Address: 7 Station Road, Lower Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 3NY

Telephone: 0118 9403332

Website: http://www.thebaskerville.com/

Date of visit:28 October 2011

Costs:  set lunch (£18.50 for 2 courses), al la carte: starters from £7.75 and mains from £12.95

Wines and beer: Fullers London Pride (£3.55 a pint), Timothy Taylor Landlord, West Berkshire Hobbit. Wines list is one of the best that I have come across in a Pub. Mark-up around 3x.

Likes and dislikes: Beer price is a bit steep, food a bit on the salty side – otherwise fine.

Special note: The place is open for breakfast as it has accommodations

Cuisine: gastropub – British

Summary:

I went with my daughter A during half term.

The Baskerville is on the corner of Station Road with its own car park. There is a large garden with seats at the rear and a play area for children.

Inside is a large room with most of the areas devoted to dining. The tables were clean – no stickiness. The owner is obviously a Welsh rugby fan as there are several signed shirts on display.

Besides the normal menu, there is a black board with bar snacks (not specials). Everything was priced under £5. We were attracted by the Welsh rarebit (£3.50) and the whitebait (£4.50). I had the rarebit followed by the whitebait. A had the whitebait with a side order of chips (£3.50).

Everything that came was served on  wooden boards – the whitebait was in an au gratin dish on the wooden board.

The rarebit (2 pieces) was full of flavour – decent cheese – but the second bite suggested that it was just a little bit salty. I the tasted the whitebait and the chips, they were all generously doused with salt. The best way to describe this was that it was like salted crisp with extra salt added. It was edible but over the top for me.

The London Pride served here was excellent but pricy at £3.55 a pint. The bar man informed me that it was near the end of the barrel and if it wasn’t right, he would replace it – unlike The New Inn and The Pack Horse.

Next time I come here, I will ask the chef to go easy on the salt.

E

PS The Guardian has a good article on Welsh Rarebit http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/oct/27/how-to-cook-perfect-welsh-rarebit

Address: Main Street, Long Compton, Warwickshire, CV36 5JS

Directions:  Just North of Chipping Norton on A3400

Telephone: 01608 684221

Website: www.redlion-longcompton.co.uk

Date of visit: 14 October 2011

Costs: Two course lunch £12.50, main courses £10-£20.

Wines and beer: Hook Norton @ £3 a pint, reasonable wine list (no year!) with Cissac coming in at £47. Several wines around £20 a bottle.

Likes and dislikes: best 2 course lunch I have eaten in 2011 –  quality of cooking and price. Not sure about wine list without a year as for example, a young Cissac is very tannic but a 15 year old bottle is fantastic.

Cuisine: British, gastropub

Note: The pub closes at 2.30 on Mon-Thur and re-opens at 6.30 . The place is open all day Fri-Sun.

Summary:

Another coaching inn built in the 18^th Century in the Cotswold with a large car park

The inside is bright and spacious with several dining areas and leather sofa in front of the bar. Very tastfully decorated – light walls, dark furnishing – no table cloths.

I was offered a long menu with everything from sandwiches to fish and chips.There was also a blackboard with today’s specials and a set lunch – 2 courses for £12.50, 3 courses for £15.50.

I settled for the 2 course set lunch and a pint of Hooky (£3). The Hooky was wonderful, fresh and full of flavour. This was a superb pint.

I started off with gravalax – three thick slices of salmon with a little green salad. The texture was right and it was not over “dilled”.

Next came ham eggs and chips. To start with, you get two eggs with runny yolk. The ham were thickly slices and not too salty. The chips were perfect.

This was the best  (under £20) lunch I have eaten for a while.

