The Barge Inn, Milton Keynes

The Barge in Woolstone is one of the Vintage Inn pub chain group and is described on their web site as a country pub & restaurant oozing rural charm and rustic character. By which they mean this place has been thoroughly restored and made over internally in the usual Vintage Inn way to be a very clean and almost sterile environment focussing on the food trade with the wet trade secondary. Internally it is very pleasant with lots of exposed beams and brickwork and several carpeted areas laid for dining. However, except for a few original remaining wooden beams nearly all of the original early 19th Century pub which was built to service the workers on the nearby canal has gone and although I agree it does have character, it is of modern manufacture. One big plus is the outside drinking areas and there are three pleasant garden areas around the pub with plenty of bench seating. The food menu is the same as I’ve seen and experienced in other members of the chain around Beds and Herts, so I’ve no reason to believe this one will not be up to scratch, but I didn’t take the opportunity to try it as I was here for the beer. And on that front I was surprised not to find the usual Pride/CW Bombardier or Wadsworth 6X, which are the Vintage Inn house ales, but instead on the three pumps were Marstons Pedigree, Doombar (off) and Thornbridge Kipling and the Kipling was a very nice pint when I finally got it. And thus we come to the recurring problem with this type of chain pub focussed on food sales, the emphasis is on serving the tables and they never have enough staff managing the bar. When I first arrived there was one guy on the bar and as there is no separate food ordering area, a large queue was forming whilst he struggled to enter the food orders into his electronic POS system. Finally a second lad turned up, which improved things, but it still took me over 10 minutes just to get a beer. Thus I would say this is a decent enough place for a pub meal and I may well return for that purpose, but for a beer I will be giving this place a miss as there are plenty of more traditional beer focussed pubs hidden in the lanes of MK and surrounds.

Official pages of the Barge Inn, contains menus and cask ale details - www.vintageinn.co.uk

Official pages of the Barge Inn, contains menus and cask ale details - www.vintageinn.co.uk