The Fat Aubergine makes much of its shakes and smoothies. There’s a bewildering variety, although Brown Sugar already offers a strong selection. As with Brown Sugar there are several menus around which makes it trickier to make a choice than perhaps it should. We both intended to have dairy free options and went for fruit smoothies and shakes, however missing the small print from each menu ended up with yoghurt and a milk shake respectively! They were tasty enough, but you don’t necessarily want to have to spend a good deal of time reading to make a simple choice.

We were more disappointed by the food, which is already prepared and not made to order as in Cinnamon Square or Brown Sugar. This meant that some of the choices were already sold out, and we felt there were relatively few fresh options available; something the competition does well.

On the whole, although it’s nice to see new businesses on the High Street, we didn’t feel Fat Aubergine offered anything that wasn’t already available from other cafés. It’s not the easiest of markets either, as Cinnamon Square uses its award winning homemade breads and is better than ever in its recently expanded form, while Brown Sugar’s deli format offers a superior selection of fresh food. For the moment at least we’re likely to stay with our current regular favourites for weekend lunches.

The Feathers, Church Street, Rickmansworth

Open just four months in its current incarnation, the Feathers is probably my favourite hostelry in central Ricky. The pub is a part of oldest Rickmansworth and has the fine stone and wooden beam clad interior you’d hope for. The Feathers has been given a modern refurbishment, giving a comfortable mix of dining, drinking and outdoor areas in very pleasing surrounds. The service is good, with the staff clearly having been training to ensure guests enjoy the new venture. The Feathers, price-wise and in terms of appearance, places itself at the classier end of the pub food spectrum while not straying into Gastropub territory.

The Sunday Roast is £9, which to my mind is mid-to-high for a non-Gastropub. Unfortunately the Sunday Roast I had last weekend was distinctly mediocre. The beef was not at all generous in quality and was clearly of the ‘been sitting there for sometime and overdone’ variety. The trimmings were fine but of a similar unremarkable quality and quantity. It’s the quality you might expect at Wetherspoons but which you’d only expect to pay similarly £5 for.

This is, I feel, where The Feathers may have trouble in terms of retaining food custom, as I love my Sunday Roasts but I certainly wouldn’t rush back for this one. When you have a new venture and you’re pricing and presenting yourselves as being reasonably well presented and classy, the whole product needs to delivery to estabish a customer base and here it simply didn’t. Others around us were also unhappy with their food; a table who ordered burgers and had requested how well it was cooked along with expecting the cheddar topping and potato wedges promised in the menu instead received standard well-done burger with a processed cheese slice and what can only be called a stingey number of standard chips. Again, if you’re promising quality in the menu the product has to deliver.

Overall I’d happily return to The Feathers for drinks on the grounds that it has perhaps the nicest ambience and surrounds of a pub in central Rickmansworth that I’ve come across so far. However the food pricing and quality seems out of proportion at present and I’d likely now need to hear positive things about improvements before going out of my way to have another meal there.

Scotsbridge Mill, Park Road, Croxley Green

A little out of Rickmansworth on the way to Croxley is the Scotsbridge Mill. A spacious, family friendly place, the Mill as its name suggests, is a converted water mill. Impressively, the mill leat is neatly integrated into the pub, with the water of the River Chess passing over a series of weirs viewable through glass. As with The Feathers, the service is dedicated to customer satisfaction. Food is delivered remarkably quickly as is of good quality. For the Sunday Roast there’s the option of specifying how the meat should be cooked. My medium-rare roast beef came perfectly medium-rare and was of a quality entirely superior to that of a thin, placid fare experienced at The Feathers. The meat looked like meat, carved relatively thickly and served in a tasty gravy. The roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and trimmings were of similar good quality and seemed freshly cooked, not hard over-done as can so often be the case in pubs. The dessert that followed was much enjoyed and the filter coffee was to die for – a big surprise.

The Scotsbridge Mill is also configured to have a comfortable bar area and a considerable dining area with a number of tables outside near the river when the weather suits. Although at a glance it may appear externally to be of the Harvester or Brewers Fayre variety of pubs, it’s an entirely superior product and one of a handful of pubs run by the same company in the area. Care and attention has clearly been paid to all aspects of the product and it really does deliver well.

Two down … the results

There are plenty of pubs in Rickmansworth but these two sells themselves as a cut above the norm and in terms of service and ambience they certainly deliver. However in the search for a decent Sunday Lunch only the Scotsbridge Mill comes through victorious. At £12 it’s more expensive than the Feathers’ roast but the distinction in quality more than outweighs any cost consideration. Although I’m keen to support the new owners of The Feathers in their venture they’re going to have to make some notable improvements in the food delivery to get back into the running.

Are there other contenders for a decent Sunday Lunch in or around Rickmansworth? Let me know your recommendations.

We’re hoping it will suit us nicely. It’s true that while Rickmansworth lacks something of the charm and fancy restaurants of Pinner, there’s a strong population of young professionals and we’ll not object to decent, reasonably priced meals out plus a couple of fine old pubs given a modern twist.

Regular visitors to the blog will know that the Mule is fond of snickets; those often little know alleys and paths linking streets. Metro-land is prime territory for snickets, perhaps owing to the preponderance of inter-war housing. Rickmansworth is no exception and we quickly discovered a handy snicket for accessing Waitrose:

Rickmansworth snicket to Waitrose

We’re still very much in the early stages of exploring the area, however, and we’d much appreciate any local recommendations of eateries, hostelries, shops, services, walks, entertainment etc.

