On 15 September 2007, I went to Dovedale in Peak District with some friends.
Our purpose was to have some walk in the nature and have a nice meal a country pub.
We first ate, and then walked, but I will write about the food later.
This is a gorgeous view of Dovedale. It was a fine day and there were a quite lot of walkers.
It was not cold yet, but there already were some trees that started to change colours.
We saw many pheasants running around (don't they fly?), and there were also sheeps, cows and a very friendly dog. The foot path goes through private farms, and that is why I saw many animals.
It was really a nice walk.
Now, the pub.
This is how it looks from outside; it is really nice, isn't it?
We found this place on internet, and we booked a table at 12 o'clock.
When we arrived at 12 o'clock, there was no one eating in the dining area.
In the photo, it looks cosy. Yes, it was cosy, but it was quite dusty, too, as if it has not been cleaned for a while.
Also dirty were table cloth and napkins. My napkin was clearly used by some one else before.
This is one of our starters. It was named "Garlic Mushrooms en Croute" (£4.75).
"En Croute" means wrapped in pastry and baked, but it is clearly just "served with toast".
It tasted all right, but the description was wrong, and over-priced for what was.
For main course, we ordered four types of meat, and this is one of them, Herb Crusted Seared Venison Served with a Rich Port Jus (£13.95).
This was the best of the lot. The meat was beautifully done and tasted fabulous. Although one of the friends said it had too much dried herb, I liked as it was.
This is a transh of the meat. It was rare as it should be.
We ordered also wild boar, pork belly and rib eye steak.
I thought the pork was poorly done, as it was quite hard. Pork belly should be slow cooked to the degree that it becomes melting soft. I thought the chef did not know how to deal with it.
This is side dish. The quantity was poor for 4 people, as well as the freshness of the vegetable. The carrots were almost dry.I am usually served a good quantity of veggie in British pub, so this was a real disappointment.
It was also a fatal mistake that they did not have any bread to give us, even though there were bread dishes on the table and we did booked our table days before.
Price for all was about £60, so £15/head. This includes as drink only 2 glasses of coke (the others had water); it is not expensive, but not even cheap for the quality, quantity and the service we had.
Yes, service, it was almost inexistent. The owner chef guy was welcoming, but he bearly got out of the kitchen to ask us if everything was ok so I did not even have chance to complain. The waiter was a teenager in really dirty uniform that desperately needed ironing.
The whole experience was pretty dire. If you are going to Okeover, bring your lunch with you.
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