The Harwood Arms

Built in 1866 as a ‘beer house’, The Harwood Arms has been a pack leader on London’s gastropub scene for many a year, thrilling Chelsea locals and others with its stellar ingredients-led food and handsome gentrified interiors (a full-length bar, bare-boarded floors, mismatched furniture, monochrome photos on green-panelled walls). It also benefits from having some starry backers including Brett Graham (of The Ledbury) and TV chef/food-hunter Mike Robinson (of The Pot Kiln, Frilsham).
The kitchen specialises in wholeheartedly seasonal British fare – including veg, soft fruit and herbs from the pub’s rooftop garden, plus foraged pickings and bags of furred and feathered game (roast Yorkshire grouse with creamed root vegetables, stuffed cabbage and elderberries, for example).
Other highlights from the daily fixed-price menu might range from whipped chicken livers with onion jam and thyme ‘hobnobs’ or salt-baked beetroot with pickled cherries, hazelnuts and duck ham to poached Cornish cod with sweetcorn, cockles and lemon thyme or slow-cooked shoulder of Herdwick lamb with creamed courgettes and basil. Also take a peek at calendar-tuned desserts such as strawberry and camomile trifle or blackcurrant jam doughnuts with citrus cream.
It may tout a Michelin star, but The Harwood Arms still trades as a proper local boozer, holding regular quiz nights and pleasing the drinkers with pints of real ale and plates of stupendous venison Scotch eggs, as well as bringing the house down with its thumping Sunday roasts – although the knowledgably curated 200-bin wine list would put most local pubs to shame.