Address: Church Road, Swallowfield, Berks RG7 1TJ

Telephone: 0118 988 4432

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

Date of visit: 9 February 2012

Costs: Around £20 for 2 courses

Wines and beer: Short interesting wine list with top wines under £30. Ringwood, Sharps Doombar and Fullers London Pride (£3.20) on tap

Likes and dislikes: Interesting menu, clean tables decent beer – a proper pub

Cuisine: Modern British with a slant towards European.

Summary:

I haven’t been to The George and Dragon for 40 years.  Last time I went it was with JD whose father ERD (he was already retired) lived in Swallowfield. I was invited for lunch and we went for a pint before lunch. According to JD, his father was a famous barrister and his mother was from the money gentry background. It was a marriage made in Heaven. They lived in a large bungalow half a mile from the Pub.

The George and Dragon was listed in the first edition of Sawday’s guide but has not been listed for several edition. The new AA guide called it an award winning Pub.

Not much has changed, it is still the bare brick with exposed beam place. All tables are now devoted towards dining. The place was packed out. This is very unusual for a country pub on a Thursday lunch time.

The menu was fascinating. For starters you can have potted shrimps and salmon, octopus, chicory salad, risotto etc. Mains – steak and kidney pie, slow roast pork, partridge, fish and chips etc. Very interesting menu, my sort of menu – I prefer things that I don’t cook myself.

I ordered the Octopus cooked in soy and chilli (£7.50) with a salsa and the fish and chips. The octopus arrived warm with a cold salsa on a banana leave. It was very nice but I couldn’t get any chilli kick out of the dish. If the menu haven’t mention chilli, I would not have guessed.

Next came a huge piece of fish (£11.95)  with a pile of home made chips, garden peas and home made tartar sauce.  It was excellently  – a top 10 in my fish and chips list. In fact there were so much, I left a third of it.

Looking around, I noticed that there were many people eating their chips with their fingers. I really don’t understand this. They do not eat their burger, steak or salad (on the same plate) with their fingers. Yet they use their fingers and then use the greasy fingers to hold the knife.

Years ago, I was having a breakfast meeting with a Microsoft Executive in Texas. He ate everything with his fingers – bacon, sausage and eggs. No wonder they don’t serve bake beans in most US hotels. By the way, I noticed that people who eat their chips with their fingers do not hold their knives properly. It’s either a dagger (mainly US) grip – with the point pointing downwards out of a fist, or they hold it like a pen. Does anyone remember the days  - the upper class (Mrs ERD) approach – when we used to have to cut sandwiches up and eat it with a fork  before the invasion of Wimpys and MacDonalds.

In conclusion, I was impressed by the food. The beers were good too.

E

Address: Ermin Street, Lambourne Woodlands, RG17 7SD

Telephone: 01488 71386

Website: www.theharerestaurant.co.uk

Date of visit: 2 December 2011

Costs: a la carte at round £25 plus for 2 courses. All day “muffin” menu around £6, set lunch and lunch “specials”

Wines and beer: Only house wine available by the glass or just under £20 a bottle. Reasonable wine list. Speckle Hen on Tap (£3.80 a pint)

Likes and dislikes: Lovely restaurant, clean table and above average food.

Cuisine: Modern British/European

Summary:

This is one of several “eatery” in the heart of equine country. This one is the only one listed in The Good Food Guide. The others are listed in Sawday’s. The only reason why this place is not listed in Sawday’s is because it is a restaurant and not a pub.

The Hare Restaurant is housed in a building several centuries old. It has been extended and I must say that the old and the new blended well together.

You enter into a small bar area with leather sofas. The dining area is split into several areas in a sort of open plan to the right.

They have an all day grazing menu which looked good with different types of muffins – different toppings (Florentine, Benedict etc) with different sauces at around £6. Sandwiches are also available at around the same prices.

There is a set lunch at £27.50 for 3 courses or £14.50 for a course.

I went for the all day menu with mushrooms on brioche toasts as a starter (it was in the main course section) £5.50 and fish and chips at £11.25.

The mushroom in crème fraiche on brioche toast was huge. It was excellent. The mushrooms still chewy and not over shrunk. At £5.50, it was amazing value.

