Devonshire Arms, Pilsley, Derbyshire

It can get very confusing round these parts if someone suggests dining at the Devonshire Arms. On the night we completed the sale of my house in Wakefield I wanted to celebrate with dinner at this Devonshire, it being game season and this being a speciality of theirs, but sadly they were full. So we tried to call this Devonshire instead, I'd enjoyed a meal there before so it seemed like a good alternative, but they weren't answering the phone. Maybe we got the wrong number and tried to call this Devonshire, or maybe this one. Who knows?

All was not lost, as we ended up at this Devonshire instead. Panic over. The Devonshire Arms in Pilsley is the pubbier sister to the Devonshire Arms in Beeley, just a few miles across the Chatsworth estate. Both are run by the mini-empire controlled by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire themselves (which in case you were wondering also includes Yorkshire's Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey, and the Devonshire Fell at nearby Burnsall. Must have had a crisis of confidence with that last one. What's wrong with Arms all of a sudden?).

You can tell when you're in a proper Devonshire with aristocratic proprietors, as within five minutes or so of arriving you're bound to see the Duke and Duchess posing on some piece of literature or other, looking all patrician yet welcoming, like a sort of friendlier local royal family. I imagine this is what the Queen's descendants will be doing a century hence, when we've finally gone Republican and you can't travel 50 yards in Berkshire or Norfolk without stumbling upon another Windsor Arms.

I digress. Whatever your views on the future of the monarchy (for some reason the debate never seems to run to whether or not they'd make a killing in the hospitality business) and the aristocracy the Devonshires generally oversee a pretty good quality operation.

The Pilsley outpost was a case in point. Solid, very accomplished pub grub, not at the gastro end of the spectrum, but very much in the traditional sense.

I considered leaving the photos off this post, as everything looks weirdly rubbish, more wacky warehouse two-for-one in appearance than the enjoyable, well cooked meal it actually was. We shared a bowl of garlic mushrooms to start. A big bowl of sauteed mushrooms swimming in loads of creamy, garlicky goodness. The work of five minutes by a ten year old (theoretically, I'm not suggesting they're exploiting children) in the kitchen, but if it ain't broke.... Just one minor quibble though, the bread could have been fresher.

For reasons I can't quite fathom I ordered the mixed grill. I can't recall ever having done this before, ever (maybe in a Wetherspoon's about fifteen years ago?). I love meat but have limits, and the mixed grill always seems the preserve of men with a death wish. I can remember watching a particularly portly fellow working his way through a humongous one in a pub in Lancashire once, increasingly clammy and red-faced, washing it down with pints of bitter. I'm convinced he didn't make it through the night, dead within hours to a massive coronary on the can, Elvis style.

Anyway that's the mental picture I associate with the mixed grill, so you can imagine my surprise when I accidentally ordered the bugger. You know what? I'm glad I did. Every piece of meat was cooked just right, with a nice bit of char on the outside and deep blush pink, where warranted, on the inside. There was a sausage, a well hung beefsteak, a lamb chop, and gammon and pork steaks. Only the latter, the boring one of the bunch, defeated me.

Chips and salad were proper, in that the chips had crunch (don't trust the pasty appearance on the pic) and were their own, and that the salad was lots of stuff mixed up together with a lively mustard dressing. A completely unnecessary side order of onion rings (it was A's fault, she's pregnant. Don't blame me) were the kind that you could happily eat all evening.

Not wanting to push my luck with that death wish, we retreated, thoroughly satisfied, without pudding. It hadn't been Plan A, but the Pilsley Devonshire came up with the goods. Prices are probably on the high side for normal pub food, but fine when you consider the quality. I'd rather pay £12-16 for an enjoyable plateful than the £8-12 dross that so many of the places round here offer. Orders are taken at the bar, so there wasn't really much in the way of service to speak of. They fetched the food and cleared the tables.

Would I go again? Yes, definitely. Another mixed grill? Probably not.

8/10

On the Chatsworth Estate
Pilsley
Derbyshire
DE45 1UL

http://www.devonshirepilsley.co.uk/

The Gray Ox Inn, Hartshead, West Yorkshire

The Gray Ox is a Gastro Pub. If you're not a fan of the term that's their description not mine. It's a fair enough one though, as the food here is typical of the genre, good without being great, competent and safe enough to keep the regulars happy.

At lunch there are sandwiches as well as a full menu. I opted for the starter with a side combo, going for mussels mariniere and chips. They were plump, grit free mussels in a broth that was more-ishly slurpable as it should be. The chips were fine, certainly hand cut as described, though verging on chunky when I always think thinner are better.

