GBPA 2024: Best Pub for Food, sponsored by Booker/Makro – the Hinds Head, Bray, Berkshire

This Berkshire pub, which is part of world-renowned chef Heston Blumenthal’s group, stands out despite this being an extremely strong list of finalists for the category of Best Pub for Food in this year’s Great British Pub Awards.

The pub is smart from the outside but inside is where it shows off classical touches and rooms of historical note.

Technical simplicity​

Although Blumenthal is known for ‘molecular gastronomy’, Peter Gray, executive chef at the Hinds Head, insists the pub’s byword is ‘technical simplicity’.

A strong kitchen team that is allowed to bring forward ideas and turn them into reality gives customers some great dishes such as its famed Scotch egg starter and its best-selling fish & chips meal as a main that is served with incredible accompaniments including curry sauce, minted peas and ‘chippy dip’, which is a potato-based addition and made to taste like the bottom of a bag of chips from a chip shop.

The menu also includes pub classics alongside steaks from a meat-ageing cabinet on display in the middle of the ground floor restaurant.

Menu development​

The pub is always developing its menu and those taking a seat at the bar can opt for bar snacks that include a packet of peanuts displayed on a cardboard backing intended to look like the type customers would grab at their local in ’70s and ’80s but these peanuts are made by the kitchen and taste spectacular.

Of course, the wine list does not fail to meet demand and, as such, it is extensive and has about 20 available by the glass. Its entry level wine is £35, which was previously £40 so guests’ purses are saved somewhat from current economic pressures there.

A bar upstairs has been converted into an ice cream parlour for children while pub marketing is strong as is training for all levels of staff members.

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