The Cricketts Inn
Burton Road, Acresford, Swadlincote DE12 8AP
From the outside this is a nice looking pub, clean, tidy, well kept and set in beautiful rural surroundings. Inside it is a fairly standard looking country pub, rustic and welcoming, if a little bit on the scruffy side.
I arrived early and sat at the bar to have a couple of drinks, despite the pub not being particularly busy, the bar clearly hadn’t been cleaned properly in some time and had become very sticky and was giving off a smell of stale beer. Being a Marston’s affiliated country pub I was expecting a reasonable selection of ales, disappointingly they only had two ales on tap, one of which was Pedigree and the other was Lancaster Bomber. I ordered myself a pint of Pedigree and took a long swig the beer was definitely off, it tasted of nothing but sulphur, I didn’t drink the rest. I mentioned it to one the girls serving, she seemed not to care at all and didn’t do anything to rectify the situation, again this was somewhat disappointing.
After about ten minutes they called us through and we were seated, I ordered a starter of black pudding bhajis. When they were brought out they were nicely presented and looked freshly cooked, I cut into them they were still hot and nicely crisp. They had a very pleasant texture and taste though they didn’t seem to contain an awful lot of black pubbing, which being black pudding bhajis, was a bit of a let down.
Shortly after the starters had been cleared away they started bringing out the mains, I had ordered a 16oz ribeye steak, chips and grilled mushrooms, I asked for the steak to be cooked rare. I was glad to see the chips were not frozen chips and had definitely been hand cut, they were nice but nothing spectacular and the portion size left a lot to be desired. The steak was what really let them down in my eyes, it was nowhere the size or thickness that a 16oz should be, I would put the size somewhere between the 10 and 12oz mark. When I cut into it, it was definitely not rare, it was quite dry and after the first bite I could tell it had not been seasoned at all. Because of how my earlier issue had been dealt with by the staff, I chose not to raise it and continued to eat. Fortunately one of the group I was with had a pot of black peppercorn sauce and was willing to share, this actually improved the meal enough for me to finish the plate.
Some of the group chose to have deserts, I decided not to as nothing on the menu really appealed to me and I had been a little bit put off by how disappointed I was by the rest of the meal.
Unfortunately I had heard good things prior to eating at The Cricketts Inn, coupled with the fact that menu read very well and the prices weren’t particularly cheap, I went in with high hopes and I think this is partially why I was so disappointed with my experience. The food itself wasn’t actually that bad but it also wasn’t particularly good, it was disappointingly average.
Showing posts with label british food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label british food. Show all posts
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Sunday, March 6, 2016
The Demon Barber Of Fleet...... Street
Between both of us
working full time and my partner spending her weekends working hard, preparing
lessons and marking for the week ahead, we don't always get the opportunity to
go out as much as we would like. Last weekend was one of those opportunities, I
had booked us tickets to see a local operatic society performing their
rendition of Sweeney Todd at Nottingham Arts Theatre. A venue that both me and
my partner have a particular fondness for, partially due to it being located in
a part of town we like to frequent and partially due to the venue being fairly
small, giving performances there an intimacy lacking in larger
venues.
Rather than just running into town just to see the show we decided to make a full day of it and headed in to Nottingham early to do a bit of shopping and hopefully have a meal out. With that in mind I booked a table at George's Great British Kitchen for lunch, a place I have wanted to try since I first learned of it's existence last year.
We started the day with a steady wander around town, visiting a few of our favourite shops on the way. Lush, Dr Martens, Fopp, Forbidden Planet and Brew Cavern just to name a few. Having purchased ourselves a few bits, bobs and treats we headed over to George's for lunch. For those of you who don't know George's it's an upscale fish and chip restaurant on Queen Street, just off the old market square in the town centre.
