British cooking has undergone something of a revival of late thanks to a new emphasis on simplicity and great local ingredients that ties in nicely with the current comfort food trend in Bangkok. Unfortunately, the Cup is more a flashback to the dark old days of UK dining: overcooked vegetables, deep fried offerings and tasteless stodge. Even before all of that goes in your mouth, though, a visit to the Cup is definitely a step back in time. From the clientele of big haired ladies to the aging wait staff to the rather tired looking furniture, it’s hard to tell if much has changed since they opened in 1980. That’s not to say that it’s run down or that service isn’t efficient; it’s just the whole place feels like it’s stuck in a time warp, a feeling that’s reinforced by the classical music and the very classic dishes—dishes like the very British, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, which manages to highlight the best and worst of this country’s cooking. The beef is well-cooked and tender and the clearly homemade horseradish sauce is delicious but the vegetables are either under or over cooked and the Yorkshire pudding is soggy and dense. Another British classic, fish and chips, comes off even worse. The fillet is flat and the batter soggy, while the chips taste like they’ve been fried with the fish, even if the tartare sauce is again delicious and homemade. Starters follow this same rather depressing trend: the rocket salad with Italian sausage uses tasty sausages and fresh rocket but they’re drowned in balsamic vinegar, while the chicken chowder is floury but otherwise flavorless. We would have thought desserts would have bucked the trend, as this is after all a place famed for its afternoon teas, but they seem just as bad. Last time we went, the apple crumble tasted like it had been left out too long and the yogurt pudding was just sweet and the presentation comically phallic. We would be more forgiving if this place wasn’t so expensive. We usually try and find the positives in our reviews but the Cup is one place that puts us in a half empty frame of mind.
