The New Inn for Lunch

The New Inn

The New Inn is situated in the heart of the city of Gloucester and has been welcoming travellers since 1455. It is Britain’s oldest galleried inn. The Inn was originally built as a Pilgrims Inn to house visitors to the shrine of King Edward II in St Peters Abbey. After falling into disrepair The Inn was re-built by Abbot John Twining in 1455 (hence the title “The New Inn”)In 1539 the inn was known to be the largest hostelry in the county and an impressive collection of Knights, Lords & Yeomen lodged at the inn. Chapman Hotels bought the New Inn in 2000 and set about a sympathetic restoration & refurbishment of the New Inn. Today they provided me with my lunch!
We were very early diners; it was a toss up between cake and coffee for a very late eleven-zies or a midday lunch…we opted for the latter. It was FIL’s choice; he and MIL used to go there regularly in the late 80’s early 90’s. We were first in the dining room and they were so pleased that it was just the same as it has always been. It was clean and well decorated in the style it had always been in an old coach house sort of way. I bet the tourists love it!!!

The Food: I had a Prawn and king prawn salad with new potatoes a round of bread and Thousad Island dressing and a glass of sparkling mineral water. My in-laws had scampi and chips with a vodka and tonic; we finished with latte coffees
The Good: Attentive friendly staff & the atmosphere, even though it only had a couple of tables occupied.

The Bad: There wasn’t one…the bill was a reasonable £36

The Ugly: The glass light shades which weren’t in keeping with the décor…but hey they were at the side of the dinning room and it didn’t spoil our meal!

I bet this place is great at night when full of diners. With the décor and the history I bet it feels like it did all those years ago…filled with noise and food. I’m going back soon!

Saturday Night at the Hatton Court Hotel

Here again! Hatton court hotel

This time to celebrate with our friends. Their 40th birthday, 15th Wedding Anniversary and our special Christmas gift.

The Good – as usual the atmosphere, the quality of the food, the elegant dining room

The Bad – The waiter who tried to hurry us off to the lounge to have our coffees, when asked if he wanted the table his reply was “Yes I want to reset it for breakfast…it was only 10:30pm!!!

The ugly – we had to come back and sit at our dirty table as there was no room in the lounge!!!!
The table for two at the side of us was VERY close, but as the couple didn’t speak to each other AT ALL and were only there for a maximum of 30 minutes it didn’t really matter in the end!

We ate
ø Confit of Belly Pork with a Black Pudding Salad
ø Traditional Smoked Salmon, Capers, Shallot and Lemon
ø Warm Goats Cheese Salad with Baby Beets and Crostini
ø Tomato and Mozzarella Tart with a Basil Dressing

ø Duck breast on a rosti with Savoy cabbage and bacon
ø Sirloin Steak with a green peppercorn sauce, fondant potatoes and seasonal vegetables
ø Lamb shanks with roast vegetables and a white wine jus

ø Pear and Almond tart with Crème Anglaise
ø Mulled berry crème brulee
ø Chocolate Brownie served with raspberry couli

We drank
ø VERAMONTE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2004. CHILE
ø VERAMONTE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2001, MAIPO VALLEY. CHILE

Supper at the Royal William, Cranham

The Royal William is under new management and the word is it is serving home cooked locally supplied Food. All Fresh produce with real ales! That was enough to wet our appetites. The last time we were there, it was all under scaffolding and the interior was in desperate need of a facelift. It had that grubby unloved look with sticky tables and smelly toilets. This time I'm hoping for more, it does look promising though. I rang to book a table and the restaurant is fully booked, we were offered a table in their very comfortable bar area. The chap I spoke to was very pleasant, telling me that they re-opened in early December and have been pretty much full ever since! He also confimed the fresh produce, locally supplied homecooked food!!

I'm looking forward to it...table is booked for 8pm tonight, so I'll be back to comment later!
Ok...
The Good
ø Extremely friendly welcome,
ø polite and helpful staff,
ø décor was great, no more scaffolding,
ø No more smelly carpets
ø The pictures on the wall were of old Cheltenham and were great!
ø I absolutely loved the one of the champagne bottles in the dinning room.
ø The helpful member of staff who took our food order at the table when she realised we hadn’t been told how to order.
ø The large plates. [Not so good on the little table!]
ø The quality of the food
ø The batter on the Pollock – delicious, along with the hand cut chips

The Bad

ø The tiny table for 4 people,
ø Not being told we had to order our food at the bar (what’s all that about?)
ø The stringy chewy piece of gammon (bleugh!)
ø The Beef stroganoff with more mushrooms that beef

The Ugly

ø The uneven floor – Which I know cant’ be helped in such an old building but my elderly guest had difficulty with it
ø The last diners used napkin on the floor underneath my husband’s chair!

