The Haven Bistro and Bar, Whetstone: very popular local eating place

1st September 2018
I have eaten at the Haven several times and also organised to celebration dinners there in their semi-private room. It is probably one of the best places to get decent food in Whetstone, and over the 17 or so years I have been using it, the standards have remained constant, and it is fair value for money. It also serves bar food if you don't want a full meal.
I have also used it for a set lunch which was fantastic value for money.
On this occasion, we had to go on a Saturday night, to offer hospitality to a family member, and it won the choice competition of where to go on a Saturday night. It gets busy on a Saturday night, and you must book. I would not chance turning up there without a reservation, but because the owner, Julius knows me as a long term customer, he says he would always fit me in.
On this occasion the menu had changed from its long term pattern, and instead of being a sort of fixed price shortish menu, it had gone a la carte. So instead of my usual bang bang chicken starter, which I always found to be the best choice for me, I had the salt and pepper Calamari

This is not a true reflection of what came, as I had given my wife a couple of rings, and clearly had some of the dish before I started. Suffice it to say that this was a very generous starter portion and not the measly 5 rings out of a bag of frozen that so many restaurants stoop to.
It was well cooked soft and satisfying. It was also hot scoring an 8.4 on the CHOF scale. Recommended.
For main, I had the pan fried lamb liver.

It had a piece of bacon on it, and it was only when I downloaded the photo from my phone that I saw that it almost had a porcine face appearance: weird. I had asked for my liver to be cooked so that it was no longer bloody, which is my preference, and that was exactly how it came. It was exactly right. The only comment I would make is that it was promoted as coming with baby spinach, and the green vegetable it came with was a kind of cabbage or kale. No matter, as the liver was great. It also scored well on the CHOF scale at about an 8.3.
I did not bother with a desert, but had a coffee in a strange Germanic cup.
This was a good experience, and we emerged thinking that it had beed a good place to offer hospitality. The bill came to £125 for three of us, but there were only two glasses of wine, two coffees and two deserts, so expect to pay £50 per head for a full meal with drink.
The down side is that it gets very busy on Saturday night, and with its hard-surface decor, it can be difficult to hear. As much of the clientele being the comfortable retired of the area, who may already be on the way to hearing impairment, I am guessing there were some raised voices.