The Riding House Cafe

Another day in Soho, another fantastic discovery: The Riding House Cafe.

It's one of the few places that seems to transition from being a bustling restaurant and bar on a Friday night to a sedate breakfast spot on a Saturday morning with no trouble at all.  Usually there's the faint waft of Jack Daniels that hits the back of your throat or that sinking feeling that you are sitting in the remains of someone's Margarita from the night before.

Service is snappy and the breakfast options are excellent - a plethora of choice and great smoothies and juices to offset the Full & Proper Breakfast.  There are newspapers, magazines and the like, and it's the sort of place that you could hang around all day...

...and if you've got no place else to be, from 11.30 on a Saturday you can get stuck into the brunch menu, which is a mix of breakfast classics and imaginative, fullsome dishes like red deer casserole and lobster lasagne.

Stick around until the evening and the dinner menu kicks in -varied, with more excellent main courses and cute sharing plates to start you off.

Just one note of caution: the RHC requests that you call ahead if you're coming with a dog, particularly at busy times.  The official line is that if your dog fits in a bag you'll be allowed in, but when we went nobody seemed to object to the presence of a medium-sized lurcher and the staff were all lovely.

Pictures to follow shortly.

The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7PQ

http://www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk/

The Anchor Inn at Lower Froyle

In order to alleviate the gloom of January we opted for a change of scene.  Sadly the Paws on the doors team doesn't have any holiday booked for some months, not to mention the necessary pet passports etc for a trip to Barbados or St Barts, so we headed for Hampshire instead.

Lower Froyle is hidden away south of the M3, just a few miles from the South Downs, the perfect distance for a weekend break from London.

The Anchor is on the outskirts of the village surrounded by farmland so you'll find nowhere better for peace and quiet.  

Dating back to the 16th Century, everything inside is proportioned for a time when people weren't quite so tall but we soon got used to ducking and weaving our way through the bar and none of the oak beams succeeded in landing the killer blow...

Several log fires keep the place cosy and there are plenty of comfortable spots for dogs around the bar.  We spent most of our time hiding the snug before retreating upstairs.

All of the bedrooms are named after English poets and writers.  We were given the Robert Graves, which was just perfect.  A big bed, a generous armchair, and a few rugs for extra warmth made for a very comfortable night.  The £10 supplement for dogs seemed proportionate and we were made to feel very welcome indeed.


The Anchor Inn, Lower Froyle, Hampshire, GU34 4NA.

http://www.anchorinnatlowerfroyle.co.uk/anchor-home

Bishops Park in the snow

Britain is in the grip of a dose of proper winter weather.  After the drizzling mediocrity of the first few weeks of the year, a gale has blown in from Siberia and the Paws on the doors team have been making the most of it.  

Today we set off for an afternoon haring around in Bishops Park.

No business like snow business

The snow kept on coming down, and there were lots of other dogs around to join in the fun.

"I'm going outside, I may be some time..."

Lots of people had made snowmen, and we found this snow bear as well.

Is it a Polar Bear?

After we'd exhausted ourselves we trotted off to out old favourite, Tinto Coffee for a hot drink and a few hours reading the papers in the warm.

Newspaper, coffee and bonies - a classic Sunday afternoon

With the cold weather set to stick around for a few days, we're planning on enjoying it as much as we can.

Tinto Coffee, 411 Fulham Palace Road, London SW6 6SX

The Rye

Another jaunt in South East London, and another marvellous discovery for POTD.  Aptly named for a pub sitting on the edge of Peckham Rye Common, The Rye is far bigger than most pubs but still manages to feel as friendly and welcoming as anywhere you'll find.

I have to fess up to never having visited The Rye before its recent makeover and reopening earlier in the year, so I can't comment on how it has changed in the last few years, but whoever is behind the current set up has made a very good job of it indeed.  It feels like a proper drinking pub, but it's also got a great menu that seems to change almost daily.  They succeed in offering really hearty food without charging a fortune through sheer imagination and a range of dishes that doesn't include many of the well-trodden clichés of modern day pub food.

Cliché free gratin dauphinois with wild mushrooms

The staff are very friendly and dogs are well looked after with water and the odd treat for the well-behaved.

