The Trowell and Hammer Inn, Cotton

Wow. After so many years in the wrong hands, the Trowell is reborn and the glory days are returning. Now offering superb food, the like of which has not been seen since Thomas was the chef 20+ years ago, and a pub being run with pride and passion. It's wonderful news for the area, and I can see the Trowell reclaiming its reputation as one of the premier destination pubs in East Anglia. It really is now being run that well. AND, for the record, I am a totally independent reviewer.

20 Jun 2011 02:05

The Pickerel, Ixworth

Disappointed by the food. Menu is over priced for such basic pub fare. Starter of pate was not fresh ~ murky grey at the top and pink underneath. Pate doesn't keep well, even in the fridge so why pot it up days in advance if this is the result? �4.50 for small pot of cheap pate and a thin slice of toast? Hmmm. No 'salad garnish'. Returned to kitchen but replacement was no better.
Main course of Beef Madras (�8.75) was bog standard. These days food outlets need to have value added, and sadly the Pickerel fell short.
This criticism is intended to be constructive. It is no fun complaining!

9 Sep 2010 11:27

The Kings Head Inn, Lymington

Salute the 2004 reviewer blessed with a rare gift for accidental comedy (even if his timing is out). Amidst painfully crafted praise bearing the tone of a desperate landlord attempting to boost trade, we learn of the �simplistic� menu at the Kings Head. Hahaha. How to put your customers down before they arrive! I guess he meant �simple� (a word more aptly applied to himself).
But back to business�the combination of gravity and the gradient of the High Street propelled me into the Kings Head on a quiet Monday night. An �Indian meal for �10� in Lyndhurst the previous night had tasted so corrosively poisonous that the menu should have borne a skull and crossbones. If that was �Himalayan Chicken� then Joanne Lumley has every right to throw our borders open to the Ghurkhas, on gastronomic grounds alone (albeit they would demand repatriation if they had to eat in Lyndhurst).
It took sausages, mash and four pints of Stella in the Kings Head�s to restore my faith in the innocent pleasures of eating and drinking. Long before closing time I was in love with the place. Where else would a fellow~drinker let his pet scorpion roam over you? Had he known that I came from Colchester he would have bought his pet lizard. An excess of Stella even made that seem logical. Given the choice I would still be there now, and no doubt seen the whole menagerie.
My night in the Kings Head was life-enhancing (or as Derek and Clive might have said, �just a normal Monday night drink, then�).
So there we are. Top marks, and then some. No marks for the churlish reviewers who don�t understand that a night out is what you make of it. I will visit again soon even if it is 200 miles from home. Jim, a U�s fan.

28 Jan 2010 15:56