The Greyhound Inn, Milton Keynes

Facebook page of The Greyhound Inn - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Greyhound Inn - www.facebook.com

A traditional, stone built country pub in a small village just outside Milton Keynes, first impressions were not good when I spotted a Greene King sign outside. I almost went on by, expecting to find the usual identikit menu and just Strongbow being served up on the cider front. I was glad I persevered though, as I found it much better than expected. Inside it's a two room pub, with the lounge bar to the right. This was quite cosy, with a low, beamed ceiling and carpet on the floor. There was an exposed stone wall at one end as well as a fire-place with a wood burning stove. Elsewhere the walls were rough cream plasterwork with wood panelling on the lower part. A remarkably small TV was up in one corner, like you often see used as a CCTV monitor (perhaps it was?), although this was not in use. There were a few high chairs around the small, curved bar counter and seating elsewhere was mostly back to back bench seating creating separate booths. As it's nearly Christmas, there was a small tree in one corner, and plenty of fairly lights adoring the beams. The bar to the left has wooden flooring and what looks as though it may be some type of stage area at one end. I couldn't see this as it was curtained off, but there was a lighting rig on the ceiling so presumably they host live music or other events. There is also a small outside garden. Landlord was friendly enough, although he had rather a propensity to call me "Sir" at every opportunity. Food wise, the menu was fairly concise and offered a small selection of your normal "pub grub" dishes such as Haddock & Chips, Scampi & Chips, Burger, etc., as well as a couple of more unusual dishes such as Chicken in a creamy tarragon sauce and in addition to this there was a small specials board in the corner. Most of the mains were in the £8 - £10 range and my Salmon fillet in a creamy lemon sauce was ok - nothing special, but nothing wrong with it either. The sauce was rather runny and didn't have much flavour and the salmon was probably marginally undercooked, but on the other hand it came with a side dish of broccoli, green beans and carrot. Had it been a pound or two cheaper I'd have been quite happy, but I thought £8.50 was a little ambitious for what I got. Drinks on tap were just Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale, and the solitary cider was Thatcher's Gold which was a very pleasant and unexpected find.