The Gate Inn, Great Missenden

The Gate Inn is a traditional family run country pub situated in the pleasant countryside village of Bryants Bottom located in the middle of nowhere in the Buckinghamshire Chiltern Hills somewhere halfway between Great Missendon and Princes Risborough . It is a former wheel-wrights cottage dating from 1864 and looks good externally with the whitewashed façade festooned with hanging baskets. There is bench seating to the front of the pub and then a large garden space to the back which includes a large secure children’s play area that would put most local councils to shame. Internally it is still two bars. The public bar is wooden floored with a large open stone fireplace and the lounge bar is mainly set to table seating for diners. There is also a separate function room available for hire. It’s a free house and has four ale hand pumps on the go. Two of these have the regular ales of London Pride and Doombar and then according to the Landlord the other two have regular guests from local breweries such as Vale and Rebellion. Unfortunately for my visit the two additional were GK IPA Reserve and McMullens Country bitter, so I timed that completely wrong then !, although the IPA Reserve does give proof that GK can brew a decent beer if they put their mind to it. There was a decent looking food menu but cannot comment on this as it was not tried.