Others had the sandwiches, home made fish finger getting the thumbs up but I wouldn't have been happy with the roast beef. I tried one of these and it was actually a steak sandwich with tough, greying meat that was overcooked by some margin.

The best bit of my meal was a lovely apple and winter berry crumble. Tart fruit, a rich buttery crumb and proper custard (aka creme anglaise) on the side, albeit in miniscule quantities. Two questions sprung to mind though. Firstly, are there any winter berries or does that just mean 'frozen berries'? Secondly, why do all pubs prefixed with 'gastro' serve all sauces in inadequate quantities? See also gravy.

Prices are par for the course (starters around five to eight quid, mains through the teens, puddings around six pounds) and service was good. We weren't hurried at all despite faffing around and not ordering pudding until well into the middle of the afternoon.

I'd be chuffed to bits to have a pub like this in walking distance of my house, but I wouldn't make a special trip.

7/10


15 Hartshead Lane
Hartshead
Liversedge
WF15 8AL

http://www.grayoxinn.co.uk 

The Old Red Lion, Grenoside, Sheffield

The idea of having a proper local pub always appeals. A regular haunt, nothing fancy required, just reliably good beer and food. Somewhere you can rock up any night of the week for an impromptu pint or pie, safe in the knowledge you won't be disappointed. 

It doesn't sound like a big ask, but if, like me, you never end up living in the leafy, fashionable or well-to-do suburbs, it can be a challenge. Live in Dulwich, Chorlton or Chapel Allerton and this mission ought to be straightforward. Try Woolwich, Sale or Outwood and you might struggle. 

Now that I'm residing on the north side of Sheffield the challenge starts anew. The Old Red Lion would just about fit the bill, so it's a shame it's not quite within walking distance.

It looks like a traditional village pub, but the food on offer is a little more ambitious. There's a menu of pub classics, pitched around the ten or twelve quid mark, and a fixed price menu at £23 for two courses. We thought we'd try the pub grub first time around then return for the more upmarket stuff at a later date if it was any good.

On the face of it the beef, mushroom and ale pie ticked every one of my 'dislike' boxes. China bowl of stew with a pastry lid rather than an actual pie: check. Jenga chips: check. Another annoying china bowl with not enough peas in it: check.

Putting my prejudices aside I got stuck in and what do you know, it was really good. Tender beef and fat slices of earthy mushroom in a thin but well-flavoured broth encased in short, delicate pastry. Peas that were a lot better than they looked and competent chips.

AS had the rump steak, a decent enough piece of meat that was accurately cooked, a feat beyond most pubs. A side of onion rings were fine specimens, hot, crunchy and more-ish. I enjoyed them so much I'm even prepared to forgive the great big pointless tomato, which was big, pointless and not great.

That return visit is definitely on the cards, there's a partridge dish with my name on it. Were it half a mile closer to home The Old Red Lion could be my local, as it is I'm still on the lookout. Any good pubs in Oughtibridge?

7/10

210 Main Street

Grenoside

Sheffield

S35 8PR

Please note: Don't mistake this place for the other Red Lion in Grenoside on the A61, which is a bit crap.

http://www.restaurantgrenoside.co.uk/

Whitelock's, Leeds

It's getting a lot of attention at the moment is Whitelock's, and rightly so. I'll spare you the blather about it being a Leeds institution, the grand history of the place and so forth, plenty of others have and will do that better than me.

On a personal note I don't have any great memories of the place having been in there just a handful of times in the fifteen years since I first darkened the door of a Leeds pub. I do like a good pub though, and I like to see a pub with a hinterland thriving, so I was keen to pay a visit as soon as I heard the guys from London's Mason and Taylor had taken over.

On the face of it nothing much has changed. It looks the same, and pleasingly has retained a very mixed clientele. There were all sorts in there at teatime a week last Saturday, and there was a happy buzz about the place.

The aim is clearly evolution, not revolution. There's a new menu and an extended beer range, but much more in a traditional pub vein rather than the full on modern beer bar approach.

We drank pints of something local and pale, I can't remember what but it was well kept and quaffable. There was also an impressive rhubarb beer (Saison?) from Ilkley Brewery.

To eat, a burger was a bit of a monster, the highlight being a thick, juicy patty cooked to medium with properly melted cheese in a good quality bun.

I wasn't such a fan of everything else on the plank though, the fat chips being undercooked in parts, the salad limp and the onion rings a little greasy. I did like the blobs of slaw or remoulade or whatever the hell it was though. I shan't bang about the fact it all arrived on a plank, other than to say it irritated me as usual.

The burger was good value at under a tenner for a very substantial meal, and I enjoyed it even if the accompaniments needed some work. Whitelock's is very much a pub of course, and drinking remains centre stage. I'd say they've got the place back on track towards being a great drinker's pub where it's worth staying for dinner too. I'll definitely be returning to see how things progress.

