As we prepare to fight against plans by the government to built thousands of new homes in the Horsham District during the next decade, there are a number of valid objections we can raise.
Not enough schools, poor infrastructure, no hospital, flood plains, medieval deer parks, great-crested newts...
But one that won’t be voiced by campaigners is ‘Where will all these new residents eat?’
Horsham had no shortage of restaurants even before Sanmae (the excellent Oriental on Springfield Road), and Cote (French Brasserie in East Street) opened at the back end of 2009.
Japanese restaurant Wabi is soon to open at the end of East Street soon (see sidebar), but beating them to it is The Quarter Restaurant in Park Place (behind Piries Place, opposite the two hairdressers/barbers).
The Quarter Restaurant is the ‘sister’ of the Comodor off West Street, and had a rather low-key opening over the Christmas period.
With the snow and the festivities, it’s passed us by pretty much unnoticed, but it’s important that it’s a success for that end of town, which could use the extra footfall a successful restaurant will bring.
So we thought we would give it a try and see if it was up to standard...
For a restaurant that seemed to be in no initial hurry to open, it eventually seems to have done so without being fully prepared, at least in terms of appearance.
Where as Cote spent £900,000 on renovating its East Street sign, Quarter has settled for plain, white tinted walls, small wooden tables and chairs with wicker seats. It’s more like a diner than a restaurant.
There’s a lack of colour inside, and the only decorative items is a mismatch of framed images, a couple of The Beatles, and one oddly featuring four random pictures of movie star
s, in which Van Damme gets to share a frame with John Wayne!
There’s no great care with the menu either - mussels, panini and omelette are all spelt incorrectly.
But maybe this is just what Horsham needs - a no-frills eatery that doesn’t hide behind a glossy menu with a fancy font, that just serves us good food in big portions.
And big portions is precisely what you get, and it’s fantastic value for money.
There’s no messing around with the prices either - the starters and tapas offer fantastic value, all 20 cost £3.50. It certainly helps when it comes to splitting the bill!
We tried the Calamari in batter, Mussels and Chorizo, Chilli Chicken Wings with a green salad and toasted Ciabatta with cheddar cheese, bacon and ham.
If this is tapas, then we must be in Texas, for these four dishes alone left us full up.
And maybe that is the point of The Quarter Restaurant. If you only have an hour for your lunch break, you can sit down, have a beer, order a toastie, a baguette or a panini for just £4.20, and leave well fed and not out of pocket.
The format has certainly been a success for a very similar eatery in Crawley - at Estrelicia’s Cafe.
But the Quarter goes one better than that, serving up a good range of main courses, and the chef, Ali, knows what he is doing.
This is no place for a vegetarian (unless the veggie burger is a complete knock-out!) but for the rest of us there’s a selection of burgers, skewered dishes (grilled on the skewer and served with side salad), steaks (with an option of chips, potatoes or rice), fish (including tuna and salmon steaks) and a few Quarter specials - Jem Lamb, Beef Stroganoff and Chicken.
They are not shy with the portions, although don’t load the plate up quite as high as they do at Smith & Western, and the prices are excellent. For instance, the skewered dishes are all £7.90, the burgers £6.50 and even the specials are less than £7.
Order anything on the menu and you’ll get change from a tenner, even the Sirloin. Which is what we ordered, along with a Bulgarian beef Fillet skewer.
Both were cooked to perfection, although we would argue that the skewer’s peppers made it more than “fairly spicy!”
But while there’s surprisingly good, hearty food here, friendly service and excellent value for money, The Quarter isn’t as ‘warm’ as it should be and will need to be to attract more customers.
This isn’t a place where you would go to eat out with a group of friends, and it’s not trying to be, but you can’t help but think that for it to become a favourite amongst lunch time diners it’ll need to try a bit harder to create an atmosphere.
As it stands, you’d go back for the food, but you’d still rather go to the Comodor.
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