Originally Posted by Ammi
(Post 11659915)
…strangely I read a different review a few days ago, which was in the Guardian…
…I’ll just pick out the bit from the article about the meal at The Farmers Dog…
Sunday lunch in The Farmer's Dog
A few minutes before our 1pm lunch reservation, we headed back to the pub entrance and were quickly directed to head inside and look for a man called John ("he looks like me but he's bald and he loves Welsh people", said the man who clocked my accent).
Bald man located easily enough, he showed us to our table, possibly the best in the pub, tucked away on its own in a little corner right by the glass doors that opened out on to the large outside terrace. So not only did we have a view of the whole of the inside, we got the breeze and the sunlight of the outdoors too. Perfect.
Much like Clarkson does on his popular Amazon Prime show (I was now starting to realise just how popular it really is), the pub is very keen to show off its credentials as a supporter of local farms. A blackboard on the wall names local farmers Vanessa Hartley and Nick Sinden, as well as Rectory Farm, as sources.
We ordered a pint of the Hawkstone Black stout (£7) and a half of the Hawkstone lager (£3.50). They're great drinks and we sat and waited for our food by watching staff move purposefully through the busy pub, carrying plates loaded with delicious-looking Sunday roasts and stepping over the dogs lying at their owners' feet. There was a pianist playing a grand piano by the front door, a permanent queue at the bar for a pint and a feelgood buzz running through the whole place — everyone just seemed thrilled to be here, me included.
My starter of cold-smoked Bibury trout (£11.50) was fantastic — generous, thickly-sliced trout packed with flavour and possibly better than any smoked salmon I've ever had. I'd been to the Bibury trout farm a short drive away two days earlier, which made it all taste even better somehow, as did the accompanying horseradish cream and watercress salad.
I went for the two-meat main course with beef and pork (£26), which were the only two meat options. It came with roasted whole potatoes (amazing), roasted carrots and parsnips, spring greens, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pudding and gravy made from the stout I was drinking. It can be hard to distinguish one well-made Sunday roast from another so I won't try too hard. This one was generous, tasty and largely faultless (I could probably have done with a drop more of the delicous gravy).
We were both too full for pudding but we did see an Eton mess (£10.50) and poached rhubarb crumble cake with Cotswolds ice cream (£10.50) being carried past. Both looked great.
We were pretty much done with our food within the hour and the bill for two main courses, one starter and two drinks came to £80 (including service). Before leaving, I just wanted to soak in a bit more of the venue so took a look upstairs (also full, of course) and spotted the full-size tractor hanging from the ceiling above the pianist, which I'd somehow managed to miss on the way in.
I've talked a lot about how busy the pub (and the whole site) was. Jeremy Clarkson and Amazon Prime have created a phenomenon. But don't let that put you off. The queue for the car park was no more than a few minutes at most and that was the only waiting we did. Thanks to our reservation, we were straight in through the front door and we didn't need to queue at the shop for our beer and honey either. My over-riding impression of the huge crowd was how happy we all were to be there. If you wanted a beer (inside or outside) or something from the butcher, you should probably expect a queue, but that's pretty much it.
At first, I wondered whether I should feel a bit guilty about being one of the hordes of people taking over what was presumably a quiet and anonymous part of Oxfordshire 12 months ago, but reports suggest most people in the area are happy to have the pub so the guilt didn't last long.
I'm glad I went and will remember it for a long time. Pubs aren't only about food, they're about how they make you feel. And I loved every second of this trip. If it had been hammering down with rain, I might feel differently - but that's just Britain, isn't it?
…this is the full article with lots of pics, including one of the lunch menu…I guess that the only critic with food that has any merit is the eater themselves…
…I have to say that I haven’t watched the show at all but we did visit Diddly Squat Farm a while ago because we were doing tourist stuff…plus my son said this is where we’re going today so we did…one thing that can’t be denied with Jeremy Clarkson, love him or not so much etc….he’s really doing something right atm…he built it and they came…and they came…and they came…a business success of the moment…
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...-dog-exclusive
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