Carrington Arms, Moulsoeback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Ah, thanks last poster. I came to this pub to eat and drink some while back. Something had semi-stuck in my mind that I couldn't quite recall, and you remind me of what it was, the giant chessboard.
I've nothing very much to add to your detailed critique. That said, in addition to the above, there was something else, on which I couldn't quite put my finger. I seem to recall that ordering food and finding a table were something of a performance, but that the customers were expected to be familiar with the establishment's idiom, even first-timers. That put me on the back foot rather, which isn't what you want when you go out of an evening. 6/10.
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A imposing, red brick pub with a somewhat medieval look from the outside, whilst the inside manages to retain one or two original features despite having had a contemporary makeover at some point.
The interior of the pub is smaller than you might expect from the outside and is divided in to two sections. The lounge area to the left is carpeted throughout and the original exposed brick wall remains at one end and includes a large fireplace. There are a few old beams on the ceiling and the original arched wooden doors make an interesting features set in to the roughly plastered front wall alongside the leaded windows. Other than that it has a much more modern feel with a mixture of upright chocolate dining chairs and numerous small armchairs.
The pub continues along towards a dining area which is down a couple of steps and has a dark grey tiled floor. The old ceiling beams continue through to here, and regular readers will be pleased to know they are adorned with fairly lights. Adjacent to this is an open kitchen area which includes the pub's "famous meat counter" (their words, not mine).
Outside is a good sized beer garden with a patio area and several picnic benches as well as a giant chess board. It appears that they also offer accommodation, and these rooms run alongside the beer garden. The young barmaids were all pleasant, helpful and efficient..
There are two menus offered, a restaurant and bar option. The restaurant version was obviously the pricier of the two and included a number of steak dishes and sharing platters. The bar menu consisted primarily of burgers with a dozen or more choices available as well as a few sandwiches. There were some "pub classics" offered, but these were limited to just two or three choices such as Fish & Chips and Ham, Egg & Chips. I had the former (or Beer Battered Cod Fillet as it was described on the menu) which was a decent and tasty portion of fish along with a small pot of tartar sauce, some chunky had cut chips and mushy peas. It wasn't cheap at �9.50 and the portion size could have been a bit more generous, but I enjoyed it and have no complaints.
Beers on tap were Cottage's Malt Tezer and Bateman's Hop Bines Bitter. Ciders were Aspall's Suffolk and Weston's Traditional Scrumpy, which makes a pleasant change from the ubiquitous Strongbow around these parts. All in all this was a decent pub with good food and friendly staff, although perhaps it's not quite "pubby" enough for some.
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Quite expensive, but decided to splash out, only to be dissapointed that the food lacked some flavour. The service was very good, however, and the staff friendly.
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Had been here before (and enjoyed it), but on recent trip found the service and food highly disappointing.
Firstly, the waitress tried to squeeze our party of 5 around a table for 4 (and the place was empty). The only tables big enough were in close proximity to the bar area, where later some smokers took up position. The food was very poor and the portions miserly. The garlic potatoes that I had enjoyed on a previous trip were sloppy and bland. The worst thing was that the price charged was excessively high. No tip & certainly no return trip.
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Too right its not cheap and to be really honest not worth the money in terms of food quality - looks good but lacking in quality
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Atmospheric stone-built mansion, now a real "gastro-pub". Excellent decor, service, wine selection and food. ostrich, kangaroo and crocodile were on the menu. Not cheap - as you'd expect from such a fine establishment.
Bob D - 16 Mar 2005 13:08 |
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