E

Address: Exlade Street, Checkendon, Oxon RG8 0UA

Telephone number: 01491 682 020

Website: http://www.thehighwaymaninn-checkendon.co.uk/findus.html

Date of visit: 12 August 2011

Approximate cost per head: Set lunch £10 for 2 courses. Main courses around £16

Comments on wine list/beer: London Pride at £3.40 a pint , Short wine list by the glass or bottle (around £20)

Cuisine: gastropub

Likes and dislikes: set lunch real value for money. Nothing to dislike

Summary:

The Highwayman – a 16 century Inn was one of my “haunts” during my university days. It was a pub in the middle of nowhere, off the Woodcote Road (from Caversham) in a village called Exlade St.

In those days the beer was 6X and it was one of the few pubs along Woodcote Road that was neither Gales nor Brakspaear. The only food it did was Cornish pasties and grilled sausages – both excellent. I stopped going in the 80s when it became a bikers pub. It then changed hands and became Wheelers. That didn’t work out and the pub was closed for several years. I recently heard that it has re-opened and does decent food. So, off I went.

To my surprise, the car park was nearly full when I arrived at 1pm.

The inside is now twice twice the size of the pub I used to know and the inside has been modernised – in the old days, there were a few old tables and the two fire places was converted into sitting areas. The chef patron told me that the place was expanded when it became Wheelers.

The a la carte menu was simple and interesting – see website. I settled for the set lunch which offered 3 choices per course. At £10 for 2courses, it was very good value. I went for the pork rilletts followed by the cheese and potato pie and a pint of London Pride.

The rilletts was strange – it was more like a terrine than the pulled pork I am used to. You get 3 slices of rillettes but only 2 slices of bread. It spread like a chunky pate and tasted fine.

The potato and cheese pie was a glorious creation – very thin buttery flaky pastry with slices of potatoes and a mild cheese sauce. It came with mixed vegetable which was the best part of the meal, you get sliced mushroom, de-shelled broad beans, carrots, broccoli stems etc. They were all cooked al dente – crisp and fresh. This was washed down with apint of London Pride.

This place is all right and I shall test it again with the a la carte menu -  soon.

E

Address: High Street, Bray-on-Thames SL6 2AB. Parking for The Hinds Head and The Fat Duck are across the road.

Telephone number: 01628 626151

Website: www.hindsheadhotel.co.uk

Date of visit: 4 August 2011

Approximate costs per head: Approx £30 for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Several beer incl uding Marlow Rebellion on tap – from £3.40 a pint. Wine list has now got wines from under £20 a bottle. Laffite 1994 (bad year) still on the menu at £600 a bottle

Cuisine: Gastropub – British

Likes and dislikes: Still better then the Crown. Some meals are slightly too salty.

Last visit:

Summary:

The Hinds Head is the Michelin Guide’s 2011 Dining Pub of  the Year, Its in Sawdays etc.

It has been a year plus since I last set foot in this place. It has not changed. The famous steak and oxtailpudding is still on the menu at £17.50. However, the famous triple cooked chips was not available. Apparently, the potato is not right at this time of the year for triple cooked chips!

To start with I had the Scotch egg (£3.50). It was similar to the ones at The Royal Oak – the chef there trained under Heston. However, the Royal Oak has always managed to keep the quail’s egg yolk runny and the yolk here is a bit on the solid side. I think that it’s because the layer of sausage meat here is a bit thinner than The Royal Oak and so the heat gets through faster.

My Friend J had the Crab on Toast (£9.50) followed by the ribeye steak (£26.50).He is a regular here as he lives round the corner. He said that his food is fine.

My steak and oyster pudding was as usual (I had it 4 times in the past 2 years) slightlyon the salty side. This time, there were bits of kidney in the pudding. As it came with nothing, I had a side order of fries at £2.95. I have to admit that the fries were very good but they were also salted.

The wine menu now starts at £20 and foes up to £600. we had a bottle of Tormaresa which at £28.50 was drinkable.

Like all Heston’s establishments, they charge “top” dollars for everything. J was in The Fat Duck several weeks ago with a group. They ended up paying close to £600 a head.

The Hinds Head is a good place, but I wonder if the Guides are awed  by Heston Blumenthal’s name? The food is fine but I have had better food elsewhere in the UK. For example, The Hand and Flower in Marlow, The Hardwick near Abergavenny, Kingham Plough in Kingham etc

I enjoyed my meal very much as J paid for the meal.

