The Fancott, Dunstable

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Blackthorn _ left this review about The Fancott Arms

An attractive looking country pub with plenty of colourful hanging baskets and flower troughs outside, it consists of a bar area at the front and a restaurant at the rear along with a patio area, good sized beer garden complete with children’s play area and even a miniature railway running around the garden.

The bar area at the front of the pub appears as though it may have recently been refurbished, but still retains plenty of character with a low, beamed ceiling and quarry tiles on the floor. A large stone built fire-place was at one end complete with a wood burning stove and a pile of logs ready for the colder weather whilst the seating was a mixture of high stools at the bar and high tables and chairs in the large bay windows. To the left is a small snug area with a carpeted floor and low chocolate brown leather sofas with plenty of cushions around the perimeter. The other seating here was small pouffes which were a clear case of style over substance and were quite uncomfortable, especially if you were going to be eating. Another, smaller fire-place and wood burning stove was in here.

To the right was a parlour style room complete with a dresser full of condiments, although most of the punters in here appeared to be eating. Service was ok, if a little slow and distracted at times – plates were not cleared from the tables and I overheard someone else asking for their table to be wiped down as it was all sticky. To be fair though, the restaurant at the rear was full to capacity even on a recent Tuesday evening visit, so they were no doubt concentrating on that.

The food menu offered a decent selection of dishes, and was divided in to sections such as Baguettes & Melts, Salads, Bar Snacks and “Stove”. The latter category contained a number of options in the “pub grub” genre such as Cod & Chips, Steak & Kidney Pie, Burger, Chilli, etc., and these were mostly priced somewhere in the £10 - £12 range. My Smoked Salmon & Champ Fishcakes with a creamy wholegrain mustard and dill sauce was a pleasant enough dish and a very generous portion consisting of two large fishcakes.

Beers on tap were Tribute and Doom bar whilst the solitary cider was Stowford Press, which makes a pleasant change from the usual dross around these parts. Overall I quite liked this pub, but the emphasis is very much on food, so if you’re after a more traditional drinking pub this may not be for you.

On 30^th April 2014 - rating: 7
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