George, Alstonefieldback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Marston's pub which is really a restaurant now. The 3 beers (Pedigree, Help For Heros and EPA and were well kept and the bar area is nice and cost with a log fire. The staff are helpful and friendly.
The food was excellent.
But it's a restaurant really, certainly in the evening, if you are not eating, don't bother.
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The pub is probably good but the manager isn't. I phoned a week ahead to check that they could feed and water a group of 11 walkers. The manager was downright negative - we don't do tables for 11 (no problem), will there definitely be 11? (God willing), you need to pre-order food (I sent email at her request asking for the menu - no response).
So we took sandwiches and enjoyed them at Milldale Bridge and then visited the George just to quench our thirst. You would think that pubs would need the business.
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Not cheap (£10 for the starter and £18 for the main course) but excellent food and excellent beer to wash it down. £3.30 per pint for the Brakspear's Bitter (which had been Brakspear's Special the previous day), Pedigree, Burton Bitter and Jennings Cumberland Ale (which had replaced Banks's Sunbeam). Definitely upmarket dining but there is room to sit and drink a beer without feeling that you are unwelcome as a non-diner. Dogs welcome and we sat chatting to a couple on holiday from Leeds (do locals come here?) as we ate next to the open fire in the bar area. Booking a table still seems essential. Much nicer than the nearby Watts Russell Arms in Hopedale.
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Like most village pubs in out of the way locations, the George has had to build up the food trade to survive but when the food is this good and drinker is still well looked after, what's to moan about? Booking is essential at weekends, when the place is rammed, but in the week and epecially at lunchtimes this is still a characterful country boozer where the drinker can settle down in characterful surroundings and enjoy well-kept Pedigree - which is not as common in these parts as it should be. Young chap behind the bar very chatty without gushing all over you and the place is spotless, another thing you cannot always guarantee in this region.
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Seems to have changed a pub that that offered a few simple, but tasty offerings (pies, steaks etc) , to a foodie establishment.
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Large and very attractive building overlooking one of the many greens/squares that the very pretty village seems to be full of. Dining room off to left of entrance hall, small bar area with two seating areas off to right, the last of which is very basic with bare boards and whitewashed walls. The area next to the bar has some nicely old-fashioned floor tiling and bench seats. Well-kept, Marston's beers with one guest, this time from Brakspears. Seems to be heavily food-orientated and was quite busy for a Monday evening, but still able to just sit and contemplate a quiet pint. Well worth a return visit to sample the food, I think, judging by the look of the food on the plates that passed us from time to time.
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