7/10

Turks Head Yard
Leeds
LS1 6HB

http://www.whitelocksleeds.com/

The Castlebar, Ealing, London

I'm writing this for one reason, and one reason only: a damn fine burger.

The Castlebar isn't the most attractive of pubs. It was the night that Poland played Russia and the outdoor drinking area was noisy, windswept and more than a little bleak. TV commentary vied with Eastern European chanting and the Uxbridge Road traffic for aural supremacy. Loud was an understatement, conversation nigh on impossible.

Table service, friendly and efficient once someone's attention had finally been caught, was a bonus, but the beer selection was uninspired. I wasn't in the best of moods. RP persuaded me that the food was worth ordering. I remained unconvinced.

Sturdy cutlery and starched white napery arrived after we'd ordered, incongruous placed on the bench seating with the backdrop of football bedlam. A sign of the quality to come.

The burger was excellent. A thick, exceedingly juicy patty, served medium, with a defined beefy flavour. The supporting bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo were spot on too, though I'd have ditched the few rocket leaves that had also found their way in there. The bun held up to the challenge, in spite of the succulence, and the fries were plentiful.

The burger cost around a tenner, and was well worth it. On a warm night, with a football match of interest, I'd have loved the place I'm sure.

8/10 for the burger
5/10 for the pub

The Castlebar
84 Uxbridge Road
West Ealing
London W13


http://www.facebook.com/TheCastleBarEaling

Northern Food on tour: Scotland round-up

Nothing we ate on our recent trip to Scotland was as exciting as our dinner at Wedgwood, but we didn't do badly. Here's what else we ate.

Espresso Mondo, Edinburgh

A late lunch on arrival in Edinburgh. The cafe was a bit scruffy but they had a nice line in loose leaf teas and coffee.

They made a nice brew but the food was less successful. A chicken panino with peppers, pesto and mozarella wasn't great. The chicken tasted low grade and processed and the accompanying salad was boring. Whoever decided dribbling catering pack balsamic glaze onto tortilla chips was a good idea wants sacking too. Reasonably priced for Edinburgh.

5/10

116 Lothian Road
Edinburgh
EH3 9BE


Paperino's, West End, Glasgow

After the previous night's posh dinner we decided to lower the tone a little in Glasgow. Pizza and ice cream please!

The pizzas at Paperino's were pretty good, with a decent chewy-charred crust and quality toppings. The sausage on mine was lovely, coarse and spicy with loads of fennel.

Both of them were overtopped though. There is such thing as too much cheese and sausage on a pizza, there really is. Less can be more. Still, after scraping off some of the excess they went down a treat.

It's a quick, casual place, not really somewhere to linger but worth it for the pizza, for which prices are reasonable (around the £9 mark). Mark ups on side dishes and drinks let the side down though. £2.95 doesn't sound bad for a side salad, but it's poor for a side salad consisting of not very much of nothing remotely interesting, and a pint of Peroni shouldn't cost £4.65.

7/10 if you stick to pizza and tap water. Knock a point off if salad and booze is included.

227 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8UD

http://www.paperinos.co.uk/





Nardini's, West End, Glasgow

Thanks (I think) to a large Italian immigrant population, many of whom set up business in the catering industry back in the day, Scotland, and Glasgow in particular is well endowed with pizza restaurants, caffs serving proper coffee and ice cream parlours.

This is a novel concept to residents of Yorkshire cities, which last time I noticed weren't particularly well stocked with ice cream parlours (If I'm wrong please do tell), so we had to follow up the pizza with a ridiculous dirty great ice cream sundae.

I can't remember the name of this, but it comprised raspberry syrup, raspberries and vanilla ice cream topped with an unfeasibly large quantity of whipped cream with three chocolate marshmallow snowballs shoved in it, and an assortment of wafers. Ace.

I think it cost about £6, but it served two with ease. Although I think I had most of it.

8/10

215 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8UD

http://www.nardinis.co.uk/ 




Avenue G, West End, Glasgow

Excellent coffee. A flat white was up there with those from my favourite coffee shops. Exceptionally smooth with quite a pronounced bitterness. Somehow still balanced though, delicious.

Toasted brioche was ok but slightly let down by the cheap butter and jam it was served with. The sandwiches and cakes looked very good though.

£2.20 for the flat white. Similar for tea. Cakes around £3. Table service, efficient and friendly.

8/10

291 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8TL

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avenue-G-Caf%C3%A9-Glasgow/223293021018108




Curler's Rest, West End, Glasgow

I liked the look of the Curler's Rest, a tarted up pub on Byres Road. Bare wooden tables, plenty of space, a few good beers on draft, a pleasing enough but strangely familiar sounding menu.

