Address: High Street, Lane End, High Wycombe HP14 3JG. Large car park.

Telephone: 01494 882 299

Website: www.grouseandale.com

Date of visit: 6 January 2012

Costs:  Around £20 for 2 courses. Children’s menu available.

Wines and beer: Courage Best at £3.40 a pint. According to the website, they have other beers so I must assume that they rotate their beers

Likes and dislikes: Very good prices and decent food. Clean tables.

Cuisine: British grills

Summary:

This was recommended to me by the General Manager of West Wycombe Shooting Grounds. Apparently, they take their customers and guests there when catering is required. As I was in the area, I decided to give it a go.

To my first surprise, the pub is enormous with huge bar areas and dining rooms. It will easily sit over a hundred. The second shock was that this is a winner (SE region) of some gastro pub competition.

The menu is very much based on steaks and grills. Specials of the day include venison steak or pheasant – pan fried breast and confit of leg. Both priced at £16.

I went for the 28 day aged rump steak (£14.50) and a pint of courage best.

Whilst I was waiting for my meal, the owners turned up and one of them (Joy) started talking to some celebrity (he knew Chris Evans) on the table behind me. I don’t recognise him as I only watch Sky news, movies or sport. Apparently Chris Evans turned up the other day………

The steak was served on a square plate with a small salad, slice of tomato, a field mushroom, several battered onion concoctions, two sliced of steak and a pot of fat chips. As far as fat chips go, this was all right. But, I am not a fan of fat chips. It’s basically boiled potatoes with a skin. I asked for my steak medium and one piece was medium whilst the other was well done. The only way to cook steak is to have a piece at least one inch thick. This was about 1cm. Now onto the onion things, they were fried onions coated in batter and re-fried – absolutely great. The salad was fresh and well dressed.

It was a pretty good meal. I didn’t get round to look at the wine list but most of the wines behind the bar were screw tops. I know that most of the top wines in Australia, NZ and California have moved over to screw tops. In my view, it is only good for low end wines as the plastic cap does not allow the wine to change. So any wines that need maturing – won’t! I experimented with a few bottles of Plumbjack (USA). The 6 bottles I bought in the US were screw tops (about $80 per bottle). I then discovered that Harrods had the same year with corks (£55). I started opening them 5 years ago – side by side – after they have been cellared for over 8 years. There is no doubt that the ones with corks changed – for the better – whilst the screw tops remained the same. By the way, Plumbjack is owned by the mayor (ex) of San Francisco.

On my way out, I discovered that The Bull and Butcher (Turville) and The White Hart at Harwell are both part of the group. The Bull and Butcher was managed by a lady called Ms Botha. She must have sold up.

Well so far so good in 2012. Two decent meals at very good prices!

E