For me fish and chips is a genuine British institution and to find a real restaurant serving proper hand cut chips (Frozen chips at a restaurant, or even a food pub, is a HUGE no for me) with beautifully fresh, hand battered fish is an absolute treat and somewhere I need to visit. To find one in the heart of the midlands, about as far away from the sea as you can get, is even more special.
After lunch we headed off to the Notthingham Arts Theatre to catch the two o'clock performance. Having ordered the tickets well in advance, we had really good seats a few rows from the front with an excellent, central view of the stage, in more or less the same seats as our previous two visits to the venue. The theatre itself is fairly small but very well laid out, with a small stage at the far end and seating for around 300 people set out in 3 columns.
The stage was dark except for one beam of light shining onto a pile of wooden furniture and props in the centre, into the light stepped a single man to announce the story of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of fleet street. From the very outset the cast managed to set an eerie, atmospheric tone despite the fact that they had absolutely no backdrops and very limited space. Using a meagre supply of props and relying heavily on the casts vocal talents and the dark atmosphere of the story, they made the most of the small stage, moving the furniture and props around to create the different scenes required for the different narrative elements of the show. The casting was excellent and the actors where very believable in their roles, with standout performances by the actors playing Sweeney Todd, Mrs Lovett and Judge Turpin. Throughout the show the musical accompaniment was second to none and the vocal performances of the actors were excellent, often using harsh tones and harmonies to counter point the dark atmosphere and foreboding presence of the story. Overall a very enjoyable show, very well presented, very well performed and very deserving of the audiences applause. An experience both myself and my partner are eager to repeat.
The show itself was a little over 3 hours long, with the 20 minute interval and allowing time for people to enter and leave the venue, meant it was early evening by the time we left and decided that bedways was rightways, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka.
Rather than just running into town just to see the show we decided to make a full day of it and headed in to Nottingham early to do a bit of shopping and hopefully have a meal out. With that in mind I booked a table at George's Great British Kitchen for lunch, a place I have wanted to try since I first learned of it's existence last year.
We started the day with a steady wander around town, visiting a few of our favourite shops on the way. Lush, Dr Martens, Fopp, Forbidden Planet and Brew Cavern just to name a few. Having purchased ourselves a few bits, bobs and treats we headed over to George's for lunch. For those of you who don't know George's it's an upscale fish and chip restaurant on Queen Street, just off the old market square in the town centre.
For me fish and chips is a genuine British institution and to find a real restaurant serving proper hand cut chips (Frozen chips at a restaurant, or even a food pub, is a HUGE no for me) with beautifully fresh, hand battered fish is an absolute treat and somewhere I need to visit. To find one in the heart of the midlands, about as far away from the sea as you can get, is even more special.
After lunch we headed off to the Notthingham Arts Theatre to catch the two o'clock performance. Having ordered the tickets well in advance, we had really good seats a few rows from the front with an excellent, central view of the stage, in more or less the same seats as our previous two visits to the venue. The theatre itself is fairly small but very well laid out, with a small stage at the far end and seating for around 300 people set out in 3 columns.
The stage was dark except for one beam of light shining onto a pile of wooden furniture and props in the centre, into the light stepped a single man to announce the story of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of fleet street. From the very outset the cast managed to set an eerie, atmospheric tone despite the fact that they had absolutely no backdrops and very limited space. Using a meagre supply of props and relying heavily on the casts vocal talents and the dark atmosphere of the story, they made the most of the small stage, moving the furniture and props around to create the different scenes required for the different narrative elements of the show. The casting was excellent and the actors where very believable in their roles, with standout performances by the actors playing Sweeney Todd, Mrs Lovett and Judge Turpin. Throughout the show the musical accompaniment was second to none and the vocal performances of the actors were excellent, often using harsh tones and harmonies to counter point the dark atmosphere and foreboding presence of the story. Overall a very enjoyable show, very well presented, very well performed and very deserving of the audiences applause. An experience both myself and my partner are eager to repeat.
