ReviewAn attractive pub on the edge of the large village green, this looks to be every inch the quintessential English local. There are a few tables outside at the front which is a pleasant spot, and also a beer garden to the side which has a selection of wooden furniture including gazebos and the like. It was quite busy on a recent Tuesday evening visit, although it appeared that many of the punters were there to eat and it was somewhat quieter by the time I left.
The main bar at the front of the pub has straw matting on the floor, a small fire-place off to the left and a much larger stone built fire-place taking up almost the entire wall at the other end which housed a wood burning stove. There was some exposed stone wall at the front of the pub, and a couple of strings of bunting hanging from the ceiling. The seating was chunky farmhouse tables and there were pictures covering almost every square inch of the walls, many of which looked to be old photos of the local area. The mantle above the fire-place housed a collection of bottles.
A slightly smaller room at the back has a similar décor, although there was also a large plasma on the wall that looked somewhat out of place. Fortunately this was not in use. The theme here seems to be old cars and bikes and one wall was covered with old advertisements for Harley Davidson’s and VW Beetles among others, although there was also a more modern BMW advert highlighting the James Bond connection. A brick fire-place was at the back and there was also car memorabilia on the mantle piece above this including an old Riley radiator grill. There were also a couple of posters of jazz musicians if that’s more your thing than old cars.
Beyond this was a snug that housed a large circular table as well as a couple of arm chairs, although this was in darkness on my visit. A hallway at the side housed a piano and this led out on to an attractive covered and illuminated terrace. There seems to be stuff of one sort or another almost everywhere with just a few examples being a large selection of cartridge casings, some old badminton rackets, a basket full of light bulbs, a sewing machine, a display case of ties and an old electrical board.
The food menu offered a decent looking selection of dishes and included pub favourites such as a burger, chilli, scampi & chips, ham egg & chips, etc., as well as some more adventurous offerings. These were priced somewhat above your usual pub prices though, with the scampi being £12.50 and the burger £11 for example. This is clearly home cooked food however, with the menu even having a note to say that if you don’t see what you want to let them know and they will try and make it for you if they have the ingredients. You don’t get that in the more common freezer/microwave pubs and perhaps explains why they have won a pub food of the year award. Unfortunately despite all that I was very disappointed with my dressed breast of Gressingham duck on a bed of pea risotto. It looked to be a decent dish when it arrived, but the duck was very gristly and there was much of it I couldn’t eat. To be fair, the quality of the meat is not something that the pub can completely control, and the landlady was very apologetic and took it up with the chef, who in turn was going to take it up with the butcher. I am quite prepared to overlook this and think that I was just unlucky rather than it being typical.
There was a good choice of beers on tap with Hobgoblin, Breakspear Oxford Gold, Ringwood Fortyniner, Jennings’s Cumberland and Sunbeam. There was a sixth pump on the bar but this appeared to have run out as the clip was turned round. Ciders were Stowford Press, and unusually on draught the Swedish Rekorderlig. Despite a hiccup with the food, I really liked this pub and am marking it accordingly.
