New Inn of Michelin fame
The New Inn, Chalkhouse Green Road, Kidmore End, Reading, Berkshire. Tel: 01189 723115.
Just five miles from the centre of Reading, the New Inn is tucked away in a quiet hamlet on the Berkshire and Oxfordshire border, close to the region's main golf course.
A new entry in the latest edition of Michelin's Eating Out In Pubs guide, the 16th-century inn has undergone a major refurbishment in recent months and now boasts six luxury rooms - clearly a growing trend in the gastropub world.
The pub is part of a small group called 4c Inns, which also owns the Thatched Tavern at Ascot, the Brickmakers at Windlesham, Surrey, and the Fox & Hounds at Englesfield Green, Surrey.
Although this visit was mid-week, the rooms appeared to be busy, with guests congregating in the cosy bar. But despite its reputation as a place to stay, as well as somewhere to be fed and watered, it still feels very pubby.
The dining room has a more restaurant feel and the menus are suitably ambitious and large. At lunchtime, the menu is divided into small plates (from £4.25 to £6.25), salads (£7.75 to £9.95) and large plates (£7.95 to £10.95), with a selection of ciabattas on sale in the bar.
In the evening, the a la carte menu and specials menu feature as many as 11 starters and 19 main courses. It's a busy kitchen.
I started with deep-fried Cajun-spiced calamari and crayfish tails (£6.75), served with aïoli and salad. The deep-fried seafood had been coated in a bizarre mixture that contained dried herbes de Provence - an ingredient last seen served in hotpots in 1970s whole food vegetarian cafés and best kept there. The calamari and crayfish tails were also very salty and not a pleasant mouthful.
Much better was a precisely-cooked whole grilled plaice (£13.95) served simply with wedges of lemon, a generous handful of big, fat capers and a butter sauce. It was accompanied by a selection of vegetables, including new potatoes, carrots and sugar snap peas, let down by broccoli that was yellow and brown on the edges and past its best.
The star of the show was the home-made sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce (£4.95), which was excellent. Moist, full of chopped dates and served in a moat of sauce that wasn't overly sweet, it was a perfectly executed version of the ubiquitous gastropub pud.
Mark Taylor
PubChef rating (out of 10)
Ambience 6, value for money 7, flavour factor 7, overall impression, 7
BEERS: Brakspear Bitter, Brakspear Special, Stella Artois, Carlsberg, Guinness.
MAIN COURSES: £8.95 to £19.95.
WINES ON LIST: 18 whites (four by the glass), 22 reds (five by the glass), two rosés (one by the glass), five Champagnes and sparkling wines (none by the glass), plus half-bottles of one red and one white.
ANOTHER THING: The pub has luxury rooms, all named after wines: Chianti, Semillon, Merlot, Rioja, Shiraz and Champagne.
Menu innovation: Selection of nine different filled ciabattas, only available in the bar or garden. These include mature cheddar and Branston pickle and hot rib-eye of beef with horseradish sauce, all at £5.95.
Most interesting dish: Hake en croute with a creamy mushroom and shallot mornay filling (£12.50).
What's going on: The pub's six luxury rooms - all named after wines - include heated flooring and a superking-sized bed in the Champagne Suite.
Décor: The bar is traditional and pubby, with low wood beams, uneven floorboards, old fireplaces, horse brasses, copper kettles and framed cartoons of wine buffs. The separate dining room is more contemporary, with original beams, white walls and wooden tables.
House wine: De Neuville Sauvignon Blanc (£11.95 bottle, £3 for 175ml glass, £4 for 250ml glass), a French Vin de Pays.
Welcome: Friendly, but the barman's initial response was whether I was staying in one of the rooms, rather than whether I wanted a drink.
Service: The one waitress in the restaurant was smartly dressed and friendly. She asked if everything was OK during each course.
Product knowledge: The waitress didn't appear to know much about where the produce came from. When asked if the meat was local, she said "It's English, but I'm not sure if it's local".
Toilets: Simple, clean and fresh-smelling.
Return visit?: Maybe, if I was passing, or if I needed a comfortable, quiet room away from the centre of town.
