It’s not often you find yourself fascinated by a staircase, but this living music museum is an exception and it serves good food too
The list of bands that have played at the Half Moon since the 1960s is really quite incredible, from the Rolling Stones, to U2 to Kate Bush and on to Ed Sheeran (yes, I know), it’s a venue that’s hosted them all before they were famous, and even after they were.
The treads on stairs up to the upper bar record many of the acts, while the walls ooze signed photos and posters. My ageing brain recalls that in the heyday of punk I even came here myself when I should have been revising for my A levels.,
It’s nice to be back. It’s had a full refurbishment with a new upstairs dining area and glass box terrace, and a menu ‘inspired by Deep South Americana’.
I like the new ground floor bar, lots of exposed brickwork, stripped-back timber and leather chairs but I’m not sure about the framed instruments, and neon signage, which strays into Hard Rock Cafe territory. You can’t fault the vibe though, this is a very nice place to be, even without the promise of a live band in the large back room every night.
‘A lot of cover bands’, the nice manager tells me, and my ears prick up as I play bass in a covers band. “But,” he adds, ‘we’re trying to get more bands doing original stuff with New Moon Evening for new bands every Monday’. That’s great, we need more original bands, the UK seems to have lost its momentum when it comes to leading the world in music.
So while we wait for tonight’s band, a Canadian country music band called The Washboard Union, we eat.
The menu has a lot of options and reads like it wants to please the casual diner, but also has some things that are a bit unusual too.
I can’t imagine many Americans want Charred Smoked Mackerel, sun-blushed tomatoes, herb oil, but P does and was rather impressed, great fish and the tomato duo – cherry tomatoes grilled plus the sunblushed – was tasty. She could have done with some kind of bread, she said, so she stole some of my focaccia.
Which was served with a pot of pulled pork, pickled chili and cucumber. I would have liked the chili to have been more assertive, and the pork a bit drier, but overall it hit the spot. Focaccia perhaps an odd choice of accompaniment, but it worked
There’s not much American about battered Haddock with tartare sauce, mushy peas, lemon and triple cooked chips, it’s about as British as you can get. Nice bit of fish, batter crisp and not too thick and whilstthe triple cooked chips are good, I prefer the ones with my choice.
I’m not a burger person, unless I make it myself, but for the sake of research I try the Southern Fried Chicken Burger, sesame bun, green peppercorn mayo, hot maple, lollo, fries.
This isn’t entirely a success, the bun has been toasted rather too much. The chicken seasoning and fry is good, but I think rather than use two large pieces of chicken it would be better to either have just one, or to bash out the pieces thinner before frying.
It’s all enough to fill us up, so we share a simple dessert of Vanilla Burnt Cream (perhaps Americans don’t speak French? ) with a rather nice compote of mixed berries. Kind of my favourite dish of the night.
The band is now leaving the bar area to get on stage so we follow the crowd into the hall, which is a lot nicer than I recall from the last time I was there.
What was the band like? Ask the NME.
It’s good to see this great London institution back on its feet and firing on all cylinders with a good menu that I’d be happy to explore more.
93 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London, SW15 1EU