Stanley Gate Inn, Bickerstaffe

I was looking forward to having a meal here for the first time in many years. The last time I ate here, before the refurbishment, this place was a typical ping-ping pub. That is to say, most of the meals came out of a freezer into a microwave. The new look, the new menu, the new patio all boded well and it was pitching itself as a gastro-pub with prices to match. So, myself and my partner, Jane decided to give it a try. The entrance door to the pub is very welcoming, with a mock dinner table set out with yellow napkins, expensive cutlery and a sample menu, tastefully printed. On entering the pub, we are greeted with quiet, dinner jazz in the background and pleasant layout, with a seperate smoking and non smoking section. We took our place and looked at the menus. Everything sounds very nice indeed and we both go for the Chicken Liver Pate with Scottish Heather Honey to start. Jane chooses the Steak and Ale pie and I decide to have Hoi-sin Duck salad. It is here that things start to go wrong for the Stanley Gate. They have obviously taken great care with presentation of the establishment and menus but the same can not be said of the food. The pate was, at best, bland - we have had nicer pate from Morrisons. From here, and I am afraid to say, the quality of the food fell even further. Whoever devised this menu ought to have made sure the chef could actually make it first. My salad consisted of a few slices of warm but exceedingly dry and tired looking duck coated in bought in Hoi-Sin sauce, in a bowl thrown onto the top of, and I kid you not, quarters of raw tomato, a few slices of raw yellow and red peppers, a few leaves of raddichio and a substantial amount of very large pieces of oakleaf - all undressed and extremely unimpressive at the �10.95 price tag. I suspect the whole menu was created by an over optimistic manager and passed on to a very under qualified and underpaid chef. And so I guess it will be another 5 years before I dare venture in here again. Shame.

22 Aug 2006 16:08