The Albion: It won't break the bank, and you won't have to wash up! (The Albion)

Member Name: jammaker49

Product:	The Albion
Date:	08/02/02 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonable prices, Early Eater discount, No washing up!

Disadvantages: Could become habit forming!

I work in Rainham, Essex, which theoretically comes under the London Borough of Havering. Therefore the restaurant I am writing this opinion about is situated in Greater London, even though postmarked Essex! Confused? Try living here!

Sometimes after work, I really can't be bothered getting home and cooking. So instead, hubby picks me up in the car, and we literally cross the road to the Albion and have our meal there. People must think us mad to see us coming out of the school car park, and driving straight across the road into the Albion car park, but with the heavy traffic it's much safer doing that than trying to cross on foot.

WHAT IS IT?

The Albion is a pub, with restaurant facilities. It is a member of the Steak and Ale chain. It serves food all day, and at lunch times can get very busy with people from the Ford Motor Company just down the road. It has a very large car park, and in the summer, there is a play area for children. As this is on grass, it is totally unusable at the moment due to the amount of rain we have had.

WHERE IS IT?

The Albion is in New Road, Rainham, Essex. It is almost directly on the Dover's Corner roundabout on the A1306. This used to be known as the A13, but since the NEW A13 was built to give quicker access to Lakeside and the Dartford Bridge, this particular stretch of road has been re-numbered.

Approaching along the A1306 from Barking and Dagenham, you pass the Dovers Corner industrial park on your right. At the roundabout, turn left, and then almost immediately right into the car park.

SURROUNDINGS

There is nothing special about the interior of the restaurant. It has a mixture of rectangular and round tables, seating various sized parties. There is a smoking (closer to the bar and therefore noisier) and non smoking area in the restaurant. In the summer, there are patio doors which open out into a courtyard, where you may eat if you wish.

>The chairs are pretty comfy, some of them being the sort with arms. These are usually placed at the round tables, with the ordinary straight backed chairs at the rectangular ones.

Around the walls are several old pictures of the area, showing what life in Rainham must have been like at the turn of the century. Local history is pretty interesting, and you can learn a lot from these pictures (the teacher in me is coming out here!)

THE MENU

The menu is surprisingly extensive. There is a good range of starters, from soup of the day, up to a sharing platter of onion rings, breaded mushrooms, hot chicken wings and potato wedges with various dips.

Main courses range from simple sausage, egg and chips, several different chicken options, steaks, scampi, in fact the usual assortments of grills and fries. They then do other options with new potaoes and veg, including steak and ale pie, sausage and mash and salmon fillets, and four or five vegetarian options. There is also a salad selection, jacket potatoes with various fillings, and filled batons, which come with a side salad.

Several of the dishes can be ordered as smaller appetite portions if you don't want to be eating too much.

There is also a "dish of the day" special, which is usually some sort of chicken curry with rice, naan bread and chutney.

Portions are ample, and the food is always freshly cooked.

Children are catered for with their own menu of nuggets, fish fingers, sausage chips and beans etc.

There is an extensive dessert menu, including jam roly poly, profiteroles, a toffee meringue pudding, lemon meringue, apple and blackberry crumble, and various icecreams.

THE SERVICE

The staff are all very friendly, and always stop for a word as they go about their business. We have never had to wait more than ten minutes for our food, apart from one Sunday lunchtime, when the restaurant was very busy. The table
s are always quickly cleared and cleaned.

HOW TO ORDER

This is one of those places where you choose what you want from the menu, then proceed to the bar to order, usually forgetting to check your table number before you go! You pay as you order, and your food is then brought to your table. If you want to leave a tab open in case you decide to have a sweet, or want to pay by cheque or credit card, you leave your number with them, and then sign for it all at the end. This can then include your bar bill too.

PRICES

The beauty of the Albion is that if you order your meal any time betwen 2.30 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. you get a third off your food bill! The prices are pretty good anyway, (£3.25 for the baton up to about £9.00 for steak with all the trimmings.) So to get another third off, makes it a very reasonable meal. On a £12.00 bill, you would only pay £8.00 (see, I can do maths too!)

Starters begin at around £1.50 for the soup, to around £5.00 for the sharing platter. Sweets are mainly in the £2.00 - £3.00 range.

OUR FAVOURITES

My own personal favourite is the Cajun chicken baton. There is plenty of sliced hot chicken, some salad in with it, and a further side salad. Sometimes if I am ultra hungry I might have a portion of chips, but usually I just nick a few off hubby's plate!
The baton comes with mayonnaise spread, which I ask them to leave out, as I'm not a mayonnaise fan!

Hubby has been through most of the menu at one time or another, but his favourite is a salmon fillet in a honey and peppercorn sauce, with either new potatoes or chips, and 3 vegetables: usually carrots, peas and brocolli.

His favourite dessert is the crumble and custard, whilst I would die for the sticky toffee meringue! Mind you, the chocolate ice cream rates pretty highly with me, being the sort with real chocolate pieces mixed in, and a yummy chocolate sauce!

The Albion probably isn't somewhe
re you would go for a special night out. It isn't that sort of place. But for a reasonable, well cooked, tasty meal out in the middle of the week, you would go a long way to beat it.
We have had a maincourse each and a drink for less than £10.00. Obviously if you have the starter and sweet as well, it would bump the price up a bit, but to be honest, half the time we're full up from the main course anyway, so don't bother with the extras.

So if you live anywhere near Rainham, or have easy access along the A1306, drop in and give it a try. It's standard pub food, at a very reasonable price, and you won't have to wash up either!

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