This week I’ve mostly been a complete and utter fatty, I should really know better by now.
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts
Saturday, December 22, 2018
This Week I’ve Mostly Been...
This week I’ve mostly been a complete and utter fatty, I should really know better by now.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Review: The Cricketts Inn, Acresford
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.
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.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Review: The Wheel Inn, Ticknall
The Wheel Inn
50 Main St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JZ
Having passed through Ticknall many, many times I have often thought what a lovely, inviting looking pub this place looks. As I was planning on spending some time walking locally, I thought it would be an ideal place to stop for lunch and start my walk from. Inside the place is gorgeous, clean, tidy and very nicely decorated, making good use of its many period features.
Despite there being many free tables, none of which were reserved, I had to wait to be seated. Unfortunately there is no real area set aside for waiting so your choices are standing around in the bar area, where people are sitting eating, or standing in front of the main entrance. I opted to stand awkwardly in the bar area, where I could at least get a drink.
Generally in a country pub of this style and supposed level of quality I'd expect to see a reasonable range of beers on offer, besides the usual awful lagers, unfortunately this is not the case, the beers on offer here are so run of the mill they're not even worth mentioning.
After a brief wait of 10 minutes or so I was taken upstairs to a, largely empty but very well decorated, dining room and shown to my seat. Looking over the menu the food choices seemed of a slightly higher end than other places I've visited locally and obviously the prices were higher to match. I ordered battered cod with hand cut chips and minted mushy peas, then sat back looking forward to what should be a very nice meal.
After about 30 minutes my food was bought out and my first reaction was one of disappointment, the fish was absolutely tiny and the portion of chips, though clearly hand cut and fried, was very small. I shrugged it off, opting for the mind set of "if the food is good quality then this could still be a very nice meal." The chips did not disappoint, they were lovely, crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and tasted exactly how proper chips should taste. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the fish, not only was it very small, but the batter was quite thick, not at all crispy and didn't have much of a flavour at all. The fish its self had that fishy smell and taste that speaks of it being not particularly fresh, that said it was perfectly cooked. The peas were quite simply forgettable, slightly over cooked and over minted.
Overall not the best experience ever, not entirely great service, a lacklustre beer selection and food that simply did not live up to the price tag. There are better, cheaper places to eat in the local vicinity, though apparently it closes early on a Saturday.
50 Main St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JZ
Having passed through Ticknall many, many times I have often thought what a lovely, inviting looking pub this place looks. As I was planning on spending some time walking locally, I thought it would be an ideal place to stop for lunch and start my walk from. Inside the place is gorgeous, clean, tidy and very nicely decorated, making good use of its many period features.
Despite there being many free tables, none of which were reserved, I had to wait to be seated. Unfortunately there is no real area set aside for waiting so your choices are standing around in the bar area, where people are sitting eating, or standing in front of the main entrance. I opted to stand awkwardly in the bar area, where I could at least get a drink.
Generally in a country pub of this style and supposed level of quality I'd expect to see a reasonable range of beers on offer, besides the usual awful lagers, unfortunately this is not the case, the beers on offer here are so run of the mill they're not even worth mentioning.
After a brief wait of 10 minutes or so I was taken upstairs to a, largely empty but very well decorated, dining room and shown to my seat. Looking over the menu the food choices seemed of a slightly higher end than other places I've visited locally and obviously the prices were higher to match. I ordered battered cod with hand cut chips and minted mushy peas, then sat back looking forward to what should be a very nice meal.
After about 30 minutes my food was bought out and my first reaction was one of disappointment, the fish was absolutely tiny and the portion of chips, though clearly hand cut and fried, was very small. I shrugged it off, opting for the mind set of "if the food is good quality then this could still be a very nice meal." The chips did not disappoint, they were lovely, crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and tasted exactly how proper chips should taste. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the fish, not only was it very small, but the batter was quite thick, not at all crispy and didn't have much of a flavour at all. The fish its self had that fishy smell and taste that speaks of it being not particularly fresh, that said it was perfectly cooked. The peas were quite simply forgettable, slightly over cooked and over minted.
Overall not the best experience ever, not entirely great service, a lacklustre beer selection and food that simply did not live up to the price tag. There are better, cheaper places to eat in the local vicinity, though apparently it closes early on a Saturday.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Review: Cherry Tree Farm, Willington
Cherry Tree Farm
Etwall Rd, Willington DE65 6DX
From the outside this just looks like a run of the mill chain pub/carvery, a look that definitely caries through to the interior, that said the place is clean, tidy and seems fairly well looked after.
This is my mothers favourite place to eat out so I have visited on several occasions, unfortunately on almost every occasion something has let it down. During in the most recent visit the service was very slow, it took nearly 10 minutes to get served at the bar. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't the only person standing at it, then once I finally got served I had to send one of the drinks back because it tasted foul.
