(Pub Food)
Saturday // 1:00pm
Reviewer: Em
The George
Mill Lane,
Bathampton
BA2 6TR
The George started off as a monastery in the 13th Century, established by the Prior of Bath - I have been reliably informed by wait staff in the past that there are tunnels that run underneath the nearby road to the church across the way, that the priests used to sneak down to exchange barrels of beer without the higher ups knowing about it. It’s changed several hands in the last few years and is currently owned by the Chef and Brewer chain. It boasts a small beer garden that’s south facing for as much sun as you can get in England, and just for added touches of the Cotswolds, the canal runs along side this, with a dock for passing holidaymakers and folk who live on the river to pull up and enjoy a beer or a meal. It’s a joy in summer - in winter, picturesque enough, but lacking the benefit of its outdoor charms.
Restaurant: 55/100
Service: 8/30
To give staff their credit, they were very prompt with taking orders for drinks and food, and while the layout of the pub meant that it was very difficult for them to be within line of sight, they were in and out of our seating area on a frequent basis, which made it very easy to grab them if we needed anything. The downside is we did need things - cutlery for the main course was lacking until we grabbed a waiter, and a drink went awry until we reminded our waitress. It's also generally expected that a server will check in with a table at least one per course to check everything is alright - such enquiries were not forthcoming until our main.
Decor: 15/20
Like I've said in the blurb, this is an old building - the pub is spread out over multiple rooms, with tables of varying sizes tucked in every corner, and you have to duck a few beams when walking into certain parts - it makes it very easy to spot new wait staff, as they'll be the only ones who don't duck at the right point on instinct. The layout meant even though I knew some of the other parties featured squalling children, the sound never reached us, so noise wasn't a problem. The temperature was about right, if a little cold, but this was mostly because the place was packed and people frequently kept coming in and out of the doors, causing a draft. Even at nearly full to capacity, we had enough space to be comfortable, although more wouldn't have gone amiss. The thing I had a serious problem with though, was one corner of our area had a long-dead plant, with an enthusiastic strand of red tinsel wrapped around it, through its brown dead leaves. Christmas was over nearly 2 months ago, and dead plants have never been in vogue.
Drinks: 13/20
Only mainstream breweries were on offer behind the bar, and this being a traditional olde-time pub, there were no cocktails or mocktails on offer. Bonus for a decent amount of non-alcoholic drinks, which promptly gets knocked off again for serving my water with a slice of lime without asking.
Value for Money: 12/20
I added a bonus on, because I scored this in the pub, and then when we got to the till, we had £5 knocked off our meal due to an offer they had going on. This is a pub chain, but it's the upper end of the scale when you compare it to places like Wetherspoons. They did have quite a few offers on, in their favour.
Menu Selection: 7/10
Any menu that offers venison, scallops and burgers will normally have something for everyone. However, it wasn't as vegetarian friendly as I'd like, and I can't recall seeing any vegan options at all.
Starter: 62/100
Scallops and Black Pudding (with crispy pancetta and a honey and wholegrain mustard sauce) £5.99
Taste: 13/30
There were positives with this dish - the scallops were very nearly perfectly cooked; big, round, juicy, with just a touch of colour on either side. I have no idea where they sourced their black pudding from, but that was wonderful as well, the heavy, earthy flavour it should have been with the edge of pepper that anyone who is familiar with blood puddings of any sort will know and love.
Unfortunately, that's where the positives end. The pancetta - billed on the menu description as 'crispy' - was a limp, sorry thing that needed more cooking to provide the texture variation that this dish so needed. Without it, everything became sort of a mush.
This impression wasn't helped by the 'wholegrain mustard sauce', which was a lot of tasteless goo. Had it been given to me in a blindfold test, I'd have guessed it was an under-seasoned attempt at bechamel sauce, not anything that was supposed to have strong flavour. The only thing about the entire dish that wasn't mushy and soft were the rocket leaves...which unfortunately, didn't help on taste. The problem was whoever up at the Chef and Brewer headquarters designed this dish stuffed it full of big, heavy, salty flavours, which meant the taste of the scallops was little more than an echo of after taste, when they should have been the star of the show. Scallops are often served with something sweet to lift them up, and never have I had such a strong craving for delicate sticks of apple, maybe positioned gently on top of the entire thing, to offer some sort of variety of taste, texture AND to allow their star ingredient to shine. And for that matter, get rid of that damn sauce.