E

Address: Oakley Green , SL4 5UW (between Maidenhead and Windsor)

Telephone number: 01753 864 294

Website: http://www.thegreeneoak.co.uk/

Date of visit: 7 June 2011

Approximate cost per head: £20 plus for 2 courses. Set lunch £15 for 2 courses, £19 for 3 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Greene King beer on tap. Interesting wine list – supplied by Corney and Barrow? – mainly Chilean, NZ Aus, Spain and Italy. A few reds from Bordeaux

Likes and dislikes: Decent food. Get rid of the flies!

Cuisine: Gastropub

Summary:

6 days after my arthroscopy, I am walking normally again. So, I am off for a decent lunch.

The Greene Oak has made quite a name for itself as this is where The Waterside Inn advised their guest to eat when the kitchen at the Waterside was being refurbished several years ago – it was on their website.

In fact the Greene Oak is doing so well, the owners had recently bought a pub in Cookham and renamed it The White Oak.

Anyway, the Greene Oak is sited on  B3024 road just off the main road (A308) between Maidenhead and Windsor. It is a largish building with green walls and dark paving stones on one side and a wooden floor on the other side. At the back, there is a garden with tables laid out neatly in rows.

The beer here is supplied by Greene King – one of my least favourite beer. But I have to say that my pint of Abbotts was excellent (£3.30)

The menu was simple and fairly diverse from smoke salmon to asparagus for starters and gnocchi and steak for main course.

Whilst I was pondering over the menu, the table next to me had the steak. It was a huge slab of sirloin on a wooden board with chips and salad. The meat must be at least 12oz.

I ordered the double assiette of starters (for 2). It was £9 for one and £18 for 2.

The food came on a long white plate with a row of deep fried prawns arranged diagonally on a bed of dressed rocket leaves. Then, on one side, there were a couple of slices of smoke salmon. There were also two pairs of shot glasses. One pair had a

Address: Llandenny, Usk, Wales, NP15 1DL (A449)

Website: www.raglanarms.com

Beer and wine: Wye Valley (£3 a pint), House red and white (£5.75 for 250mls). Pretty good value wine list for a pub

Cost oer head: Approx £20 for 2 courses

Cuisine: Gastropub

Like and dislike: All good

Date of visit: 21 May 2011

Summary

The area around Abergavenny is fast becoming a major “dining”  hub - outside London and Ludlow, this place has several decent pub restaurants – Walnut Tree, Beauford Arms, Hardwick and now Raglan Arms.

The pub is sited off A449, the main road linking the M4 with the M50.

The Raglan Arms is both modern and old. It is housed in a building several hundreds of years old, it has exposed beams yet the decor and plastering is ultra modern.

On the day I was there – en route for the Heiniken Cup Final in Cardiff, the place was about a third full. There are a couple of sofas in the place, otherwise, it is set up for dining.

To start with, I had the whitebait (£6.50). Absolutely fantastic. I rate it as one of the top 3 whitebaits I have ever eaten. The others being The Hand and Flowers and the Five Mile House. The rose marie sauce even had chunks of tomatoes in it, a sure sign that it was not bottled.

For main course I had the ragatoni with bolognaise sauce and shaven parmeason (£9). The ragu was made with chunky mince and the plate was arranged reversed with the sauce on the bottom, pasta on top and the shaven cheese on top of the pasta. For the first time ever, I  had more sauce than pasta. It was a stunning dish.

Now to the freebies, with the meal, I was offered a shot glass full of dry roasted peanuts, a small bowl of olives and wonderful bread and butter. The tap water was also excellent. The Wye Valley bitter was OK but it is not my favourite bitter as it is a bit light. The house red -  French Cabernet Melot was full bodied with a hint of cherry and quite fruity.

An excellent  meal.

