Do you have days in the week that if you don’t prepare ahead for, you’ll never eat? Well Wednesday and Thursday are those days for us. We often have something quick late at night, but if we are ahead of the game, a quiche or pie is assigned to these nights and sits patiently on the reserve lines in the freezer – often it remains there when we forget to defrost it!

It’s always tempting to grab a takeaway or fall into a familiar restaurant. This is often a mistake as we’re usually too tired to enjoy the experience and it’s expensive when all we need  is something quick and tasty but certainly not gastronomic!  A few Wednesdays ago we were in the same old pickle, but the added excuse for eating out was that I was in the ‘dowdy dumps’, so the Village Kitchen was suggested as the relief to a pretty awful day.

With bad mood in tow, we walked in to be shown a table that just wasn’t right. I’m very specific about where I want to sit and the table offered felt like being in a corridor – well it was to be honest. I just wanted to leave and go home. But the staff were helpful and we were given a much better table in the quiet back room of the restaurant. With ‘tablegate’ out of the way, the focus quickly moved to the menu. Interestingly we went entirely for the specials, we shared a generous portion of duck livers on toast (£7). Followed up by three large spinach and mushroom VK Falafels – think more bread-crumbed croquettes – served on a bed of crunchy green beans with a tomato salsa (£11), and a veal steak with fresh baby vegetables, micro herbs, roasted vine tomatoes and red wine sauce (£16). We added a portion of hand-cut chips. The veal, cooked pink, was so good I refused to share.

After such a dismal start to the evening, this turned out to be a lovely rescue meal. We’ve heard good things about the Sunday Roast, so we’ll be back to check these out! And the pot of jelly sweets that came with the bill made me smile all the way home.

Village Kitchen, 41 Orford Road, Walthamstow, E17 9NL
FSA scores – 5, last inspected 12 March 2014