Halley's Comet, Milton Keynes

Official site of Halleys Comet - www.halleys-comet.co.uk

A good sized and recently refurbished pub from Greene King, it has many similarities to their Hungry Horse chain although is not branded as such. Perhaps slightly more emphasis on sports rather than food is the reason for that, although I suspect the menu is very similar to a HH pub. It consists of one single, open room arranged around a central bar counter. At the rear is a patio area and a beer garden. Décor wise, it looks to have suffered from a paint factory explosion with every available surface, even the ceiling, being painted in deep colours such as maroon, mustard, khaki green or purple. Even a row of four rather odd looking throne like chairs overlooking the pool table had not escaped, being finished in a mustard and purple hue. Other than that, it’s fairly conventional with the usual generic pattered carpet covering most of the floor along with some pale tiling around the bar and towards the entrance. Some shelving to one side housed a number of books, vases, etc., and an astrological chart on the wall gave a nod to the pub’s name, although it did not clarify what the connection is between the comet and Milton Keynes (if any). As previously mentioned, the pub has something of a sports emphasis with a number of plasmas dotted around showing the football, which may account for the majority of the punters being young, tattooed males. In addition the sound was piped to a number of separate speakers at too high a volume for my liking, so if sport’s not your thing it was a little difficult to avoid. In particular a smaller lounge area to the right could have done with the volume being turned off at least, I thought. There was also a pool table and darts board at the rear of the pub. Food wise, the menu looks to be a mass produced affair divided in to a number of different sections such as Burgers, Sizzlers, Steaks, Giant Platters, Baguettes and Pub Classics. The latter section offered the usual selection of dishes such as Beef & Ale Pie, Fish & Chips, Lasagne, Hunter’s Chicken, etc., and these were mostly priced somewhere around a fiver. My Sizzling Chicken Fajitas consisted of spicy chicken strips cooked with onion and red pepper and served with flour tortillas, soured cream, salsa and cheese. It was a generous portion and quite tasty, although clearly in a venue such as this it’s not going to be freshly made on the premises. The only gripe really was the salsa, cream and cheese which were served in very flimsy paper pots that collapsed as soon as you tried to pick them up. Beers on tap were Greene King IPA, Abbott Ale and the seasonal Rocking Rudolph, although by the 7th January that seemed a little out of season. The solitary cider was Strongbow, unfortunately. Overall I’m sure this pub serves the locale well enough, but it’s unlikely to be somewhere that anybody makes a special point of going to.

Official site of Halleys Comet - www.halleys-comet.co.uk