The fish and chips came with tartar sauce, green beans and a battered fish sitting on a pile of chips. Lets start with the chips. It was slightly bigger than what I recognise as French fries and it came unsalted – excellent. The fries were ok but nothing special. The tartar  sauce was  a bit mild – it was chunky but needed more vinegar. The fish pretty fresh and the beans absolutely superb.

I like the place and the food.

I was the only diner at 1pm but the place livened up at 2.30 as I was leaving. Perhaps that’s why they have an all day menu.

E

Location: 2c Wake Green Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9EZ

Web site: www.cartersofmoseley.co.uk

Telephone number: 0121 449 8885

Date of visit: July 2011

Approx. cost per head: £35-£40

Comments on wine list/beer: wine prices rangef rom £18.50 – £13
Review:

Hidden away on the Wake Green Road, Carters is a fairly recent addition to the buzzing restaurant scene in Moseley. From the outside it appears contempory and a fresh addition to the local restaurant trade.

The menu is interesting and changed regularly to ensure that seasonal ingredients are featured prominently on the menu.

The food itself was very good (three of us opten for a lamb dish and one for a fish dish). However, portions are extremely small and are generally served without any extra vegetables or carbahydrate, which adds and extra £5-£10 to a meal already costing £16 – £20.

Dessert portions were slightly more generous and cleverly presented – I had a sticky toffee pudding served in a Lyon’s Golden Syrup tin.

Overall, though the food was extremely tasty, I don’t think that the balance of taste, portion size and cost was enough for me to visit a second time. If you are going to spend that much money on dinner, I would advise paying out a little more and visting one of the Michelin Starred restaurants in Birmingham (Turners, Simpsons or Purnells), where, for not much more you will receieve food of an even higher quality and with larger portion sizes.

Jo

Address: Shiplake Row, Binfield Heath, Oxon RG9 4DP. Turn down Plough Lane by The Ploughdon  Arms Pub from A4155 and carry on for about 0.5 miles, pass the school.

Telephone: 01189 403673

Website: www.orwellsatshiplake.co.uk

Date of visit: 28 September 2011

Costs: £20 plus for 2 courses

Wines and beer: Medium size wine list at about 4X markup.

Likes and dislikes: Excellent food. The wooden board I had with the fish and chips was too small – the chips keep falling off the side. Luckily, the tables were squeeky clean.

Cuisine: Modern British – high class.

Summary:

The whitewash building has a large car park at the front. The inside is modern antique. White walls with black painted exposed beams, MDF tables – no table cloths.

I went on a Wednesday after being ill for several days. The place was about 20% full.

Orwells  is named after George Orwell who lived in Shiplake. This place was awarded The Restaurant of the year by the readers of Good Food Guide. It is in the Michelin’s Guide as a Pub but all the tables are laid out for dining and there is no room to stand at the bar.

According to the Good Food Guide, they do a set lunch (£10 for 2 courses). However, on the day I went, it was not available. The a la carte was very interesting and I would Have gone for it. I started off with pig’s head fritters – deep fried brawn without the jelly (£7.50), followed by the fish and chips at £14.50. To accompany this, I ordered half a bottle Ch Montaigullion (St Emilion) 2006. Ther wine turned out to be very soft and weak. I suspect, to get a decent bottle here, you are looking at around £50. I was the only one that ordered half a bottle. All other diners were on one glass of housr champagne or wine.

The pig’s head fritters were excellent, you get  4 coin size nuggets served with a very herby green salad and plum and mustard jam – not sweat at all. A great combination of texture, multiple tastes and visually stunning. The fish was a huge piece of haddock served on a pile of really good chips on a wooden board with smashed garden peas on a piece of grease proof paper. The accompanying tartar sauce was chunky, crisp and came in a jam jar – airline size. The batter was crispy and not light. I really rate this. The only down side was that the chips and batter were salted. It wasn’t over done as I can just taste it.

Overall, I think that this is a great place and will look forward to my next visit.

PS I forgot to say that they offer  nice bread and butter (free). The butter is unsalted but it came spiked with sea salt flakes.

Address:  Woodcote Lane, Chazey Heath,  Nr Reading, RG4 7UG

Telephone: 0118 9722140

Website: http://www.homecountiespubs.co.uk/packhorse/

Date of visit: 14 September 2011

Costs: Around £20 for 2 courses, set lunch £12.95 for 2 courses, £16.95 for 3 course. Most main courses around £10 with steak the most expensive at £19.95

Wines and beer: London Pride (£3.30 a pint), wines available – low to medium end list

Likes and dislikes: Excellent food but service a bit poor.