Then I took a look at the website and discovered a new phenomenon. I'm calling it the 'stealth chain'. A pub run by a large corporation, with the same style and the same food as others run by the same large corporation. A chain pub. The difference being that said large corporation doesn't want you to know that it's a chain pub, because it's not aimed at people who like chain pubs.

I looked at the website (here it is: http://www.thecurlersrestglasgow.co.uk/food/) and immediately thought 'I've seen that before'.

Then I remembered: The Adelphi (http://www.theadelphileeds.co.uk/food/). AS thought it looked familiar too. Then she remembered: The Lescar (http://www.thelescarhuntersbar.co.uk/food/).

A couple of days later I was searching for somewhere good to eat in the vicinity of Waterloo station when I chanced upon the White Hart website: http://www.thewhitehartwaterloo.co.uk/food/.

So that's at least four not obviously chain pubs in four different cities spread over four hundred miles with virtually identical menus and the same photo of roast beef on their websites. Thanks Mitchells and Butlers you sly bastards.

Anyhow this is a subject to which I may return, but what of the food at the Curler's Rest? It started off wonderfully. After three courses with three wines, then pizza and ice cream, the last night of our break was supposed to be healthier. I accidentally couldn't resist ordering battered black pudding from the bar snacks list though. Oops.

It was worth the calories though. Nuggets of soft peppery pudding encased in a marvellously light crisp batter.

Things went rapidly downhill with the wild salmon fishcakes. They were alright, well flavoured but a bit claggy texture-wise. The accompanying salad was supposed to be little gem and beetroot, which it did contain, but not in such significant quantities as the other stuff that fell out of the salad bag (slightly slimy tasteless watercress mainly).

AS also had a salad; - halloumi, cous cous and whatnot in a spicy dressing. She liked it but it looked to be suffering from the same slimy salad affliction from where I was sitting.

We paid around £33 including a couple of alcoholic drinks each. The service was lovely.

6/10 (would have been less but for the black pudding)

256-260 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8SH

The Castle, Wakefield

Pub Sunday roasts are something of a rarity for me. I used to eat them all the time but was usually left with a sense of disappointment, stuffed to the gills but not really satisfied, so in recent years I've rather given up. One or more of the crucial elements always underwhelms (overcooked meat, undercooked roasties, overcooked veg, stale Yorkshires, you get the picture).

So two roast dinners in the pub in barely more than a month is highly unusual round these parts, could The Castle's roast platter for two (£11.95 each) do any better than The York?

The first things to note are the Yorkshire puddings! Look at them. They unnerved me a little, putting me in mind of The Blob. Fortunately I think the heat had killed them off before they had chance to escape the oven and wreak havoc, but I made completely sure by smothering the bastards in gravy and eating them.

I quite enjoyed eating them too, though they were just a trifle past their best, in the way that pre-cooked and reheated Yorkshires always are.

On to the meat, the pleasant but not overly exciting triumvirate of beef, pork and turkey. Why no lamb? Why? Because you can roast half a tonne of boring turkey breast at minimal cost and with even less effort I suppose. Lamb is always a trickier prospect for volume catering. When will they invent a cow-sized sheep? Come on science, must try harder.

The turkey was predictably dull, the beef better, and the pork a pleasant surprise. Cut in thick slices from (I think) a rolled loin it was moist, packed with flavour and the best of the three by far.

The vegetables didn't disappoint being neither underdone (roast potatoes) nor over (everything else) and they also hid a little bonus cluster of pigs in blankets, which pleasingly were not made with lowest common denominator sausages. The whole lot held together well with a competent gravy, supplied separately in a jug of generous proportions.

We shared a pudding, which was a good job as it was gargantuan, a rhubarb and apple crumble (£5.50) easily suited for two. The crumble was a little bit dusty, more butter please, but the filling was good. Not overly sweetened, letting the tartness of the fruit shine through and mingle well with the creamy custard.

I enjoyed this. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but the good things outweighed the bad. The bill came to around £35 including soft drinks and service.

7/10

343 Barnsley Road
Wakefield
WF2 6AS

http://www.thecastlewakefield.co.uk

London and South-East round-up: the not so good, the bad and the ugly

I thought I might as well balance things out with a report on the less than inspiring things I ate down South last weekend. It's not all amazing street food and wonderful sourdough pizzas down there you know.

The George, Gravesend

This was actually better than expected. It's a pub attached to a Premier Inn which usually means crap food. The George seems to have retained some semblance of independence though, offering a Sunday carvery which isn't the norm for Whitbread establishments. Carvery is usually a byword crap food as well though, so it was almost a pleasant surprise.

