Gardeners Arms, Cheddar

The signs outside proclaim not only Cask marque approval but also the fact that the pub is now under new management. Although there is clearly still an emphasis on food, I got the impression one is more than welcome to come in and enjoy a drink. The Gardeners is tucked away in the back streets of Cheddar village, away from the tourist area. The white painted walls are adorned with a random assortment of pictures and a mirror. Some of the internal walls of this old building have been replaced by beams. There is a small beer garden at the back with a grape vine, but the long main room is very pleasant to sit in and there is a small back room which has a lovely old table in it and, more importantly, no loudspeaker. (The piped music tended to leak through from the other rooms, but it was at least ignorable in here.) Only one real ale was available on my visit (Sharps Doom Bar had just gone off), but I had a very drinkable Butcombe Bitter.

The so called "lounge bar" in this pub isn't really a bar at all, it's a restaurant. All the tables were laid up for eating, not only with cutlery buth with table cloths, napkins, wine glasses, etc. You would clearly be unwelcome just having a pint in here. The public bar is fine (although fairly small) with an unusual counter running at a diagonal across one corner. There is also a large plasma on the wall, and a table top skittles game in one corner (at least I think that's what it is, apologies if it's some other game). The menu was unusual with dishes such as ostrich, rabbit, etc., so perhaps not to everyone's taste. A few more pub classics may have been useful. My wife and I both had hand made faggots from the specials board which were very generous portions as we had two large faggots each, but we both found them too salty. Again, that may just be our taste, we generally use very little or no salt in cooking. The puddings of sherry trifle and lemon meringue pie were both quite dissapointing. Beers on tap were Butcombe and Doom Bar, along with Thather's Gold and Addlestone's cider.