Spencer Arms, The

Housed in a pretty Victorian tavern right on Putney Common, the Spencer Arms is a cosy local, serving the best of British food with a good wine list and certain, rather individual, homemade specialities; The Spencer Arms kitchen is headed by Adrian Jones.

Adrian Jones was formerly the Head Chef at Yorkshire's award winning Shibden Mill Inn and he has teamed up with Jamie Sherriff, co-founder of Notting Hill's highly successful neighbourhood Italian, Zucca, to create this cosy local, serving the best of British food with a good wine list and homemade specialties like hot Suffolk cider with cracked allspice berries. The Spencer Arms kitchen also makes its own condiments and freshly baked soda bread to take home.

Lauded for his commitment to Slow Cooking, Adrian uses carefully selected suppliers, including award winning butchers Aubrey Allen of Coventry, and traditional cooking techniques to create deliciously rich and fully flavoured dishes, like his 7 hour braised ox cheek With jabron potatoes and baby onions.

Adrian trained under Gary Rhodes at The Castle in Taunton and has 20 years experience working in restaurants around the country. He has been influenced by Britain's culinary doyens including Elizabeth David, Simon Hopkinson, Rick Stein and Jane Grigson, inspiring his dedication to great British food. It's this enthusiasm which fuels his 20 mile bike ride along The River from Greenwich to The Spencer Arms every day.

The Spencer Arms kitchen offers local lunch goers, midweek grazers, families and destination diners two menus which changes everyday - lunch menu and dinner menu, and weekend brunch, as well as a hearty Rower's Breakfast, which includes Wiltshire dry cure streaky bacon, old English sausages, Clonakioty black pudding, organic eggs, baby plum tomatoes and granary toast, this is served Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am - 12 pm.

For bar snacks there is a wide selection of freshly prepared British tapas including potted shrimps, mini shepherd's pie, salt cod fritters and comforting classics like Welsh rarebit and eggy bread with grilled herrings.

The lunch and dinner menus feature robust and satisfying dishes like duck burger with goat's cheese and homemade beetroot pickle and celeriac soup with crayfish tails and favourites like bread and butter pudding, banana custard and lemon curd tart with plum compote and homemade apple crumble ice-cream.

"More gastro than pub...well worth the trip to the end of the 22 bus route", Square Meal.

"A fine pub", Guy Dimond - Time Out.

Toby Young of ES Magazine described the cooking as "outstanding" and "possibly the best gastro-pub food that he has tasted".