Hello There Discerning Diners!
Welcome back to my restaurant review blog.I don't know about you but I will read the menu, back to front, usually more than once, in any food place I go to. Restaurant, pub, cafe, chip shop, Chinese takeaway, MacDonald's ( not that I go in MacDonald's very often!), pizza place, anywhere!
I like to see a good menu, especially in a place where you can tell they've really tried to tempt you with their own dishes. There's a trend at the moment, in high-end restaurants, to just list the basics of what the dish contains, so you might see "quail, salsify, confit duck egg yolk, pan juices." Then, when the dish comes out what you actually get is a beautiful plate of food with little extra bits and sauces, that shows such skill in its presentation you cant help but be impressed and you also feel like you're getting more than you paid for. (You actually are, in fact, as the skill of a good chef is, in part, that first mouthful you take with your eye and to add more than monetary value to the ingredients used .)
The menu at The Littleton Arms is a bit like one of those menus, the sort you might find in a nice restaurant in a city like Birmingham. There's things done 3 ways, cold and hot things together, a bit of game, ham made from meat other than pork, confit this and smoked that.
. I have been to The Littleton Arms a few times for a spot of late lunch after visiting Penkridge Market on a Saturday. The lunch menu is pretty good, simple stuff like homemade fish finger sandwiches, steak baguettes, that sort of thing and must say it's been fine ( apart from the expensive "triple cooked chips" I tried once, they weren't.)I took my dinner date for the evening, the enigmatic and twinkly eyed Mitch (as she prefers to be called ), on a busy Thursday night. I had to book a couple of days in advance and was told I couldn't have a table for 8pm but 8.15 was fine. Hmmmm.
After a nice chat with Mitch and ordering a drink each we had a good look at the menu and I have to say at that time I would have gladly tried anything on there. Mitch agreed with me, I was a little worried that she might not like the sound of some of the dishes but was relieved when she said she would "have a go at anything" ( I must admit, it's so nice to dine out with a woman who is in no way a fussy eater, and is not put off because there might be rabbit or venison, or pigeon, or any other cutesy fuzzy woodland creature on the menu, I mean if you're going to be a meat eater, why stop at cows, chickens, pigs and sheep?)
We decided to go for a starter to share, a main each and one of the amazing sounding desserts to share. I was to pick the starter, Mitch to pick the dessert, very democratic I thought!
They did have a special deal on, which looked a bit spartan to be honest, but came with a "free" medium glass of wine. It was, however, £25 per person, so, having already got the drinks of our choosing, we picked from the full menu.
Now this is an unusual thing, as the menu for the evening did not match the menu on their website, although both were called "winter menu". A bit of an oversight I suppose, but none the less a tad unprofessional for a restaurant offering this kind of food at these kind of prices.
A perfectly friendly waitress came and took the order for our starter and mains. My choice of starter was the "pigeon ham, savoury scone, smoked butter and beetroot and gin granita" (£5.95 )
For my main I chose the pork belly, crackling, braised red cabbage and smoked sausage with black pudding dumpling.(£15.95 )
Mitch went for the chicken breast with smoked wing,crispy parsley, ratatouille and chorizo parcel. (£12.95 )
( I must apologise for anything I've missed out from the dishes, unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the menu and, as I said, the menu on the website doesn't list these dishes. It makes life a little bit harder for food bloggers like myself but I won't forget in future, dear reader!)
Mitch and I continued with our chatting and taking in the feel of the place, its a nice looking restaurant/pub, tastefully decorated, not too in your face modern and not too twee in a country pub kind of way.
We were asked by the waitress if we were sharing our starter
and brought out extra cutlery when we said "yes please". Which was a small but none the less nice touch.
So after a short wait and both of us rubber necking at any food that was brought out to other tables our starter arrived.
It looked a lot more appetising than the picture shows, I really must get myself a proper camera, as it does feel a little awkward
getting your phone out to take picture especially when you leave said phone in the car and have to dash out to get it, leaving a hungry dinner date with Carte Blanche to scoff it all down whilst you're away from the table!
Fortunately Mitch managed to hold off till I got back and took the
admittedly poor snap you see here.
The Pigeon ham, we both agreed was very good. Nice ans salty
like the more traditional pork ham but still with a gentle liver-like gaminess. The scone was nice too, a little herb taste to it, and just warm.
The beetroot and gin granita? Well, put it this way, neither of us could taste anything of it at all, in fact, so bland was it that we had to ask the waitress what flavour it was! A real let down.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of the disappointment either.
We had to wait for quite a while for the mains, and the measly morsel of a started had done nothing to satiate our appetite. As Mitch said " I think I am actually more hungry after that starter than I was before".
Eventually our mains did arrive, both looking very handsome. I just want to make a quick point about food being served on slate tiles. Why? okay, a starter on a slate is fine, but a main, in my opinion belongs on a plate. Yes, it looks attractive but the sound of a knife and fork scraping the rough surface of a slice of shale sets my teeth on edge, and its inevitable that a main is going to leak it's sauce over the edge of a slate. Sorry, I just don't like it!
Anyway, as I was saying, the mains looked good.
Once again I was disappointed. There is almost no cut of any meat I like more than a hunk of pig belly when it's done properly. Slowly braised or roasted so the natural fat in the meat bastes it whilst cooking, keeping it moist and rendering it slightly sticky and breaking down the stringy connective tissue between the layers of pork. This piece was underdone so the meat had to be hacked through with the inadequate table knife ( a steak knife would have been better.) and the black pudding dumpling was a slithery under seasoned ball of flour and suet with no redeeming qualities. The braised red cabbage and the crackling were good, as was the smoked sausage, the cabbage being properly reduced to a sticky sweet purple mass and the crackling beautifully crunchy and well seasoned. The sauce with the dish was a little sweet but the few deep fried sage leaves were a nice touch As a whole the dish didn't live up to its cool and funky menu description. It was like buying tickets to go see Prince live and someone like Bruno Marrs coming out on stage in his place.
I was so busy picking out the faults in my main that by the time I had looked up Mitch had almost finished hers. I had been told by my great friend and pit-master Andy Stubbs that the chicken dish wasn't that great (he and his girl Donna Church had been to eat here the night before) however, Mitch said she really enjoyed it. She said the chicken was juicy and tender and she really liked the ratatouille. She also said that the chorizo
dumpling was her favourite bit.
So, with me a little disappointed and Mitch pretty full we decided to go for a gorgeous sounding stacked chocolate dessert. (£5.95)
Again, this is not listed on their website so I will try to remember what it was made up of.
To sum things up then. The prices in this pub in Penkridge are on a par with a few restaurants in Birmingham. I think I would prefer to get the train into town and go somewhere there is a bit of competition, so the food has got to be good. The total bill for the evening, without a tip, was nudging £50. Too much for what we got I'm afraid. If we had maybe had a bowl of veg included in the price, or some of their alleged "triple cooked chips" or even some home baked bread it may have been worth the money, if my meal had been properly done.
For my final few words I'd like to say that if you have a menu that comes at you with its chest all puffed out then it'd better be able to deliver a good punch, or what's the point?
Thanks for reading, and a special thanks to my beautiful guest for the evening, Mitch.
My next recipe blog should be published on Thursday20th march, and I can guarantee it not only talks the talk, it walks the walk!
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