More from Dara Towers and Rickmansworth to follow!

We’ve had a tough week painting the new flat ready for occupation. I had a crazy fool idea to paint three of the walls in the living room with stripes in the manner of the decor at Delisserie in Hatch End (one finds inspiration in the strangest of places). While Dan and his parents attended to the rest of the flat (three shades of coffee in the bedroom, green hall and bathroom), masking tape and careful edges were my territory for three days. Provided you use decent masking tape (the blue stuff from Homebase is good) and have a reasonably steady hand for the touching-up, it’s not too difficult.

It’s a bit sad to be leaving Pinner with its snickets and strange assortment of people, but semi-rural Ricky awaits with the promise of lakes and a lovely Waitrose!

Here are some highlights of our day at the festival, mostly from around the canal area, which offers a feast of sights, scenes and shapes for the camera lens (click thumbnail to view full-size photo):

Other bloggers have also been talking about the festival:

• Lazy Days canal boat blog
• Gig photographer (seems there was a power issue with the evening’s entertainment)

Chorleywood houses

Chorleywood is a compact place; one of the relatively small settlements on the farther flung reaches of the Metropolitan line which, through the vision on the railway’s founders has nevertheless a station to its name, and so became a popular, yet rural, commuting location. We began by exploring Chorleywood, heading south of the station to the high street. It was functional and featured some nice delis, cafes and shops.

Chorleywood Common

Returning to the north of the station passed the golf course and the local pub which was full of Chelsea fans. It was the only hostelry we encountered, which makes Chorleywood quite dry compared to neighbouring Rickmansworth. The road skirted along the edge of the common at the top of which is the entrance to Chorleywood House Park. Although the house is now privately owned, the park covers some considerable area and incorporates several walks, including a wood and valley walk.

Treelined path in Chorleywood House Park

We followed the path down a tree-lined way where it eventually joined the Chess Valley path proper. At this point it’s only possible to glimpse the river and we heading right (East) towards Rickmansworth. This part of the walk passed through some fields but there’s nothing to be seen of the river itself.

Overlooking the Chess Valley from Chorleywood House Park

At the M25 the walk joins a road over the M25 and then heads down the side of the motorway. There’s a moment where the Chess can be seen before the path becomes trapped between the motorway and a garden centre. This portion of the walk was dull and tricky due to muddy going. Wood fencing on either side made the path feel claustrophobic and this continued as the path runs between the very substantial properties of Loudwater, a village to the north of Rickmansworth.

Crossing over the M25 on Solesbridge Lane

Finally, and to our relief, we reached Loudwater lane. Crossing here the walk took on an altogether more interesting character, opening out into fields and after a period meeting and then following the route of the river. This section proved popular with families and couples walking the dog. In hindsight we would have probably looked at finding a more interesting route from the M25 to here, perhaps going through Loudwater.

Bridge crossing the Chess river

There’s a pleasant spot where a wooden footbridge crosses the river where a couple of benches offer a resting place, generally absent on the rest of the walk. From here we continued past some sports fields to Rectory Park Road, a few minutes from Rickmansworth tube and train station.

Chess river, near Loudwater and Rickmansworth

Walk rating

The walk comprises three distinct sections so it’s best to look at it as such. The Chorleywood to M25 section of the walk was pleasant enough, if occasionally tricky for pedestrians in Chorleywood with some absence of pavements and busy roads. The M25 to Loudwater lane section was dull, muddy, narrow and offered nothing to recommend it. From Loudwater lane the walk was as you might hope for from a river walk in that the path largely followed the river and offered pleasant scenery and easy going.

Chess river with Loudwater houses in the distance

Route map

Click to see high-resolution image.

Map of route taken, courtesy of Google Earth

The search for our new flat took up three days last week, which is probably as speedy as you’re likely to get. We saw eight properties – four flats, three houses and a maisonette – so we had a pretty good idea of what we could get for our money. Some of these places were, er, interesting, to say the least. Let it never be said that we shunned the prospect of viewing the maisonette with the astroturf garden or the flat that could’ve been a set for Life on Mars. One of the flats – the only one with a balcony, albeit north-facing – was pretty lovely, but was sold the day after we viewed it. One of the others had huge ceilings and loads of space, but was a 25-minute walk from the station. The latter was a total lads’ pad. Copies of ‘Nuts’ and smelly ski gear all over the place! The biggest house had nice wooden floors, fireplaces, a decent kitchen and a garden – but the front room opened straight out onto the road and there was a pub carpark next door (nice pub, though).

Tiresome.

Property number 6 was the winner. Second-floor flat right next to the station, nice kitchen and bathroom, no dodgy decorating to replace (well…not much) and a tiny flight of stairs dividing the two halves of the flat. We fought off the opposition and bought the blighter. That was the easy bit.

Now, a lot of people are against ID cards in the UK, but this week has decided me in favour of them. I don’t drive, so when solicitors and mortgage lenders call for two forms of personal identification, I only have my passport, which then has to be presented in person. You try doing that when you’re a teacher (and so struggle to get time off), can’t drive and the nearest overground station on the line to Watford is a 20-minute walk away. An ID card, which would be universally accepted, would make my life so much easier.

In fairness, people, we already have to have passports to leave the country, which we pretty much all do from time to time. We all have birth certificates and national insurance  numbers – the government already knows who we are! What’s the problem with making it much easier to get mortgages, engage solitictors, apply for passports, travel within Europe, etc, etc?