The beef was dessicated and flavourless, but the turkey, hidden beneath its leathery cloak of cow, was much better, moist and tasty. None of the vegetables were overdone, a welcome change to the regular carvery mush. Good gravy and a passable Yorkshire too.

Sponge pudding and custard for afters wasn't bad either. Overlook the beef and all in all a satisfying enough meal.

6/10

Hever Court Road
Singlewell
Gravesend
DA12 5UQ


Wagamama, Windsor

Sometimes I hate Wagamama, but after a visit to the Windsor branch I left feeling generally positive about the place.

When I'm in hating Wagamama mode I tend to dwell on how average much of the food is, and how if you're in most UK cities the same dishes can be had elsewhere, executed better and for less money.

I was probably liking Wagamama on this occasion for two reasons, firstly I had one of the dishes they're better at, chicken chilli ramen. In my experience there's a sliding scale at Wagamama that goes something like this:

Noodle soups = not bad, can be quite satisfying
fried noodle dishes = ok
fried rice dishes = just about ok
curries etc = awful

My bowl of ramen was quite satisfying, it hit the spot on a cold day. Nice bouncy noodles too.

The second reason was the presence in our group of four young children (in the under 1 to nearly 4 range). They've really got the family angle covered in there, there were crayons and colouring pads and beginner chopsticks all over the place, which generally made for a festive and entertaining lunch.

I want some of those beginners chopsticks in adult size though please. They're like normal chopsticks but fatter and with a little hinge to join them together so they kind of form chopstick style grabbing tongs. All the better for eating more noodles at once I say.

6/10

31 High Street
Windsor
SL4 1PH


The Kingfisher, Chertsey

Things are heading downhill now. I had the burger here (£8.95) and there wasn't a huge amount right with it.

The patty itself was the high point, generously proportioned and formed from good quality beef. But it was overcooked and the cheese on top wasn't even remotely melted suggesting it had been added some time after the burger finished cooking and the bun was dry and the chips were average at best.

Other dishes of calves liver, steak and another burger were respectively overcooked, not bad at all and no idea because it never turned up after an exceedingly long wait so we got bored and cancelled it.

Not much in the way of beer choice either. A distinctly mediocre pub.

4/10

The Kingfisher
Chertsey Bridge Road
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 8LF


Frankie and Benny's, Rochester

I can't recall ever having been to a Frankie and Benny's before so in a moment of retail park madness with a work colleague I thought we'd give it a try. Rest assured it's as crap as you might expect.

A louisiana wrap was a large flour tortilla stuffed with some low grade chicken that was more mushy, bready chicken coating than actual chicken, alongside some bits of iceberg and an awful lot of red onion, the whole lot doused in far too much of a one-note vinegary, hot sauce. A bit like Frank's hot sauce with the heat and acidity, but without the flavour.

The chips were weird and undercooked. It cost six quid. Couldn't fault the friendly chap who served us though, so he got his tip.

3/10

Medway Valley Park
Rochester
ME5 2SS


Côte, Ealing

Another chain, another disappointment. I've eaten at a Côte before and quite enjoyed it, so I did expect better. Breakfast this time. I wanted eggs but not a fry-up. The breakfast menu at Côte had just what I was after.

Sadly when it arrived it wasn't just what I was after anymore. It's not a complicated thing, Eggs Royale, but I do think it needs quality ingredients and accurate execution otherwise it will be minging. It was minging.

The salmon and bagel were inoffensive but basic, like if you bought the cheapest available version of each in the supermarket. One of the eggs was woefully underdone and leaked raw liquid white over everything as I cut into it. The hollandaise was ok but what with the greasy salmon and egg juice it was like eating a great big pile of cholesterol slop.

I didn't bother sending it back because I didn't really fancy another plateful even if the eggs were right. £8.10 for the meal but by the time a small coffee and 12.5% for the (confused) service had been added that had become £12.64. Shit.

2/10

9-10 The Green
Ealing
London
W5 5DA

Town Hall Tavern, Leeds

Saturday was one of those great days when everything goes to plan. Even better than that, it was one of those days when the plan lives up to expectations.

The big event was a night on the town to celebrate a couple of birthdays and the visit of a friend who emigrated to New Zealand a few years back, the centrepiece of which was an absolute belter of a meal at Red Chilli. You can order a rather large quantity of delicious Sichuan food when there's fourteen of you round the table. Three blog posts about Red Chilli in just a few months is probably overdoing it though, so I'll just say this: it's bloody brilliant.

Lunch earlier in the day was just as successful. After a refurbishment last year the Town Hall Tavern was re-opened as a gastropub (their description) by Timothy Taylor's. The gastropub description is fair in this case, as it's very much a proper pub with good food as opposed to a restaurant in disguise. Drinkers are definitely welcome.

