We
completed our trilogy of Titchfield high street pubs today by visiting The
Queen's Head. We must confess to being slightly disappointed thus far with the
standard of pub and food on offer in Titchfield. We had expected it to bare
rich pickings for those of a foodie persuasion.
Alarm bells
were quick to ring as we entered. It was noticeably cold inside and deathly
quiet. By this I don't mean a lack of people, although there weren't many of
those, I mean there was no music playing. This may seem like an unimportant
detail, but if you sit down to eat in a pub where there is no noise at all, it
sucks the atmosphere away like a giant pub plug hole. It's terrible, every word
you say can be overheard by anyone else in the room.
There were
two menus, one for the bar and one for the restaurant. I chose salmon in a
cream and white wine sauce with sauted potatoes while Dad went for the
"famous" steak and kidney pie with new potatoes. The prices were at
odds with the pub, both meals coming in at around £12 - £13, too much. It
didn't take too long for the food to arrive, and when it did, the pricing
really has to be questioned.
My salmon
was cooked well enough, and Dad's pie was fine, he was impressed with the
pastry, which incidentally only appeared on the top of said pie. After that it
all goes downhill I'm afraid. A bowl of vegetables for us to share held a
rather uninspiring mass of pea's and cauliflower. My potatoes had escaped from
the freezer and the wine in my sauce hadn't been reduced enough, leaving a
slightly unpleasant acidic note throughout.
It's a nice
enough little pub with its oak beams and fireplace, but you can't get so many
simple things wrong and expect to impress anyone. The two unforgivable crimes
in pub land are to allow your pub to be cold and silent. If on top of that you
overcharge for average food, you truly are looking down a big old pub plug
which will swallow you up.
Atmosphere 3
Service 5
Food 6
Value 4
Verdict Poor
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