Posh Ranby pub grub takes Chequers flag
THIS week's culinary corner of the Guardian features a place I'd like you to picture in your mind's eye.
As you walk in there is a huge vivid red leather sofa, complemented by feather boas, gilded mirrors, open fires and other paraphernalia you might associate with a Parisian boudoir.
It proudly promotes Bollinger at a meagre 64 a bottle, and the bar is bedecked with Veuve Clicquot branding.
Top of the menu is steak teriyaki at 16.95, and far from providing dishes with an ordinary salad accompaniment, this place boasts its bespoke ‘designer salad’.
I hope by now you can envisage the kind of place in which I am dining, and what exactly I can gaze upon from my Georgian-framed window vantage point.
The Riviera perhaps, or maybe even a dewy mountain ridge? Well, no actually, Ranby Prison, because I am in fact talking about The Chequers at Ranby.
And while you might think that on the face of it, The Chequers is aiming for the Champagne Charlie, it also caters for Charlie Brown-Sauce.
Juxtaposed with high-priced Japanese steak dishes on this village pub menu is a staple dish that any newly-released inmate would relish – and afford – in the shape of ham, egg and chips for just 6.95.
So as we settled by a roaring open fire, we made our choices.
As a little starter we shared a garlic bread. It came with red onion, cheese and chutney on a warm, soft ciabatta – and more of that so called designer salad.
While it was nice to be faced with a new take on an old classic, I just felt the jammy taste to the chutney, with the garlic, onion and cheese, was just a tad too incongruous for my palate, but nevertheless it was well above your average pub grub.
For my main I could not resist the steak, mushroom and Guinness pie, while my wife-in-waiting plumped for the homemade lasagne – which came with, yes, you guessed it, more of that Godforsaken salad, which incidentally, could have been ‘designed’ by a blind amoeba.
Also, having heard about ‘Chequers chips’, as they are known, we couldn’t resist.
I have to say that when my ‘pie’ arrived my heart sank somewhat. It was presented as a bowl of stew, with puff pastry plonked on top. I was hoping for a big wedge of shortcrust wonderment – not designer pie.
However, the pastry – what little bit I was given – was terrific, and the steaming bowlful of huge steak chunks ticked every one of my man-appetite boxes.
I was equally impressed with the lasagne. I’ve come to expect a pile of shiny yellow slime from pub lasagne, but this was a cut above. Grease-free, lean steak mince, fresh tomato, basil – and it kept her quiet for a good 15 minutes, so again, all boxes ticked. The chips were all they were cracked up to be too.
However, I would strongly suggest that The Chequers buys a new dishwasher because the glasses were a disgrace, but I can’t fault much else.
by James Mitchinson
Star rating HHHH
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Dinnington
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