The menu is a standard gastropub sort of affair, pub classics set alongside some more ambitious sounding dishes. There's also a list of pick-n-mix sharing plates all priced at a very reasonable £1.95. It was from this list that I ordered a pig's cheek scotch egg which got things off to a wonderful start.

Oooh this was good. I could eat one (read several) right now. A lovely greaseless crunchy crumb encasing dense shreds of moist, soft flesh and a perfectly cooked, runny yolked quails egg. We ordered nothing more from the snacks menu, but if the rest of it's as good as this an evening of superior Yorkshire tapas and ale is going to be in order very soon.

Ale roasted gammon, sorrel croquettes and wilted greens (£8.95) was equally accomplished. The chef here is obviously a dab hand with the deep fat fryer as the croquettes were as well cooked as the scotch egg. The same crust this time filled with a velvety, slightly oniony (or possibly leeky) potato filling. I couldn't taste the advertised sorrel though, which I suspect is like basil in that it rapidly loses its fragrance when exposed to heat.

The gammon was a thick chunk of porky goodness, not overly salty and a good match with the crunchy/smooth texture contrast and mild flavour of the croquettes. The jug contained a generous quantity of decent gravy presumably made from ham bone stock.

I wasn't quite convinced by the burger across the table, as the patty was a little overcooked. An option on the cooking level would be good as it tasted like good quality meat and would have been far better served pink. Apart from sticking to theme of using Yorkshire produce I also can't see any point in using Wensleydale here. It really isn't a very good burger cheese.

Most of what we ate at the Town Hall Tavern was excellent, and the prices are great for the standard of cooking and presentation. You'd pay a similar price for gammon slung on a plate with frozen chips and frozen peas at many other pubs. I wish they would serve everything on plates here though, the penchant for serving food on anything flat that isn't a plate just irritates me. Maybe that's just me though? But really, why would you want your burger to arrive on a massive chopping board? Why?

Minor gripes aside, I loved it here. The service was good, the food was good and it would be a great little pub to drink in too. I'll be back.

8/10

17 Westgate
Leeds
LS1 2RA

www.townhalltavernleeds.co.uk

Mr Foley's Cask Ale House, Leeds (revisited)

FREEBIE ALERT

I wasn't going to blog about this, but then I thought that seemed a little unfair. I wrote about the handful of other free meals (declared as free of course) I was offered last year, so why not this one?

Tyler, the Chef at Mr Foley's, kindly invited me down to sample his fish and chips. He's been trying out different batter recipes and wanted an enthusiast to offer an opinion. So here it is.

Very good indeed. Crisp light batter, well browned on the exterior but encasing a nicely cooked piece of fish. Not the finest piece of haddock ever but the pub is restricted to certain suppliers by group management, so they can't just go down the market and choose what they like.

The chips, which are triple cooked, are fantastic. A good crunch giving way to lovely fluffy, creamy innards. They're extremely more-ish which is good as portions are generous. A lot of effort goes into triple cooked chips (slice, parboil, drain, cool, fry, drain, cool, fry again, all over the space of some hours) and I'd be surprised if you'll find them anywhere else in Leeds at this price point (this meal costs £7.50).

Also on the plate were garden peas and home-made tartare sauce. The sauce was spot on, delivering a good hit of acidity which is what you need to cut through the fattiness of the batter and chips. I often find home-made tartare sauces to be too creamy with not enough of the vinegary stuff, not so with this.

All in all this is really good pub food, priced reasonably, with all the key components made with care on the premises. You don't get that very often.

The Cross Keys, Holbeck, Leeds

I've been meaning to check out The Cross Keys for ages, and finally ended up in there twice in one weekend. Friday night was beers only, then I returned on Monday for a bank holiday lunch. The lunch menu comprises sandwiches and a handful of mains, less ambitious than the evening menu but still sounding a cut above your average pub grub.

A rare skirt steak sandwich with caramelised onions for me, and a Gloucester Old Spot bacon and brie sandwich for my dining companion. Chips to share.

The steak in my sandwich was spot on, rare as described with a rich, almost gamey taste. It was a bit chewy but I like that sometimes and it's exactly what you'd expect with skirt. The only problem with this was that the bread wasn't really up to the task . It was very soft, cut thickly from a good quality white sandwich loaf, and disintegrated rapidly. Something a bit sturdier to stand up to the steak would have been better. I wasn't keen on the caramelised onions, as they were far too sweet for my taste. Good sides though, both coleslaw and salad being nicely dressed.