E

Address: London Road, Great Missenden, Bucks HP16 0DG (A413)

Telephone number: 01494 862200

Website: www.nagsheadbucks.com

Date of visit: 13 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: Around £20 + for 2 courses. A bit more in the evening.

Comments on wine list/beer: Interesting range of real ale incl London Pride, Tring Brewery (Summer Time is £3.60 a pint!). Decent wine list, several by the glass and not over priced.

Cuisine: Gastropub – British, but they have a chef with a French name.

Like and dislike: Little bit pricy – especially the beer.

Summary:

In order to test out my theory that anywhere called “Crown” is on the pricy side, I travel to Amersham to test out the Crown Hotel. When I got there, I discovered that parking on the main road is limited so I went into the car park, a good 400m from the hotel.

When I got to the front of the Hotel, I discovered that it was closed for an event – more than likely another episode of Midsummer Murder. The annoying thing is that they have all the boards out on the pavement informing you of the deals and specials. Only when you get to the front door, you catch sight of a single sheet of A4 announcing the place is closed but will re-open at 5.30!

Checking out my copy of Sawdays, I realistic that The Nags Head is only 4 miles down the road in the direction of Aylesbury. The Nags head is in all the guides including Michelin’s.

The Nags Head is a very pleasant looking pub/ Inn (AA ****) by the main road, it has a large car park and a large garden – the garden was empty despite the fact that it was sunny. The car park had about 10 cars in it.

Inside the 16th  century building, you get the normal exposed beams – beware! I am less than 5 foot 9 inches and I nearly banged my head on the beams. There are tables laid out for lunch to the left and right of the bar. No table clothes but proper linen napkins.

I ordered a pint of the local brew from Tring at £3.60 a pint. I noticed that certain wines are available by the glass at over £5 a pop.

I was just going to order my usual fish and chips (£13.85) when I noticed the grouse – shot locally and  priced at £17.95  – done 2 ways, confit of legs and pan fried breasts with mushroom duxelles.  As the Grouse shooting season is from August till December, the bird that I am having was obviously frozen or it was over hung. The dish came with potatoes (dauphinoise) and no veg. a side order of vegetables here is normally for 2 at £2.95. They offered to do me a half portion for £1.95

As I was waiting for my grouse, I noticed that all the dishes that came out from the kitchen were fair size and well presented. When my grouse game, it was nicely presented – sitting on the stuffing with a pool of gravy. The potatoes and veg came in two scaloppini au gratin dish. The dauphinoise was pretty good and the veg just on the wrong side of al daunte but it was a melee of peas, sugar snap peas, carrots, courgettes and green beans. The grouse was interesting. The confit of legs were wonderful but the breasts a touch dry – not too gamey. Grouse is a dry meat and freezing it would have ruptured the cells to make it even drier. I would recommend that they confit both the breasts and legs. Use different rubs and different curing times to make the breast and leg taste different.

Everything here is just a touch on the expensive side but within reason. I actually enjoyed my meal – I am just critical for the reader’s benefit. Service was good and I was only asked once what I though of the food – the waitress was stunned when she heard my suggestion as above. I left my card for he monthly draw – meal for 2.

E

Address: Playhatch, Nr Reading, RG4 9NQ

Telephone number: 0118 947 2872

Website: www.thecrown.co.uk

Date of visit: 4 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: About £20+ for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Brakspear on tap (£3.40), interesting wine list at the usual top end mark up with decent wines at over £30 a bottle

Cuisine: up market pub food – nearly gastro pub.

Likes and dislikes: Decent size portions but pricy – beer, wine and food.

Summary:

I used to come here regularly with friends who lived in Caversham Park Village in the mid 70s. It was just a pub then with a fairly basic choice of food. I stopped coming when my friend R only had one pint – I always buy the first round – and never offered to buy a second round.

Well, it has moved on, it is now a hotel with meeting rooms and a dining room

The car park was surprisingly full on a Wednesday lunch time. I was even more surprised to see more than half the diners wore business suits. There are no businesses near Playhatch. The nearest are based in Suttons and Thames Valley business parks in East Reading. But then, most of the industries there are high tech (Microsoft, Oracle etc). Hardly anyone wears suits in those environments.