The menu actually has a fairly decent selection available, I chose a chilli burger with chips. After nearly an hour's wait the food finally arrived and the disappointingly frozen chips (how hard is it to hand cut and fry a potato?) had gone cold, the chilli had virtually no meat or beans in it, and the burger was so dry I had to buy another drink to wash it down. I brought my issues up with a staff member who didn't really seem to care and merely offered to take my plate away to replace the cold chips, I declined the offer as cold chips aren't as bad as a cold burger.
Overall a very disappointing experience, had it been a one off I would have been inclined to chalk it up to a bad day, but this was the third consecutive occasion that I've been disappointed by this place.
Etwall Rd, Willington DE65 6DX
From the outside this just looks like a run of the mill chain pub/carvery, a look that definitely caries through to the interior, that said the place is clean, tidy and seems fairly well looked after.
This is my mothers favourite place to eat out so I have visited on several occasions, unfortunately on almost every occasion something has let it down. During in the most recent visit the service was very slow, it took nearly 10 minutes to get served at the bar. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't the only person standing at it, then once I finally got served I had to send one of the drinks back because it tasted foul.
The menu actually has a fairly decent selection available, I chose a chilli burger with chips. After nearly an hour's wait the food finally arrived and the disappointingly frozen chips (how hard is it to hand cut and fry a potato?) had gone cold, the chilli had virtually no meat or beans in it, and the burger was so dry I had to buy another drink to wash it down. I brought my issues up with a staff member who didn't really seem to care and merely offered to take my plate away to replace the cold chips, I declined the offer as cold chips aren't as bad as a cold burger.
Overall a very disappointing experience, had it been a one off I would have been inclined to chalk it up to a bad day, but this was the third consecutive occasion that I've been disappointed by this place.
Friday, February 10, 2017
Review: The Staff of Life, Ticknall
The Staff of Life
7 High St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JH
Firstly this is a truly gorgeous pub, set in equally gorgeous surroundings, I loved the place before stepping through the door.
The inside is just as nice as the out, clean, tidy and tastefully decorated. The pub is separated into several cosy rooms, each furnished with chunky, rustic furniture that suits the pubs country ascetic. Only having a fairly small bar the pub has a limited selection of beers, however the ones it does have are good quality and well kept.
We went on a Sunday afternoon so I chose to have the 2 course set menu, I had soup of the day starter followed by a roast beef dinner. The soup was spiced parsnip and it was beautiful, nicely seasoned with a rich creamy flavour and served with warm bread and butter, genuine comfort food. The roast beef was served with roast potatoes, a large homemade Yorkshire pudding and plenty of proper beef gravy. The beef itself was locally sourced and really good quality, the potatoes were crisp but still nice and fluffy inside and the Yorkshire pudding was clearly homemade and just purely epic. The meal comes with a side of seasonal veg, which unfortunately was disappointing as it was overcooked, a bit flavourless and slightly cold.
Whilst the pudding menu looked amazing I was far too full to actually try one. Overall the experience was excellent, the food was good and the atmosphere in the pub was very welcoming. I am looking forward to going back during the week or on a Saturday to enjoy the standard daily menu.
7 High St, Ticknall, Derby DE73 7JH
Firstly this is a truly gorgeous pub, set in equally gorgeous surroundings, I loved the place before stepping through the door.
The inside is just as nice as the out, clean, tidy and tastefully decorated. The pub is separated into several cosy rooms, each furnished with chunky, rustic furniture that suits the pubs country ascetic. Only having a fairly small bar the pub has a limited selection of beers, however the ones it does have are good quality and well kept.
We went on a Sunday afternoon so I chose to have the 2 course set menu, I had soup of the day starter followed by a roast beef dinner. The soup was spiced parsnip and it was beautiful, nicely seasoned with a rich creamy flavour and served with warm bread and butter, genuine comfort food. The roast beef was served with roast potatoes, a large homemade Yorkshire pudding and plenty of proper beef gravy. The beef itself was locally sourced and really good quality, the potatoes were crisp but still nice and fluffy inside and the Yorkshire pudding was clearly homemade and just purely epic. The meal comes with a side of seasonal veg, which unfortunately was disappointing as it was overcooked, a bit flavourless and slightly cold.
Whilst the pudding menu looked amazing I was far too full to actually try one. Overall the experience was excellent, the food was good and the atmosphere in the pub was very welcoming. I am looking forward to going back during the week or on a Saturday to enjoy the standard daily menu.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Review: The John Thompson, Ingleby
The John Thompson Inn & Brewery
Ingleby, Derby DE73 7HW
Another gorgeous pub in gorgeous surroundings. I was using this as a starting & finishing point for a country walk and thought it would be rude not to call in and have at least a pint before setting off. From the outside the pub looks like a proper country pub and I'm happy to say the inside is equally as charming and rustic. The pub actually has its own brewery so has a reasonable selection of small batch brewed beer available on tap, I opted for one of the pubs own brews and found it to be very pleasant indeed.