The chips were excellent, probably the best pub chips I've eaten this year. At a guess they'd been at least double, or possibly even triple fried given the perfect texture (outer crunch and inner creaminess). The bacon and brie sandwich was declared satisfactory, but warm bacon would have been preferred.

As with Friday's visit table service was provided for drinks as well as food. The guy serving was friendly and efficient. The bill was just over twenty quid including a drink each and a tip. A return visit to sample the evening menu is definitely on the cards.

7/10

107 Water Lane
Leeds
LS11 5WD


http://www.the-crosskeys.com/

New Mason's Arms, Oulton, Leeds

Last Sunday brought an impromptu pub crawl round Oulton and Rothwell. One of my closest friends has lived in Rothwell for 8 years and this was the first time we've ever explored it's pubs. Long overdue but other than for a quick pub lunch I can't say we'll be rushing back to any of them.

The New Mason's does traditional pub grub, very much along the same lines as the Three Horseshoes round the corner. Grilled meats and chips aplenty are the order of the day. I opted for the steak pie, primarily because the menu description confirmed it as being made with shortcrust pastry. I have an aversion to the all too common ceramic-bowl-of-stew-with-a-puff-pastry-lid type of pie served by many pubs. It's not a proper pie and puff pastry is the wrong type of pastry for a steak pie. Stop it.

Shit pie, good chips

Unfortunately what turned up was a ceramic-bowl-of-stew-with-a-shortcrust-pastry-lid. Not very good shortcrust pastry either. Limp, insipid and undercooked, I'm not sure a few extra minutes in the oven would have really improved it much though as it was very dense. On the plus side the stewy filling was good, packed with shreds of flavoursome slow-cooked meat. The chips were great too, home-made and fried well.

Chips and beer, commonly found in Yorkshire pubs

Everyone else around the table declared their meals (a Barnsley chop and a nice piece of gammon amongst other things) a success, so I think I was a bit unlucky. No excuse for such poor pastry though. A pint of black sheep was well kept and prices are reasonable, the pie was around £8.

Thanks to Rach for suggesting this place to me, I'd certainly go back for a pub lunch. Sandwich, chips and a pint springs to mind. Just don't order the pie.

5/10 (poor pie, other things may rate higher)

26 Aberford Road
Oulton
Leeds
LS26 8JR

The Garden Gate, Hunslet, Leeds

When I first heard about the existence of the Garden Gate I was intrigued. A pub built in 1903 in lavish style, with ornate woodwork, glazed tiling, mosaic floors, etched glass windows and more, all spread over four separate rooms in a solid, brick building. All of this still in situ in 2011 in all its period splendour. And to think this has been hidden away in the middle of a housing estate behind Hunslet Morrison's and I never even knew it was there. Many times over the last decade or so I've bought lunch from that supermarket, and on occasion dined in one of the pubs in the locale (the Punch Clock anyone?), and all the while I had no inkling of the existence of the Garden Gate.

After several years of decline under the ownership of Punch Taverns (no great surprise there), Leeds Brewery bought the pub in July 2010 and set about restoring it to former glories. On the evidence of my first visit today, they are succeeding. The whole building really is a site to behold, I can't think of a pub that rivals it for interesting, historic pub features other than perhaps the Marble Arch in Manchester. Now Grade II listed, English Heritage remarked that ‘the level of intactness throughout is unusually high, and nationally very rare’. A truly fantastic place for a couple of pints, in fact I'd possibly suggest a four pint in-house crawl, downing one in each of the rooms.

Back on topic the original intention of this post was to review the food. My other blog about the architecture and design history of public houses will have to wait. There's a menu of basic pub staples, very cheap at around a fiver each or two for eight quid. My mate and I both opted for the cheeseburger, which unfortunately was rubbish. The burger was a solid, greying, low quality affair, not particularly nice at all. The salad, bun and cheese were ok but that hardly compensates for the crappy meat. Chips were of the bog standard frozen variety.

So in summary, the pub is splendid but probably best stick to the drinks. The food will soak up the booze for not much money, but offer little more. To be fair to Leeds Brewery this may be all the punters want. The pub is hardly in a great location for attracting diners or passing trade. I know they serve good food elsewhere too, having had a really good burger (admittedly at twice the cost) at Pin earlier in the year. Hopefully in time the food can be upgraded a notch or two as more people make the effort to visit this gem of a pub .


9/10 for the pub, 4/10 for the food.

3 Whitfield Place
Hunslet
Leeds
LS10 2QB

http://www.gardengateleeds.co.uk/

The Crown, Rochester

Dinner and drinks with three work colleagues last Tuesday night. My department is scattered all around the country so we don't often get to meet up and put the world to rights over a few beers. On the odd occasion that we do it's usually in Leeds or Kent. This time it was Kent's turn so we thought we'd give Rochester a try.

