"A lovely, old country pub that retains all it 's character with great service and friendly staff. It has a really good selection of drinks and the food menu had enough to choose from, but it 's another old country pub that 's been ruined by the fad that seems to be sweeping the nation of turning old pubs into 'gastro ' pubs. Unfortunately for me, the food doesn 't go with the surroundings. If you are going to retain the character of an old local/ farmers pub, then I 'd liked to be served wholesome, home cooked style food. It was nice enough, though not for the prices being charged. For starters we had the hummus, which came in a large dish with enough to share between 2, which was very tasty, seemed fresh and moist, but several whole olives had been hidden inside it! Plenty of Mediterranean style bread or pitta to mop it up was needed, but that 's not what it came with. 2 small slices of toasted baguette, which even the servers, when placing it in front of us, asked if we wanted more bread. It was definitely needed, but what came out was 3 large slices of focaccia style bread that was soft, warm and tasty, which it should have been served with in the first place. A ploy to get you to buy more bread? I didn 't see the bill. So, back to the hummus and the olives. A very strange way to serve olives and hummus. You either had to roll the olives onto the bread and hope you 'd put enough hummus with it to make it stick to the bread without rolling off before reaching your mouth, which it did. Or, pick them out with a fork, covered in hummus! Definitely not seen whole olives served like that before, hopefully never again! Nice enough, but if you 're going to go gastro and charge gastro prices, do it properly, olives on the side in some garlic oil and some Mediterranean style breads please. I had the steak and ale pie for main, which came as a nice, large, round shortcut pie, served placed on a halved carrot and a bed of green beans. Unfortunately this was then surrounded by a brown watery liquid that had no taste. The whole thing came served with a side mug of homemade chips, which were good and an extra jug of the brown watery tasteless gravy, which I wouldn 't recommend. The veg was cooked well, a nice bite to the carrot and beans. The pie was a little disappointing. The short crust pastry was tasty and well cooked and the meat was gorgeous, well cooked, very tender and large chunks, which is what you want in a steak pie, but it was very dry. Hardly any of the meaty, ale gravy you would expect in a steak and ale pie, so there was only the watery, tasteless jug of gravy to add to it to stop the meat and pastry drying your mouth out. I always want a nice, meaty gravy that you can mop up with the pastry and meat, but it just wasn 't there. Shame, as it would have been an excellent pie if it hadn 't been so dry. My wife had the Mediterranean style roasted cauliflower which came with a dish of cous cous. She only ate half. She just said it was ok but wouldn 't have it again. Serving it with a side of what looked like plain cous cous didn 't really add anything to it. There was a large group of us and mostly we all enjoyed our meals and had a great evening. But for me, the food wasn 't quite good enough for the prices charged and just didn 't go with the surroundings. If it had been farmhouse style meals, but gastro style, then maybe that would work? But we all have different tastes and expectations and I 'd definitely recommend a visit as it 's a lovely, warm welcoming and friendly old country pub, and I love these old pubs, which has a decent menu, but just not for me at those prices."
