I was on a bank holiday weekend forest getaway with friends, and we were looking for a traditionally hearty pub lunch on Saturday at one of the cute towns nearby. This place delivered on that, though with one major flaw in the execution - that being the 75-minute wait between ordering and food arriving. Thankfully we'd adopted a go-with-the-flow approach to making fixed plans for the weekend so were in no hurry, though the wait was quite ridiculous given half the group had salads!
There's a convenient (and free!) car park directly opposite which was helpful. Being a group of 11 we'd called ahead in the morning to book a table for 2.30pm, and the place was largely empty when we arrived with just a few people at the bar. The front area near the entrance was a lot nicer and lighter than the fairly plain back area where we were seated, but I don't think it was quite big enough to accommodate us.
We ordered at the bar in 2s and 3s then settled in for what was to be a long wait. Luckily our excitement at escaping the big city for the weekend carried us through, and at one point my mate actually had to shush us just to show how loudly we were talking and laughing which drew a few stares... oops.
Eventually the food appeared and I'd say 95% of my meal was delicious - a generous portion of oven-baked lasagne with a fresh salad side. Sadly the edges of the lasagne dish were burnt to a blackened crisp though so I couldn't really eat the final 5%. Elsewhere the gammon steak looked tasty but very fatty, the scampi got a seal of approval, and chunky easily won over skinny in the chips contest. Service was very friendly, it's just a shame they had nothing to actually serve us for over an hour!
Overall an ok choice - better if you're a small party and can sit in the sunshine near the front. Otherwise, you might want to take a book. read more