken liver parfait served with a balsamic onion confit, dressed salad garnish, with thick-cut toast and Somerset butter) for £3.25. They both were very good, even if the mussels could have been bigger and the toast a little bit too small for the amount of the paté.
Other interesting starters were the Rustic House Deli Board (Whole baked Camembert, hand-carved Norfolk ham and cold, sliced roast chicken breast. Accompanied by black and green olives, home-style piccalilli, apple chutney, thick-cut bread with balsamic and olive oil dip) for £8.45 or the Backed Mushroom with Goat’s Cheese (large flat mushroom topped with grilled round of goat’s cheese, served with dressed salad leaves and drizzled with red pepper and chilli sauce) for £3.25.
Chicken Liver Parfait
Moules in Garlic Butter
For the main courses there were meals like Hand-Battered Fish and Chips (a large hand-battered fish fillet served with chips and mushy peas) for £7.95, Cheese and Bacon Burger for £8.20, Norfolk Ham and Eggs for £6.95, Scampi and Chips (£6.95), Steak and Shropshire Blue Salad for £6.95 or the traditionnal Curry of the Day for £7.45.
We decided for the Steak and Chips (7oz Sirloin accompanied with crispy battered onion rings, chips, mixed leaves, grilled field mushroom and plum tomato) for £10.95 and the Hot Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding Wrap (Hot roast beed wrapped in a giant Yorkshire pudding, served with chips and peas, horseradish sauce and a jug of onion gravy for dipping) for £6.45 that I had to try as I never had a Yorkshire Pudding Wrap.
We had to pay £1 for a steak house (choice between Horseradish and Cracked Black Pepper, English Mustard and Portobello Mushroom Sauce and Chilled Béarnaise). We wanted the Chilled Béarnaise but they did not have it so we opted for the pepper sauce.
Steak and Chips
Hot Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding Wrap
Things were not that great… The steak was fine but overcooked, the sauce seemed like it came back from a packet. Now my Hot Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding Wrap was bad: the meat was absolutely bland and the wrap that looked deep fried was bland as well and hard on the edge, like if it was microwaved. Just as well I had the gravy and the horseradish sauce for attempting to give life to that poor beef.
A closer look of the hot roast beef in its wrap
The drinks: they have a wide choice of wine for a pub and they are well priced. They have 3 rosé, 3 champagne, 8 white wines and 8 red wines from £11.45 to £18.95 (Châteauneuf du Pape AC) and of course many beers and real ales. Being in a pub we decided to try the Greene King IPA (2 pints for £5). I know some people love these real ales but we found it really disgusting… It was like water with a weird bitter taste at the end
I tried hard to drink some of it but at the end we decided to save the meal by ordering a bottle of red wine (Merlot from Chile for £11.95) which was fortunately good.
Merlot from Chile coming to rescue
Greene King Vs Chilean Merlot: 0-5
Cost and conclusion: for a little over £44 we expected better. It is a pity as the starters were good but the main meals were not. The staff were friendly and nice.
