|
Unlike one's private home, the hallmark of a restaurant is variety, you should not be limited to 4 or 5 choices (sometimes even less). Equally, as everything is fresh & prepared on the premises, there are limits. At dinner (7.00 - 9.30pm) we offer our à la carte menu, which is changed every week. We offer 8 first courses, such as; |
|
| Honey Roast Quail |
£6.50
|
Smoked Haddock Risotto |
£5.50
|
|
| A whole quail oven roasted with honey & served with rocket leaves (not enough sparrows in the garden!) |
A creamy haddock risotto topped with a soft poached egg (we used to have pterodactyl eggs on the menu!) |
|||
| Confit Duck Leg |
£5.50
|
Blackberry Melon |
£5.25
|
|
|
Duck leg slowly cooked with cinnamon, orange & star anise, served with an orange dressing
|
Slices of honeydew melon, served with chilled blackberry & orange compot
|
|||
|
then 8 main courses, such as;
|
||||
| Chinese Duck |
£16.00
|
Coconut Salmon & Prawns |
£16.00
|
|
| A seared duck breast, served with a stir of bok choi, egg noodles & peppers drizzled with a soy & ginger dressing | A fillet of salmon, set on a bed of coconut rice, served with lime marinated tiger prawn tails | |||
| Beef & Pie |
£20.00
|
Venison Saddle |
£15.50
|
|
|
A grilled fillet of beef, served with a wild mushroom & shallot pie; drizzled with a port jus
|
Slices of griddled venison saddle, set on sweet braised red cabbage, topped with a parsnip crisp
|
|||
| Glazed Pork Belly |
£14.50
|
|||
|
Pork belly cooked slowly with sherry & stock, served with buttered carrots, mini roast potatoes & glazed with the rich pan juices (everything's pretty slow here! & glazed - and thats just the customers!) |
||||
|
followed by 8 puddings (£5.20), such as;
|
||||
| Plum Soup | White Chocolate Brûlée | |||
| A rich spiced plum soup, served warm with cinnamon cream filled profiteroles - (you can have it as a first course if you like!) | A white chocolate crème brûlée, served with a raspberry & orange compot. (Milky Bar Kids favourite pud!) | |||
| Grown-up Bread & Butter pudding | Honeycomb Ice Cream | |||
|
A warm bread & butter pudding laced with too much Whisky (what, how much?!) & served with cinnamon cream
|
Served in a brandy snap basket (I'm surprised that the E.U. hasn't banned 'brandy snap' cos it don't contain brandy! - or 'comb' cos it's not for the hair!)
|
|||
|
or 7 cheeses exclusively from the British Isles such
as;
|
||||
| Cotswold Bassett Stilton | Organic Cotswold Brie | |||
| (Notts.) Rich & creamy with a hint of herbs. If not available, then Cropwell Bishop (only 3 other dairies make Stilton) | A creamy "Brie" made by Simon Weaver at Greenfield Farm, Glos. (Local pong this!) | |||
| St Agnes | Celtic Promise | |||
|
(Worcestershire - just above Broadway)
- A young, fresh cow's milk cheese made by the lovely Michael &
Diane Stacey at Gorsehill Abbey Farm (I dont think Michael is "lovely"!
John)
|
A brine washed cheese made from Welsh cows' milk. Spicy,
aromatic & pungent. Made by John &
Patrice Savage-Untswedder
|
|||
|
In addition we offer a plain "unmucked about"
menu with 4 first courses;
|
||||
| Chicken Liver Pâté / "W.D.40" |
£5.00
|
Scottish Smoked Salmon |
£8.00
|
|
| Made by Andy the handyman; was told the other day that W.D. stands for 'water displacement'!. | Served with fresh lime, brown bread & butter. | |||
| Fresh Galia Melon |
£4.60
|
Homemade Soup of the Day |
£3.50
|
|
|
or with Port
|
£5.40
|
Opening a tin of Heinz or diluting some Maggi is too complicated for our chef's so they make it themselves!
|
||
|
and 9 main courses, e.g.
|
||||
|
Sirloin Steak (£14.00)
Fillet Steak (£19.00)
Lamb Cutlets (£14.00)
Mediterranean Chicken (£12.50)
|
||||
|
PLUS (yes!)
6 vegetarian main course options (£12.00) such as;
|
||||
| Tobasmo Tart | Goats' Cheese Slice | |||
| (Sounds like a Kenyan Kourtezan!) Filo pastry filled with sliced sweet potatoes, tomato, basil & Mozzarella cheese on a tomato sauce (Always very popular) | Goats' cheese, roasted red onions & cherry tomatoes on a puff pastry base & served with a balsamic reduction | |||
| Tagliatelle Genovese | Stuffed Pepper | |||
| An Italian pasta dish of tagliatelle with fine beans, Parmesan & basil in a light cream sauce; topped with rocket leaves | Two halves of roast pepper, stuffed with olives, potato & tomato; served with a pesto sauce (by a pest of a chef!) | |||
| Squashed Cumble (who sat on this?!) | ||||
| Roasted butternut squash & toasted almonds topped with a spiced almond crust | ||||
 |
||||
|
How do we organise such a choice? - with all the staff
being here for so many years it's purely a matter of habit & organisation.
At most hotels and restaurants, the staff change more often than the
menu and that is the limiting factor.
|
|
|
At lunchtime (12.30 - 2.00pm) we offer exactly the
same as in the evening, 7 days a week, but in addition we offer our
superb "Buffet Lunch" which is an outstanding value for money
(£9.50) array of 40+ different dishes - cold meats etc., plus hot quiche,
jacket potatoes & sausages. As at dinner you don't have to eat 3
courses, at lunch especially sometimes the buffet is enough in itself
& it's the fastest lunch in the west (midlands!).
|
 |
 |
|
|
In addition we have a junior
à la carte menu which is available at lunch, dinner or high tea
- well behaved children are always as welcome as well-behaved adults
in the dining room.
|
|
|
At breakfast, 7.30 - 9.30 (weekdays) or 8.00 - 10.00
(weekends), we offer the full choice of a traditional English breakfast
down to black pudding and kippers. We used to offer pterodactyl eggs
("beware best before date!"), but an Argentinian family had
to be convinced, in broken Spanish, that it was just a joke!
|
|