Menier Chocolate Factory - Oct 2010

Where: Menier Chocolate Factory, London Bridge
With whom: Most recently, The Vole
How much?: We went for the Meal Deal. Genuinely a bit of a deal too.. £24 as opposed to £19 for the ticket and £14 for the two course meal. 

A lovely rose prosecco was only a fiver.

You gotta grab a bite to eat before the theatre. It's not football after all, where you can nosh away during the action. I get the logic, but when a ticket costs north of £60 (in the West End at any rate) you can see why people are tempted to skimp on the food and, if they don't skip dinner entirely, grab a sandwich instead. Because of this, good pre-theatre dining can be challenging. Everywhere has a pre-theatre menu these days, and too many are ill thought out, hastily constructed and as hastily served. 

There are a fair few exceptions worth noting in the West End. Arbutus and Wild Honey have compelling and very reasonable pre-theatre offerings boding well for the newcomer to their group, the soon to open Les Deux Salons. Dean Street Townhouse is a great deal close to Shaftesbury Ave and the old fall backs of the Ivy or J Sheekey are perfect for visiting parents. On a more casual tip, a spicy roll at Moolis or a trip to any of the Byron Burger outlets will fill a hole and I've spent many happy evenings hoovering up a spicy bowl of pho at Viet behind the Palace Theatre before heading into a show. Joe Allen with its off menu burger is still my favourite post show haunt.

Outside the West End, it gets a little more tricky to garner decent recommendations you stand a chance of getting a table at. A number of the off-West End venues have pulled their own pre-theatre catering in-house in an attempt to get some of this lucrative market with varying levels of success. The National demonstrate neatly how 'for the nation' they really are with a £22 two course beast in their Mezzanine restaurant. Why this is priced higher than many Michelin starred restaurants

equivalent offerings 

is beyond me (unless you think they're taking advantage of a captive audience?). It's a large step beyond the £15 you'll pay for Alan Jones classic French cooking over the road from the Almeida and around the same as you'd pay for three courses at Ramsay alumni Mark Sergeant's exciting Swan restaurant at the Globe Theatre. The Royal Court is cheaper still with mains in its basement cafe around £8.

The space is well put together industrial lost and found. Jam jars with tea lights, mismatched furniture, rough hewn wood, exposed pipework and brick. It feels curated, but not affected. The set menu pleasingly changes dependant on the show, regionally relevant to the setting - mood food if you will. Great if you get Aspects of Love, La Cage Aux Folles, or the Italianate thriller the White Devil, but less intriguing if the play is set in modern day London. 

To be fair, the Menier Chocolate Factory isn't yet in the same league as the four mentioned above. But within the constraints of a (fairly) commercial business, artistic director and owner David Babani has created a theatre in tandem with the building around him. The restaurant and bar space feel very much part of the fabric of the organisation. It's telling that on the night we were there, Timothy and Sam West, the father and son starring in the evening's performance of A Number, were settling down to eat along with the audience. 

Good value at £14, but with only two choices per course. I went for a (slightly too subtle) cauliflower and stilton soup. The Vole went for the other starter option, a smoked salmon and chive mousse. Pleasant enough, but nothing that would set the world alight. The vegetarian main was a treat though. A dense cannonball cake of cloying pumpkin specked risotto was served with a sweet pumpkin puree and courgette spaghetti (well spears in our case, but others looked more accomplished). We finished with an ebullient seasonal fruit crumble, a university rugby player sized portion for a slimfit £3 supplement. It wasn't the most professional meal I've eaten, but there was an enthusiasm and willingness to please that made you forgive mistakes in service, presentation and flavour. Like a meal at a good friend's house, I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I come back to the pricing at the National Theatre, nearly ten pounds more expensive per head. The Menier could take advantage of their captive audience, and arguably they need the additional revenue far more than one of the few organisations that will be deemed too big to fail in the cuts. The fact they don't, and provide good solid food prior to an evening of excellent theatre, means I'd be happy coming back again and again.