Villiers Hotel, Buckingham

Official site of Villiers Hotel - www.villiers-hotel.co.uk

Despite being attached to a hotel, this has quite a traditional pub appearance and very much it’s own identity even though it is sandwiched between the hotel reception and the restaurant. Fortunately it has it’s own entrance so it still feels as though you are walking straight in to a pub. It’s a single room bar that looks as though it has been extended slightly at the front with a small atrium style glass roof. Behind that it’s a traditional low beamed ceiling with a flagstone floor and a massive walk in brick fireplace to the left complete with an old bread oven. This looked as though it was used on occasions, although was not on when I visited which was probably just as well as the heating was set quite high anyway. The rear wall was clad in dark wood panelling and there were a few of the usual horse brasses dotted around. A plasma at the front of the pub was showing the football which perhaps seemed a little out of kilter with the ambience of the pub, but fortunately this was not too intrusive. The bar menu that I was initially shown consisted mainly of sandwiches and baguettes with the odd salad or bowl of chipped potatoes thrown in for good measure. Presumably this is very much a “bar snack” menu, with the more serious food offering being in the hotel restaurant, but I was then offered a set menu priced at £18 for 2 courses or £23 for 3. This offered a limited selection with about four options for each course. My Pork Medallions in a creamy wholegrain mustard sauce with green beans and a very smooth, buttery mash was a decent enough dish, although whether this and a pudding were worth £18 I’m not entirely sure. Beers on tap were Black Sheep, Hooky, Doom Bar and Adnam’s Southwold. The solitary cider was Thatcher’s Gold which makes a pleasant change from the usual dross around these parts, although it was unfortunately somewhat past it’s best. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this pub though, and from my limited experience it certainly appears to be one of the better options in the town centre.

Official site of Villiers Hotel - www.villiers-hotel.co.uk