Cuisine: Modern British

Summary:

This is a pub I used to frequent regularly in the 70s. It has changed hands several times. A few years ago, it became a Bluebecker Pub, it is now part of the Home Counties Group. They use to serve Gales –now part of Fullers – and non grape wines – elderberry etc. The wines were still available when I came here in the early 2000s. The wines are no longer there and the serving area is now twice the size it was. There is a 50 seat restaurant, very tastefully decorated with demi  johns and old prints. The building is several centuries old and there is a massive car park at the front.

The day I went, I ordered a pint of London Pride. It was probably a new barrel or the pipes have just been flushed – it was all head, the man eventually sorted it out and bought me my pint – it did not taste right and I suspect that part of the beer was from the frothy pint – when the froth died down.

The menu is one of these modern British ones. However they do a set lunch – £12.95 for 2 courses.

I settled for the set lunch with tempura squid as a starter, followed by liver and smashed potato.

Service was very poor as the waitress prefered to stay in the kitchen rather than manage the floor. You more or less have to catch her attention when she brings the food out. I waited 15 minutes between receiving the menu and ordering the food. Nearby two old ladies talked in a loud voice about deaths and illness – you can hear every word.

The tempura squid was excellent. It was very nicely presented with a small pot of chopped chillies and onions. The plate had a smear of tempura soya sauce to augment the presentation. The lambs liver was also very nicely presented with the liver and bacon sitting on top of a pile of smashed potato in a pool of gravy. The potato was a smashed baked potato with grainy mustard. All very pleasant and edible.

The truth is that it is very good value food presented in a pleasant dining room. Service will be better if the waitress stays in the restaurant rather than the kitchen.

E

Address: Spriggs Alley (name of a place!), Nr Chinnor, Oxfordshire OX39 4BX

Telephone: 01494 483011

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

Date of visit: 13 September 2011

Costs of food: £17.50 for a two course set lunch. Most starters around £10 and most main courses from under £20 to under £30. Puddings £8.50 and cheese is priced at £10.50

Wines and beer: Wadsworth 6X on gravity drip (£4 a pint), extensive premium wine list at the usual mark up. There are some gems at a reasonable price (e.g. Ch Musar at under £40 for the 2003)

Likes and dislikes: Excellent place. Food is good. You get a proper ”large” linen napkin but no table cloth. At the price they charge, it would be nice to have a table cloth.

Cuisine: Modern British

Summary:

Since its inception, there are around 40 restaurants that have been listed every year. Sir Charles Napier is one of them.

The Pub is sited on the main road with a large car park and garden to the side. The place – both indoor and outdoor is littered with carvings (bronze and marble) created by Michael Cooper. There is even a huge turtle in the men’s toilet.

The inside is divided into a bar area with settees and then 2 adjoining dining room. There is wine rack under the stairs, lit by spot lights – not sure that this will do the wines any good if they have been sitting there for a long time.

On the day I went the place was full of gentlemen – with jackets and ties – aged around 70+. The drinks ordered at the bar were: gin and tonic, half a bitter, dry white wine, half a shandy………Later, the landlady put me right by telling me that it was a club lunch meeting – and I thought that the regular are all retired members of the House of Lords.

The set lunch looked quite decent as the couple on the table next to me had it. If ordered separately, it would cost over £25 – you get a la carte size portions.

I went for 2 starters : the smoke haddock soufflé (£9.50)and the vegetable risotto with girolle (£12.50).

The soufflé sat in a very intense smooth cream sauce with a few flakes of smoke haddock in it. The smoke haddock was not dyed. It was a triumph and the soufflé did not collapse whilst I ate it. The risotto was just wet, not soupy. It was full of crunch green onion tops. In fact the onion overwhelmed everything but I loved it.

The meal was washed down with a couple pints of Wadsworth 6x – best pint of 6x I have had for years but at £4 a pint?

This is more of a restaurant than a pub. I thought that it was definitely worth the 50 mile round trip for the meal.

E

PS You get a lovely basket of warm bread – free!

