THE BERKELEY ARMS - Delling lane, Bosham

Today, fait steered us to the village of Bosham, and more precisely, to The Berkeley Arms. Not far from the harbour, this would be an ideal location to grab some food after a leisurely walk, admiring our green and pleasant land.

The pub is a listed building, so as you'd expect, it is blessed with the good looks which can only be found in a real old English pub. The flint walls however belie the more contemporary interior. There's also plenty of room to eat outside, and due to the brief day of sunshine we were afforded, we decided to take that option. The menu sounded good, with your usual lighter options alongside the pub classics, not to mention a good smattering of fresh seafood. Refreshingly, the prices were as they should be, averaging just over £10. Some meals were a few pounds more, but you could see why, it all made sense. Some menus just frustrate and confound us, but thankfully this wasn't one of them.

The menu may have been good but it was the specials board which grabbed my attention. As soon as I found out that a chicken, broccoli and stilton pie was on offer, I was in love, and my heart was not for turning. The pie came with new potatoes and vegetables and cost a very reasonable £10. Dad opted for the ham, egg and chips, which came in at an equally reasonable £9.

The food was delivered incredibly quickly. This is normally a bad sign, but one look at the plates told a story with a very happy ending. It was obvious that my pie was spectacularly homemade, I mean this in the nicest possible way. Dad's ham was proper ham of a high quality and was accompanied by two eggs no less. I started with a bit of new potato, always a good indicator of the standard of food. It was very good, and the way I see it, if you can make a simple potato taste good, you can probably do the rest well. I need a moment to talk about my pie. I feel it should really have a review all of its own. A real pie, surrounded on all sides by homemade pastry and filled with the most delicious filling. We have come across several, "Award winning pies", in our time, very few of them living up to their own hype, well let me tell you readers, this may have been the best pie I've ever had, and for that reason, we would like to give out our first ever award, a real award that really means something. The GastroHub award for best pie goes to The Berkeley Arms.

We were both delighted with our trip to Bosham. Top quality food at a good price, in a lovely pub and served by friendly people who believe in what they are doing, plus a bit of welcome sunshine. We always measure our experience with one simple question. Would we go back? In this case the answer is an emphatic yes, and we have no problem recommending it to our lovely readers.

Atmosphere          8

Service                 9

Food                    10

Value                   9

Verdict                 5*

Join us on