Nose to tail eating is not most people’s idea of a fun night out, so when Miss P and I discovered a mutual desire to visit this establishment, we were both quite excited. Having said that, a menu which is renowned for featuring traditional, if atypical dishes, such as tripe and offal, is one even my omnivorous appetite was a little wary of.

Entering the restaurant with it’s whitewashed and unadorned brick walls really gives a feel you are entering some kind of work house or Victorian school, which does actually add to the atmosphere. I also thought it fitted in quite well with the ethos of serving traditional, down to earth food, wasting nothing from the animal. Sort of bare essentials eating in a bare essentials environment.

In addition to it’s renowned nose to tail dishes, there were both vegetarian and fish options, which I was a little surprised at, expecting a purely carnivorous affair. Despite the options, Miss P and I decided to go for it and went carnivorous, with Duck’s Hearts for her and the signature dish of roast bone marrow with parsley salad for me. The duck’s hearts were quite un-offally and not as strong tasting as I expected. Not bad at all. The roast bone marrow came with it’s own implement (to scrape the marrow from the bone), which would have looked more at home in an operating theatre. The marrow itself was  fatty and gelatinous in texture, with a nice meaty, fatty flavour. The parsley salad worked very well with it and the thin brown toast was a tasty accompaniment.

We then endured rather a long wait between courses, most likely due to the large groups who had appeared since we’d arrived. Not that we minded, being entertained by the whole suckling pigs going past and the pig’s head being served on a plate at the table next to us. The groups were mostly males and I guess there is a real element of machismo in eating at St John’s, going back to basics and eating every part of the animal, as we would have done in the past.

Mains consisted of ox tongue served with beetroot and the tripe with white beans and bacon. The ox tongue was superb and tasted like a particularly tender piece of steak. The beetroot and a mini-pile of horseradish the perfect stablemates. My first experience of tripe wasn’t as good, the tripe tasting nice, with a fairly mild, meaty flavour (unlike any meat I’ve had before, though), but being a bit too spongy in texture for my liking. The white beans and bacon were good with it.

Having had two fairly rich courses each, we took a while debating on whether to have dessert or not. The sharing option won out in the end and we ordered the eccles cake with lancashire cheese. Despite being a pretty basic dessert, it was pretty inspired. The crumbly white cheese went amazingly well with the sweet, crumbly eccles cake, and in addition to that ideal match, it was like having two courses in one, which I really liked. We washed this piece de resistance down with a glass of Rivesaltes sur Grain, a reasonably subtle red dessert wine.

St John is not for the faint hearted, because even if there are options there for the less adventurous, you will still have to see whole suckling pig and the like being served up on other tables. I really enjoyed the food and we both thought the service was excellent, recommending a good, non-pricey wine and being very knowledgeable with the menu. A must for all omnivores.