Furzton Lake, Milton Keynes

A modern, purpose built pub on the edge of the lake and attached to a large Premier Inn, it’s a pleasant enough setting but fails to deliver on many fronts and no doubt relies for a lot of it’s custom on the residents of the hotel who don’t know any better. There is extensive outside seating some of which has views of the lake, although there is no garden or grass area and as such is not nearly as attractive as the Caldecotte Arms, for example. There are a number of water features that have been made outside of the pub, and this includes a Fayre & Square longboat. There is also an enclosed kid’s play area. Inside the pub is extensive although much of it appears to be given over to dining. Décor wise it’s the usual fairly bland corporate approach, with a generic patterned carpet on the floor in some places and attractive green tiling elsewhere. There is quite a bit of exposed brickwork on the walls along with some light wood panelling and some features that have been added to make the place look old, such as some high level wooden loading doors and a brick fire-place. The smaller area to the left is for drinking and a plasma in the corner was showing a very grainy Coronation Street. To the right was a “Please wait here to be seated” sign suggesting that the larger half of the pub is very much for dining, and this was split over two levels with a mezzanine level floor. A triangular free standing chimney in the centre contained wood burning stoves. Food wise the menu was extensive and there should be something to suit most tastes and there was also a tall pudding display cabinet just inside the door with some enormous sponge cakes inside. The menu was divided in to sections such as Burgers, Grills, Chicken Dishes, Fish Dishes, Jackets, Pub Favourites, etc. Price wise, most things seemed to be somewhere around the £7/£8 mark. I went for the Chicken Tikka Masala which was very disappointing – a few pieces of rubbery chicken floating around in a very sloppy sauce and rice which even the menu could only describe as “yellow”. It wasn’t even worth half it’s £7.69 price tag. Beers on tap were Doom Bar and Old Hookey. A third pump for Old Peculiar appeared to have run out. Ciders were Strongbow and Magner’s Golden Draught. The barman appeared a bit dopey but managed to get the job done, whilst the table service was very poor – even when my food arrived dirty glasses from the previous incumbents were left on the table and remained there for another ten minutes after I had finished eating.