Very few of the pubs on the high street seemed to contain any diners, so we sort of ended up at the Crown by default as it's at the end of the road. The menu covered all the standard pub stuff, but the handwritten specials board and numerous signs proclaiming their status as a Freehouse suggested that perhaps they were making an effort. They weren't.

Things started to go badly with the non-arrival of a starter. All of the mains arrived, but no sign of the one starter that had been ordered. The following conversation ensued:

'Excuse me, we ordered a calamari starter' said I.
'oh yeah, it's just in the lift' said the waitress.
'err but it's a starter' said I.
'Did you order it as a starter?' she queried.
'well it was ordered from the section of the menu headed 'Starters', I ordered it before the main course, and asked for it 'to start' I explained.
'Oh well it's here',  she replied, a touch indignant by this stage as if she was thinking 'well we didn't forget it entirely so what's the problem'.
'You'd best bring it out then.'

That was that. And what had just arrived in front of me. This:

Steak and ale pie with mash and veg. I really need to have a rant about the mash. It was the most unpleasant thing I have been served in a long time. It tasted of starchy water and had the texture of lumpy wallpaper paste. This is not an exaggeration. I can only assume it was some sort of Smash. If it was made from actual potatoes then fuck knows how they managed to create that texture. None of the rest was actively vile, in that you could eat it. You probably wouldn't want to, but you could. The vegetables were overcooked, the pastry was undercooked and the gravy was congealed budget Bisto. The chunks of meat in the pie were ok, but there weren't many of them. This cost a tenner.

Two of us had steaks (one in a mixed grill, one in a surf and turf). Both were cooked way beyond the level requested (medium) to a uniform grey throughout. And finally this:

which is belly pork. Allegedly. First time I've ever seen belly pork served in a thin slice covered in packet gravy and half cooked onions before. My friend couldn't identify what it was, but she didn't think it was pork. This cost thirteen pounds, and was from the 'Specials' board.

The waitress did come over to ask if everything was ok. We'd pretty much given up by that point. I told her that no, it was horrible. She said she would go and inform the chef. We hung around for a while to see whether this would elicit some sort of response (an apology, free drinks, anything??). It didn't. We left.

The next pub we were about to stop off at was in the process of having its drains cleaned. It stank. We headed back to the safety of Wetherspoons, which had a great selection of ales on, and on the basis of this admittedly small sample is probably the best pub in town.


2/10

The Crown Freehouse

2 High Street

Rochester

Kent

ME1 1PT

http://www.thecrownrochester.co.uk/

The Mark Addy, Salford

I've been planning a trip to the Mark Addy for some time now, as intermittent glances at the menu on the website have had me salivating for months. Friday was pretty much the last window of opportunity before I move back over the hills to Yorkshire. I'll still be in Manchester from time to time, but far less frequently in future.

Four of us stopped off for lunch, midway through a tour of some of Manchester's finest hostelries as a way of bidding farewell to my home for the last year. As chance would have it, the Mark Addy has been getting a lot of coverage of late, with reviews from Jay Rayner in the Observer and Sarah on the North West Nosh blog. Both of those two gave the menu a more thorough going over than we did, so I'll try to keep my thoughts relatively brief and point you in their direction for a more detailed review and a bit of background about the place.

First up we ordered various bits and pieces to share with a couple of pints. I can't remember what we drank, other than that it was ale, and very well kept. Homemade pork scratchings were spot on, with just the right blend of crunch and softer fatty bits.

 
Spam fritters were also crunchy, piggy and lovely, and came dressed with brown sauce and ketchup. I don't think they used actual spam though, which seemed a little strange (unless they cut it into semi-circular pieces).

 
Welsh rarebit was intensely cheesy, but just the one small slice seemed a little stingy for £5.50.

For the main meal two of us ended up having scallops and black pudding starters and a shared side of chips with tarragon sauce. Both scallops and pudding were high quality and cooked just right. The chips were very good but the tarragon in the sauce was barely detectable.

 
The other two had roast beef sandwiches which looked great, stuffed with generous amounts of pink meat. Feedback was positive.

We sat on the riverside terrace, which really is a splendid place to be on a sunny afternoon. Don't be put off by the less than pleasant entrance to the pub which requires you to pass the door to the Gents and descend a flight of stairs carpeted in the style of a cheesy nightclub circa 1995. They really ought to sort that out. We had no problems with service but were probably there in a quieter period (around 2-4pm). Good value too for the standard of cooking, we paid just under fifteen pounds each for all of the food, a couple of pints and service. I'm definitely planning a return visit.

8/10

The Mark Addy
Stanley Street
Salford
M3 5EJ

http://markaddy.co.uk/