The Stonemasons Arms is one of the finer gastro pubs in West London, if how busy it was today could be taken as an indication. Victoria had booked a table for her leaving lunch and we’d arrived just after noon but it was already buzzy and extremely busy. The cool part of the Stonemason Arms, apart from an incredibly cute waiter who no doubt was from Australia, is that they have an open kitchen of sorts. It sits above and behind the bar but you can still see them cooking away.

Victoria’s recommendation at the Arms is the plate of chips. Chunky, gigantic portion .. I made the mistake of ordering that to go with my pasta (chosen because of the promise of truffle oil ..) – talk about carb loading. I made my boss Jill laugh though. Heh heh.