Ingleby, Derby DE73 7HW
Another gorgeous pub in gorgeous surroundings. I was using this as a starting & finishing point for a country walk and thought it would be rude not to call in and have at least a pint before setting off. From the outside the pub looks like a proper country pub and I'm happy to say the inside is equally as charming and rustic. The pub actually has its own brewery so has a reasonable selection of small batch brewed beer available on tap, I opted for one of the pubs own brews and found it to be very pleasant indeed.
Review: The Exeter Arms, Derby
The Exeter Arms
Exeter Pl, Derby DE1 2EU
This place is a diamond in the rough, the surrounding area of this pub is run down and somewhat grotty, please do not let this put you off. Step inside and you're almost in another world, this is an old, well loved and beautiful building with big old oak beams, open fires, cast iron stoves and gorgeous, chunky rustic furniture. Warm, friendly and bustling, yet somehow there's still an air of relaxation about the place.
The bar is small but well stocked with a decent selection of real ales, the staff really know how to keep bar, the beer is excellent. The food is second to none, the prices are ever so slightly higher than some of the other places in town, but trust me the quality of the food you're getting for your money is well worth it.
My friend and I shared 'The Chip Tank' chips topped with cheese, bacon, sausage, chorizo, black pudding and jalapenos, between us and we were both blown away. This is a massive portion of chips, that are clearly home made and are absolutely incredible. The toppings aren't just a small scattering on top of the chips, they're mixed in throughout, every chip is almost guaranteed to have some topping with it.
I am seriously impressed with this place and I really can't wait to go back and try some of their main menu and sample more of their ale, definitely, definitely worth a visit or several.
Exeter Pl, Derby DE1 2EU
This place is a diamond in the rough, the surrounding area of this pub is run down and somewhat grotty, please do not let this put you off. Step inside and you're almost in another world, this is an old, well loved and beautiful building with big old oak beams, open fires, cast iron stoves and gorgeous, chunky rustic furniture. Warm, friendly and bustling, yet somehow there's still an air of relaxation about the place.
The bar is small but well stocked with a decent selection of real ales, the staff really know how to keep bar, the beer is excellent. The food is second to none, the prices are ever so slightly higher than some of the other places in town, but trust me the quality of the food you're getting for your money is well worth it.
My friend and I shared 'The Chip Tank' chips topped with cheese, bacon, sausage, chorizo, black pudding and jalapenos, between us and we were both blown away. This is a massive portion of chips, that are clearly home made and are absolutely incredible. The toppings aren't just a small scattering on top of the chips, they're mixed in throughout, every chip is almost guaranteed to have some topping with it.
I am seriously impressed with this place and I really can't wait to go back and try some of their main menu and sample more of their ale, definitely, definitely worth a visit or several.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Summer Holidays
Ever since we first started seeing each other my partner and I have made it our goal to get away on holiday at least once a year, whether it be a weekend camping in the lake district or spending a week in Scotland staying with my partners grandparents. This year we decided to visit the south coast of Cornwall, Cornwall is somewhere both my partner and I have visited in the past and an area of the country we both love and feel at home in.
After spending some time searching the net and doing a little research into the local area we settled on a small cottage on the outskirts of Polperro, a quaint fishing town about 15 miles south of Bodmin. We chose Polperro because of its close proximity to main roads and because, despite being a fairly popular destination, it has managed to avoid becoming too over crowded and has maintained much of its ruggedness and charm. Over the last few years overcrowding has become increasingly more important to us as my partner and I have both noticed that we no longer have the patience for even fairly small crowds of people, this has led us to seek out smaller more remote areas and to appreciate the ruggedness of places such as Cornwall and the south west coast of Scotland.
Unfortunately our journey down was cursed with, the seemingly ever present, holiday traffic and ended up taking close to 10 hours, not arriving in Polperro until around 5pm, by which point my partner and I were both thoroughly fed up and quite tired. we dropped our stuff off at the cottage and basically headed straight out and walked down into town to find the sea in an effort to wind down a little after our long journey. All I can say is the town is beautiful, set in a steep sided valley with narrow winding streets lined on either side by tiny, stone built fisherman’s cottages, eventually opening out in a small harbour full of small working fishing boats. You can literally see the history of the place as you walk through the town, nothing much has really changed here for generations and nothing really needs to, the locals have worked hard to preserve their town and have adapted well to suit the modern world.