I would go back to this restaurant for the homemade chips alone. Loved, loved, loved the attitude of the staff, it’s so refreshing, now-a-days they are usually grumpy students earning their minimum wage with minimum effort!!!

A sad occasion - Hotel De La Bere

Hotel de la Bere

Today I had a buffet lunch at the De la Bere hotel in Prestbury. It was after the funeral of an old family friend and sad occasion aside, the hotel was a marvel of old stone, carved panelling and heraldic stained glass windows. We were in the great hall; the history of the place is amazing. It is a 15th Century Tudor manor house which stands in its own wonderful grounds. It was a dark, dreary and drizzly day [funerals usually are] so the views were seriously compromised but I’m sure they would be spectacular on a mid summers day.
The staff were all courteous, professional and well turned out. The buffet lunch was of a high standard and well presented. The ambiance of the room helped to ease the mourners into a cosy comfortable gathering.

The Edgemoor Inn

Tuesday lunch The Edgemoor Inn - table booked for 3 at 1:20pm

The views from this restaurant are outstanding
even on a grey wet day like today. It was very quiet today and half way through our meal we had the place to ourselves.
I ate grilled salmon with prawns and boursin sauce, with new potatoes, I drank sparkling mineral water and finished with a coffee. I had no complaints at all, salmon was cooked to perfection, sauce was garlic-y and cheese-y the cauliflower, brocoli and spring greens were cooked to my liking a still remained a good bite.
The rest of my party has a sirloin steak cooked medium rare - this was quite fatty and a little to rare for his taste. Scampi looked over cooked to my eye but she said it was nice...chips were ok...again I thought they looked a little dry, maybe I'm just too fussy!

Desserts - mississippi pie, lemon meringue frozen pie and bread and butter pudding with custard, all plates were empty at the end so I take it all was well!

The Fox and Hounds - Bredon

The table is booked for 7:30pm, we are picking my friend up at 7pm. Steaks are what we are after as this is well know for the perfect steak. The last time we were here, Paul had a fantastic steak which rivalled anything he'd had before. Our friend is a big meat eater so I hope it doesn't dissapoint!

Fox and Hounds Pub

It was very quiet when we arrived even though the car park and surrounding roads were full with parked cars?! A very pleasant welcome awaited us and we ordered drinks and sat in the bar. I had a Gin and Tonic, which is a new experience for me, I’m really starting to get a taste for them!
As well as the extensive menu there is a fish special board along with another starters and main meal specials. The best bit is the menu that is written over the fireplace…it’s the dessert menu!!! Chocolate-y and comforting is a good way to describe it.
After much deliberation we (me and Paul) opted for the deep fried brie with the fillet steaks with stilton sauce. Our friend went for the duck pancakes for starters and the sirloin steak for main. I was so pleased I had chosen the cheese when it arrived it was huge and covered in the lightest batter ever, it reminded me of tempura batter it was that thin, and encased the cheese beautifully. It was served with a red currant jam and there was more than enough to go with the rocket salad. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The duck pancakes went down well, there was too much sauce on it for our friends taste, but looking at it I would say it wouldn’t have been just right for me!

Our main courses were just as anticipated, cooked to perfection, vegetables with bite and a good selection and good portions too! We tucked in with gusto, but Paul was feeling unwell (not food related) so couldn’t eat his…the waitress kindly kept it warm until he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to finish it, she then kindly wrapped up the meat to take home for the yorkie!
Buy the time we were ready for desserts Paul was feeling better so scoffed down a piece of their banoffee pie. This was good he tells me, but not as good as my homemade version…correct answer, he will live to eat another piece of my banoffee pie!! I went for the vanilla pannacotta, this was served with two homemade shortbread biscuits. On first inspection these looked a little overcooked, but once tasted they were lovely and complimented the dessert perfectly.
Our friend declined the offer of dessert as his starter was rather filling so just had an Irish coffee instead. I had a calypso coffee and Paul had a double espresso. The bill for 3 of us was just over the £100 which we thought was good value for money. The wine we had was just over £16 a bottle and was an Italian red. Service was excellent even though one of the waitresses was a little loud but hey she was very friendly too so you can’t complain!

The evening would have been a good 9/10 if it wasn’t marred by Paul feeling unwell, but as that had nothing to do with the restaurant we won’t hold it against them. We will return soon.