Address: 36 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street, London Ec1M 6BN

Telephone: 0207 017 1930

Website: www.restaurantsetcltd.co.uk

Date of visit: 9 September 2011

Costs of food: Around £30 for 2 courses

Wines and beer: Heavily marked up list. Wines from £20 to £500 a bottle . Beers  from £5.70 for 50ml.

Likes and dislikes: Excellent food. However  prices at the top end – especially the mark up on wines which in some cases exceed 500%. Bread is free.

Cuisine: Modern British

Summary:

Over the past 5 years, Mark Hix has quietly expanded his empire. There are now restaurants all over London and Dorset.

Hix Oyster and Chop House is sited on the edge of the city, a stone’s throw from St John Street.

Mark Hix has written a few cook books on British cooking and his style is very similar to Gary Rodes.

The food here is priced at the top end and plate decoration is minimal. If you order a piece of steak, that’s all you get, no salad, no cress, no vegetables!

The restaurant is very similar – in style – to St John, white tiles, black and white decoration. I am pleased to report that you do get table cloths and linen napkins here and they do serve tap water.

I went with my son O who works in an office off long acre.

I started off with half a carafe of Brouilly whilst I was waiting for O. The half carafe was £22 + 12.5% service. A bottle can be purchased from Majestic for around £8.

O started with Hix’s own cured smoke salmon (£12.50) whilst I had the Sprats (£8.50). The smoke salmon was wonderful. 4 large thick slices. Absolutely divine – why do we normally have thinly sliced smoke salmon? The sprats (5) were lightly battered and deep fried. This was also very good. It did not taste oily and the thin batter did not retain any oil.

O then had the ribeye – I thought that he ordered skirt. This came as a 250g slice (£32) on a white plate with absolutely nothing else – not even a sprig of parsley!

I had the steak tartare (£10.50 starter size),which was served as a burger with an egg yolk on top. I was left to apply tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. The mixture was finely “minced” with the right amount of raw onions and capers.

O and I ordered chips on the side. We were charged £7.90 for the double helping. They were nice French fries.

It was a very pleasant meal with excellent service. However, the mark up on the wine is ridiculous as the food is already pricy. I wish restaurants would charge a set premium instead of %. The Chambertin 2005 which was priced at £500 can be purchased for £80 a bottle. I am not even sure that it’s drinkable as Burgundy should either be drunk young or old. They go to sleep in between.

E

Address: The Street, Waltham St Lawrence, RG10 0JJ

Telephone number: 0118 9341788

Website: www.thebellinn.biz

Date of visit: 2 August 2011

Approximate cost per head: Sandwiches from £3, Mains around £10.

Comments on wine list/beer: excellent collection of real ale – changes regularly. From £3 a pint. Wines available

Cuisine: Modern British, steaks, burgers, fish etc.

Likes and dislikes: This is a small place so the best place to sit is outside – weather permitting. Dining room is very “rustic” but otherwise it is a drinker and casual food paradise.

Summary:

The Bell is a 14^th Century building that has been home to various “famous” people. The house was left to the village in 1608 by Sir Ralph Newbury.

In 2004, the Ganson brothers took over the lease and converted it into a pub.

Inside is a dining room and a small bar with tables. However, there are tables to the front and back of the building.

The “patrons” here take their food and beer very seriously. Guest beers arrive from all over the UK including Orkney. The menu is chalked up on a blackboard so it changes daily. The bread, tomato ketchup etc are all made on site.

It has been a year since I last ate here. On a nice sunny day, I decided that I shall pay it another visit.

As I was sunning myself outside with a pint of the beer – very nice – couldn’t remember the name. There are usually 5 different types of bitter here and a choice of cider. Even the lager is not your standard Becks Vier, Fosters and Carling.

Nearly everyone was on sandwiches or the home made pork pies so I had both – I ordered an egg mayo brown bread sandwich (£3.00) and a slice of pork pie (£2.50).

The pork pie is easily one of the best I have ever come across. It was fully of chunky meat – none of this coarse mince nonsense – and was served with some home made pickle – I don’t eat pickle.

The egg mayo sandwich was also superb. The egg mayo was thick and the bread fresh. A small salad with dressing was also served on the side.

Just then two people rolled up with their bike and I was approached by one of them – he recognised me. He turned out to be R. We both used to live in Sibly Hall when we were post grads.

Well, the one pint became several and it was nice to talk about 30+ years ago as well as all the updates since.