Presentation: 12/25
Well, they made an attempt - as can be seen from the picture - but were let down by a couple of things. For a start, the plate was cold - such a fundamental thing, so small, but can make such an impact. I’m a big black pudding fan, and even I find it hard to get enthused about the last few bites of a dish when it’s cold and claggy because the dish it’s been sitting on has acted like a heat sink and sucked all the warmth out of it. The other was the same sauce that caused so much bother in the taste scoring - it didn’t even look attractive, pooling on one side of the plate, thick and glutenous. Unappealing to say the least. Good attempt, bad execution.
Wait Time: 23/25
7 minutes to arrive, which can’t be sniffed at. High marks here.
Portion Size: 14/20
This could have been a main - albeit, a rather small one - if served with an appropriate side, not because of the amount of food, which wasn't skimpy, by any means, but because the dish was so heavy.
Main Course: 65/100
Roast Belly Pork with homemade crackling, mashed potato, braised cabbage and red wine sauce. £11.29
Taste: 21/30
Oh ambrosia! Oh nectar of the gods!
...Alright, my love of belly pork and braised cabbage may be getting away from me. But there were plenty of positives; the pork was beautifully soft, the crackling wonderfully crisp without being overdone so you don't have to worry about losing teeth. The cabbage was just sweet enough to provide balance for the fattiness of the pork, and the potato was soft and floury.
There were negatives, admittedly - the crackling was over seasoned, and the potato was woefully underseasoned. The sauce was supposed to be 'red wine', but the liquid from the braised cabbage had mingled with it and totally overpowered it, so it simply tasted of apple, which is a shame because a good, sticky, heavy red wine reduction would have added an extra level to the dish. I was also confused over one aspect of the dish; a small number of rocket leaves had been sandwiched between the pork and the potato, and I can't work out why. There weren't enough of them to make an impact, either for taste or texture.
Presentation: 19/25
The basics have all been covered - it has height, colour and shape - the plate choice was appreciated as well, given a lot of the items on the plate were wet, and the bowl meant I didn’t have to chase the pork around in an undignified manner. About as well done as it could have been without piping the potato and decreasing the amount of food on the plate to present it in an overly artistic manner.
Wait Time: 8/25
27 minutes to arrive from the point they cleared our starter plates - admittedly we were warned at about the 20 minute mark they’d be another ‘2-3 minutes’ - and then we had to ask for cutlery as well. Low score.
Portion Size: 17/20
Overly meagre portion size is not an accusation that can be flung at this dish with any hope of truth; I couldn’t finish, and my dining companion ended up hoovering up the remnants of my potato and cabbage, although he’d have had to duel me at dawn for any of the pork.
Dessert: 66/100
Chocolate and Caramel Torte, £4.99
Taste: 20/30
The torte on this was spectacular - dense, heavy and so full of flavour - with wonderful undertones of hazelnut and amaretti biscuits which prevents it from becoming too much. There were also strawberries and cream. which anyone who knows me will tell you is a quick and sneaky route to my heart. On the downside, the caramel sauce was disappointingly lacking in sweetness, to the point that it was overpowered by the torte and the cream, which should not have been the case.
Presentation: 12/25
Such a shame. The cream was a dollop, rather than piped, which given the average coffee shop these days can manage piped whipped cream is a basic. While I loved the strawberries, the fact their leaves were still attached was a negative, and the fact that some strawberry leaves had been piled on top even when they weren’t attached to a strawberry was a bigger negative. Something other than a random pool of caramel sauce would have been nice as well, really.
Wait Time: 11/25
11 minutes - after the very large main, a bit more of a wait would actually have been preferable!
Portion Size:11/20
This is never going to be a dessert you look at and decide to have it rather than a full meal. It’s at least a bit more substantial than simply a few sweet mouthfuls at the end of a large meal, but nothing to be awed over.
Overall Score: 248/400 (62%)
A thoroughly enjoyable meal, let down by some basic mistakes; wait times, presentation, seasoning, and most notably sauces. Still, there wasn’t anything that was actively objectionable, in good surroundings.
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