The Folly Inn, Towcester

An attractive country pub directly opposite the race course, it certainly looks the part with it’s white washed stone walls, thatched roof and decorative foliage. It is in reality though much more of a restaurant than a pub with the bar area being little more than a wide passageway in front of the bar counter and seating options limited to a very small table just inside the door and a couple of high chairs at the bar. The food side of things in very popular and you will almost certainly need to book if you want to eat – even on a midweek evening in January it was pretty much full to capacity, and this was in fact the third time I had tried to get in here. The bar area had tiling on the floor and pale blue paintwork but little else of any note. The restaurant area was up a couple of steps and has a slightly more contemporary appearance, although this is probably due more to the furniture than the décor, which had at least retained plenty of beams on the ceiling. This was carpeted with a mixture of the blue and burnt orange paint being used and there was an exposed stone wall and fire-place at one end, although the fire was a rather poor electric imitation of a gas one. A game of Trivial Pursuit was nearby, but this really doesn’t seem the sort of pub where it’s likely to be used and even if you had wanted to I don’t know where you’d have put it since all the tables were laid up with cutlery, napkins and glassware. As might be expected, the menu was very firmly in the restaurant category with most main courses being around the £15/£16 mark and if you’re after a curry, lasagne or pie of the day then you’re going to be out of luck. My Gloucestershire Old Spot belly of pork with crispy crackling, poached winter pear and apple cider jus was a decent and tasty dish however and a generous portion so if you want to splash out and have something a little more upmarket this would be a good choice. Beers on tap were the local Bell Ringer from the Towcester brewery and North Cotswold’s Winter Solstice. The solitary cider was Kingston Press. This is a little tricky to mark – as a restaurant it seems quite good, but it’s not really a pub in the proper sense of the word.

Official site of The Folly Inn - www.follyinntowcester.co.uk

Official site of The Folly Inn - www.follyinntowcester.co.uk