Inside are: a private dining room to sit 20+, a very small bar area, a much larger dining area and a sun lounge that is a restaurant.

Looking at the menu and the wine list, the place is not cheap. There were quite a few dishes in the £20 plus bracket and a bottle of 2005 crianza retailed for £28 when most pubs will be selling a 2007 at under £20.

I ordered my usual of fish and chips (£12.95). The waiter told me that it came with no veg so I added a side order of broccoli (£3). However later on, the bill for the posh fish and chip + broccoli came to £16.20 – nearly Heston Blumenthal price!

The waiter raved on about the tartare sauce which is infused with ginger. When the fish and chips came, I had 3 big pieces of cod, each one about the size of a wallet. The chips were big fat chips. The chips were not over salted, the broccoli just slightly over cooked but still had a bite – I suspected that this was cooked before hand and warmed up again. I could not detect any hint of ginger in the tartare sauce.

Overall it was an above average meal – just. However, this is an expensive place. I just noticed that the last pub that I thought was on the expensive side was Heston Blumenthal’s Crown in Bray. May be ALL Crowns are expensive. I will have to search out another Crown to test out my theory.

E

Location: Goring-on-Thames, RG8 0HS (Off B4009 – Wallingford Road,  by the river)

Web site: www.leathernebottel.co.uk

Telephone number: 01491 872 667

Date of visit: April 28 2011

Approx. cost per head: 22.00

Comments on wine list/beer: excellent

Media link:

Review:

A superb restaurant, on the banks of the Thames just out of Goring. Elegant and tasty dishes and a fantastic wine list – an imaginative and exciting tasting menu, a la carte and affordable lunches and dinners. Care and attention to detail in absolutely everything, calm and quietly efficient staff.  Tables are generously sized and well spread out and there are waterside tables too. Two courses for about twenty pounds up to about seventy for the tasting menu (without wine).  All is there on the website, and a good online booking system in place.

Jane Bennett

Address: The Street, Crudwell, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9EW (Opp Rectory Hotel – same owners)

Telephone number: 01666 577 833

Website:  http://www.thepottingshedpub.com/

Date of visit: 8 April 2011

Approximate cost per head: £20 plus for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: Timothy Taylor Landlord, Hook Norton at £3.50 a pint. Pretty good wine list at reasonable mark up. Expect to pay around £30+ for a decent bottle.

Cuisine: gastropub

Summary:

Despite the naff name – The Potting Shed, this is an award winning pub (Good Pub Guide and Sawday’s) and is listed in all the guides including Michelin.

The car park is to the rear of the pub. There is a lawn with quite a few outdoor tables.

The inside is divided into several rooms painted in white and grey (wood). The menu is more of a gastro pub menu than normal pub food menu. The staff are young and were very attentive. On the day I went, the place was about 60% full – outside and inside.

I started off with “asparagus with a soft boiled quail egg (£6.75)”. I was surprised to get 4 thin pan fried asparagus (obviously local and British) an egg and a few dressed salad leaves. It was Ok but I was not that impressed as the asparagus were too thin to register a proper taste. It is good policy to buy local products but sometimes local products are not that good. We are bang in the middle of the asparagus season – I therefore expect a bigger plant.

For the main course I ordered haddock and triple cooked chips (£12.95). The dish was the largest plate of fish and chips I have ever seen. Let’s start with the triple cooked chips. They were more the size of roast potatoes than fat chips. However, they were properly triple cooked with all the right crunchy fissures. The haddock was close to a foot long and there were a tub of home made tartare sauce and a tub of mushy peas and a few salad leaves. Make no mistake, this was probably one of the best if not the best fish and chips I have eaten for some years

The whole meal was washed down with two pints of Hooky (£3.50 a pint) – slightly on the pricy side.

Over all I was impressed with the service and the fish and chips. In fact I even managed to sun myself for 20 minutes in the garden after the meal.