Post lunch slump

Better still for sportsfans, The Rye has all the big games on TV, but not in a way that ruins the afternoon for everyone else.  Add a selection of board games to the mix and you have something close to the perfect Sunday afternoon...

31 Peckham Rye, London, SE15 3NX 

http://www.theryepeckham.com/

Petitou

We came across Petitou whilst on our travels in South East London, and hopefully Paws on the doors will be reporting more regularly from this part of the world before too long.

On a drizzly morning there's no better place to be than behind the big glass windows looking out with the warm glow from an oversized plate of scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee.

The staff are very friendly and there's enough space for dogs to stretch out and relax.

If it it hadn't been such a horrendous day we'd have certainly enjoyed sitting outside and watching the world go by on this peaceful leafy corner of South East London.

63 Choumert Road, Peckham, SE15 4AR

The Swan

Sunday just gone was a very fine day indeed.  Blue skies and bright sunshine meant that we spent as much of the day as possible outside.  But we did find ourselves with an invitation to lunch at The Swan in Chiswick from our good friend Moet (winner of the waggiest tail contest at Chiswick House Dog Show just a few weekends ago, now a minor celebrity in these parts.)

One swan, many dogs

The Swan is in fact quite a long way from the river so you are unlikely to see any real swans there, but there are plenty of dogs.  In fact I'd go as far as to say that of all the dog friendly places we've visited in the last year or so, this is the one place where you might feel a bit left out if you don't have a hound in tow.  

"Will one portion of bangers and mash be enough?"

The Swan looks like a proper pub.  Oak panelling, the original stained-glass windows, and a roaring fire inside give it a timeless charm. 

No UPVC in sight

There's a garden that's full of life at the back.  Hanging baskets and window boxes at the front of the pub are well tended, and the patrons are decent enough not to use them as ashtrays.

The menu is full of variety.  Everything that comes out of the kitchen looks like the result of a bit of imagination.   We had an excellent pork terrine as a starter, followed by home made fishcakes and bangers and mash which were both very good.  The Sunday Roast seemed a justifiably popular choice.  

Being as it was such a nice day we had lunch and then went to make the most of the remainder of the afternoon, but we could quite easily have whiled away the rest of the day on the battered sofas by the fire which will be an inviting prospect in the months ahead...

1 Evershed Walk, 119 Acton Lane, Chiswick, W4 5HH

http://www.theswanchiswick.co.uk/

Pubs dogs love

You might have seen the front cover of Time Out last week:

All well and good, but they forgot to mention whether any of them were dog-friendly or not.  Therefore here's my definitive top 10:

North

The Hollybush Inn, Hampstead: Cosy fireside drinking and quality meaty stodge like sausage rolls and pies.  

The Wells, Hampstead: A great spot after running about on Hampstead Heath.  Dog treats on the menu and a wonderful sun-trap.

South

The East Hill, Wandsworth: Great food and dog treats on the menu.  Now that's what I call customer service.

The Fox and Grapes, Wimbledon: An old favourite with excellent food and a warm welcome after a bracing afternoon hunting for Wombles.

East

The Albion, Barnsbury: Great garden in the summer and delicious hearty food like pot roast chicken and whole roast leg of lamb.

Sadly we haven't spent enough time out East to make further recommendations, but Paws on the doors will be there before too long to make sure that we will be better placed to do so.

West

The Dove, Hammersmith: Enjoy the evening rays during the summer or get cosy by the fire during the winter months.

The Atlas, West Brompton: Oak panelled cosyness and a nice fire in winter.  Great homespun food and nothing pretentious...

The Chamberlayne, Kensal Rise: King of steak, master of bearnaise sauce.  I require very little to convince me for a trip North by Northwest.

Wild cards (not quite London)

The Griffin, Fletching: Just over an hour in the car on a good day.  The perfect escape from the city.  Imaginative food and cosy rooms.  If you're planning on staying overnight do warn them that you are bringing a hound...

The King John Inn, Tollard Royal: Homely pub and well-proportioned rooms with extra comfortable beds.  In the middle of nowhere - very quiet, and brilliant for it.

So there you have it.  We'll publish an updated top 10 at the same time next year.