The show itself was a little over 3 hours long, with the 20 minute interval and allowing time for people to enter and leave the venue, meant it was early evening by the time we left and decided that bedways was rightways, so best we go homeways and get a bit of spatchka.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Great Food & Drink Festival - Newstead Abbey
For anyone who knows me, even remotely, it’s obvious that I really love food. What is not quite so obvious is that I’m a big fan of locally sourced food, few things excite me more than coming across great quality produce on my own door step. Bearing this in mind I recently attended a local food festival, held at Newstead Abbey, showcasing local producers in the Nottinghamshire area.
I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting much, however when I arrived I was delighted to see a plethora of small stalls with everything from speciality pickles to locally produced biltong, I was even more delighted to see that a good portion of these stalls were providing samples for people to taste. I spent the first hour or so nosing around the stalls, talking to the stall holders and trying every sample possible. I was literally like a child in a sweet shop, I was getting genuinely excited and was loving every second of it.
Having tried a few of the goods on offer, and talked to most of the stall holders, a few stalls had began to stand out in my mind. I decided to head back to these stalls for a second visit, with the intentions of making purchases. First things first, having whetted my appetite on the various samples, my stomach was now rumbling so I headed over to Hartland Pies and picked up a scotch egg and a bag of homemade pork scratchings. Second on my list was the Funky Nut Co to pick up a variety pack of their amazing nut butters. This was followed by some incredible wild boar and venison sausages and 3 massive doughnuts.
By this point it was now almost 12 o-clock so we headed over to the main tent to catch one of the live demonstrations. When the demonstration had finished it seemed liked the perfect time for lunch so I headed over to Cook Caribe for my very first try of Caribbean food. I had rice and peas with curried mutton and it was amazing, I loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to try it again.
After lunch we took a walk around the grounds of Newstead Abbey before heading into the building itself to explore and see some of the exhibits inside. Newstead Abbey is a truly fascinating place with a lot of history attached to it, the fact that access to the abbey grounds and the buildings was included in the ticket price of the festival made it truly excellent value for money.
If an event like this comes to your local area I strongly urge you to attend as you will find a real range of local shops and producers that you may never have known existed, these people have a true passion and a genuine talent for what they do and deserve our custom and deserve to be celebrated.
I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting much, however when I arrived I was delighted to see a plethora of small stalls with everything from speciality pickles to locally produced biltong, I was even more delighted to see that a good portion of these stalls were providing samples for people to taste. I spent the first hour or so nosing around the stalls, talking to the stall holders and trying every sample possible. I was literally like a child in a sweet shop, I was getting genuinely excited and was loving every second of it.
Having tried a few of the goods on offer, and talked to most of the stall holders, a few stalls had began to stand out in my mind. I decided to head back to these stalls for a second visit, with the intentions of making purchases. First things first, having whetted my appetite on the various samples, my stomach was now rumbling so I headed over to Hartland Pies and picked up a scotch egg and a bag of homemade pork scratchings. Second on my list was the Funky Nut Co to pick up a variety pack of their amazing nut butters. This was followed by some incredible wild boar and venison sausages and 3 massive doughnuts.
By this point it was now almost 12 o-clock so we headed over to the main tent to catch one of the live demonstrations. When the demonstration had finished it seemed liked the perfect time for lunch so I headed over to Cook Caribe for my very first try of Caribbean food. I had rice and peas with curried mutton and it was amazing, I loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to try it again.
After lunch we took a walk around the grounds of Newstead Abbey before heading into the building itself to explore and see some of the exhibits inside. Newstead Abbey is a truly fascinating place with a lot of history attached to it, the fact that access to the abbey grounds and the buildings was included in the ticket price of the festival made it truly excellent value for money.
If an event like this comes to your local area I strongly urge you to attend as you will find a real range of local shops and producers that you may never have known existed, these people have a true passion and a genuine talent for what they do and deserve our custom and deserve to be celebrated.
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