By the way, I have eaten proper meals here before and the standard is high. The home made shoe string fries is 10 out of 10.

E

Address: High Street, Goring on Thames, Berkshire RG8 9AW

Telephone number: 01491 872 829

Website: www.millerofmansfield.com

Date of visit: 23 May 2011

Approximate cost per head:  Around £10 for a main course – bar meal . Set lunch £12.95 for 2 courses. A la carte – under £20 for a main course

Comments on wine list/beer: Rebellion (£3.30 a pint). Wine from £16 a bottle. Some interesting wines at around £40 a bottle

Cuisine: modern British

Likes and dislikes: the set up with settees is nice but the tables need proper scrubbing.

Summary:

I can remember whether I ate in this place when I used to drink regularly in the area around the mid 70s. The Catherine Wheel is still there and I can recall that I had the toughest duck a la orange there.

Goring is a wonderful village by the Thames. However, parking is difficult. There is a car park at the back of the mini shopping arcade but the signing to it is poor.

For some years now, The Millar of Mansfield has been touted around as a gastro pub. I decided to meet my friend B there as she lives locally.

I was in at 12.00 and chose a table by the window. The place is divided into several rooms with a restaurant at the back.

I was warmly greeted by the staff and then I touched the table. It was sticky!

I hate sticky tables as it suggest that it has never been properly cleaned from the session(s) before.

B ordered a baked Aubergine – Turkish style (£12.95) and I went for my usual fish and chips. I had a pint of IPA (£3.30) whilst she had a tonic water (£1.55).

The baked Aubergine was a whole aubergine hollowed out, re-stuffed and cooked. B claimed that it was nice but then she ate less than half of it.

My fish and chips was nicely presented on a wooden board with the chips in a cone and 2 sauces – mariana and tartare – as well as mushy peas.

The fish was fine and the chips…….. they were far too chunky and was more like roast potatoes. The problem with big potatoes is that you need a lot of sauce to go with it. A little bit of tartare sauce does not work.

I noticed that they are big on plate decorations here. All the dishes dished up near me were wonderfully presented.

By the way, they add a service charge (optional) even when you order and sit in the bar area.

Would I go back again? No. I don’t eat in restaurants or pubs with sticky tables – certainly not more than once.

E

Location: near Duntisbourne Abbots, GL7 7JR

Web site: www.fivemilehouse.co.uk
Telephone number: 01285821432

Date of visit: 12th March 2011

Approx. cost per head: £16

Comments on wine list/beer: Three draught ales on handpump.

Media link:

Review:

Firstly, note that the address of the Five Mile House is NEAR Duntisbourne Abbots and not in the village (very pretty) which we visited by mistake whilst looking for the pub for Saturday lunch. It is, in fact, easy to find when you know how and is just off the A417. Follow the small white home-made signs with a large Roman 5 (V). This 300 year-old coaching inn has never been in the hands of a brewery and has thus retained the charm and features of a truly public house. For example, the snug has been made out of the previous landlady’s sitting room complete with ancient fireplace. We received a warm welcome at the bar and I was pleased to see three bitters on handpump. The Bridge Bitter (Burton Bridge Brewery) was so good that, with my lunchtime ration of two pints, I didn’t get to try the other two ales! We were seated in the dining room – most tables are old wooden sewing machine tables complete with the Singer logo. Having reminisced with my wife (L) about my grandma’s old sewing machine it was time to order lunch. I chose the Gloucester Old Spot sausages from the extensive blackboard menu and L had the mushroom omelette from the lighter lunch selection. My three sausages had seen a bit too much oven and weren’t as succulent as I would have wished. However, they were very meaty and flavoursome and were served with the most delicious Dauphinoise potatoes…and chilli jam. The chilli jam worked quite well but, call me old-fashioned, I would have preferred onion gravy with my bangers. L’s omelette was nicely cooked and served with chips and a generous portion of salad. The home-made coleslaw was particularly good, with a hint of tarragon we thought. As we planned to walk off lunch on the Cotswold Way the dessert menu beckoned. L raved about her chocolate and walnut brownie (moist and very chocolatey) and I enjoyed the apple and raspberry pie. All desserts are home-made. The bill came to £42 including 2 pints and 2 halves of beer. I didn’t look at the wine list but I’ll check it out next time because we definitely plan to be back.

Mike Hibbs