We decided to spend our first full day in Cornwall staying fairly locally and we only really ventured out on foot to explore more of the town and to check out where was good to eat and drink. Despite Polperro actually having several restaurants we discovered that some of the best food to be had was available in the local pubs, the pick of the bunch being the Blue Peter Inn, unfortunately on our first visit it was so busy I literally couldn’t fit through the door never mind make it to the bar to order drinks. We opted for a less busy pub at the other end of town called the Crumplehorn Inn and we were far from disappointed the building was gorgeous, they had a few local ales and ciders to chose from, the staff were friendly and the food was good quality pub grub. We spent a pleasant afternoon/evening drinking and generally winding down before heading back to the cottage to get an early night.
On our second day we decided to venture further afield and drove into Looe, a larger town a few miles away from Polperro. Whilst the town itself was fairly pretty, it was so crowded that my partner and I weren’t really enjoying being there and we left after just a short stay to look at a few gifts to bring back for our family. After Looe we moved on to Cawsand and Kingsand to explore and spend some time at the beach, it was lovely and a complete contrast to our experience in Looe.
Over the next few days we slowly visited several of the local towns and villages, spending a little while exploring and just soaking up the atmosphere. We found that although Cornwall is now massively touristy there are still some places that are just far enough off the path to retain their character and offer the relaxed, chilled out atmosphere that Cornwall has become well know for.
As we became aware that the week was drawing to a close we wanted to spend the last couple of days staying local and decided to couple up two great pleasures of mine, walking and beaches. Consulting a local map we noticed a small beach, called Talland Bay just a couple of miles away from town along the coastal path, packing up a day bag with beach essentials we set off. At first it seemed like a pleasant walk along a well trodden path but what we had failed to notice was that about half a mile along the path was mile long, very steep, uphill hike. It has been a long time since I last felt my calf muscles burn like that but it was worth it when we arrived, the beach was a lovely little bay surrounded by woodland and, apart from a few surfers, was practically deserted. We spent a couple of hours on the beach before it really started to get busy, about 50 metres back from where we were sitting, set into the trees was a small car park and a cafe serving snacks and drinks, we treated ourselves to a glass of homemade lemonade and some Cornish ice cream before braving the trek back in reverse and having to re-climb the hill. Arriving back in town mid afternoon we called into a small shop selling a wide range of local beers, ciders and mead to stock up for the evening. We spent it getting pleasantly drunk on mead and cider whilst playing a couple of games of scrabble, which I lost.
Friday morning had arrived and we were acutely aware that it was our last full day before journeying back the following morning, setting out early, we headed for the village of Lansallos were my partner had read was a little known beach. Being only a few miles from Polperro and knowing it was considerably smaller we weren’t really aware of what to expect. What we found was possibly the most picturesque village either of us had ever seen, really there was just a handful of small stone built houses, a gorgeous old church and acres of farm land. After a parking up and walking for a couple of minutes we found the path down to the beach, a small woodland foot path, about a mile long, that looked more like something out of a fantasy novel than real life. When we arrived at the beach we found it was largely pebbles but got sandier as you got closer to the sea, it was set back in a truly gorgeous bay hidden by steep sided cliffs on either side. For the first hour or so we were literally the only people there and it was lovely, the sea was totally clear and I braved going topless so I could have a swim. We had been there for around 3 hours before the beach started to get anywhere near busy and it was at about this time we decided to leave and headed back to Polperro for some lunch. Earlier in the week we had decided to make another visit to the Blue Peter Inn when it would hopefully be less busy and Friday lunch time seemed perfect. Being situated right on the harbour, and having sea views out of literally every window, the Blue Peter Inn is a proper local pub, a rare breed these days, offering a good selection of cornish ales and ciders with genuinely friendly staff and a really relaxed atmosphere. The really surprising thing about the Blue Peter Inn is the food, its all good hearty, home cooked fare and quite frankly its awesome. I had a seafood platter consisting of local smoked mackerel, battered haddock chunks, Cornish crab meat, scallops and squid and my partner had battered haddock chunks with chips and bread. As the plates came out from the kitchen they looked incredible, you could clearly see that everything on them had been prepared by hand and was freshly cooked, not a frozen chip in site. I am a lover of fish and I have eaten a lot of it from many different places and this was one of the best plates of fish I’ve ever had (I think only the Magpie in Whitby actually beats it). I really can’t give this pub enough praise, I’ve never seen a place that can offer the real pub feel and experience yet still get the food so right. You so often get one or the other but very rarely get both, it was an excellent way to end an amazing holiday.
As the following morning rolled around both my partner and myself were very sad to leave, we really didn’t want to say goodbye to a place we’d both enjoyed so much. We will definitely be visiting again at some point in the future.
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