Pub Grub, i'm sure it used to be good?

[dawson2k5]

Out doing some shopping the other day and we decided to pop into a very nice looking pub for some much deserved hearty pub grub.
Upon ordering we quickly realised what a mistake this potentially was seeing quite a few other punters food passing by and being less than impressed, upon receiving the food, well let's just say the owners were glad i'd paid upfront as what we were given was less than satisfactory at best, a disastrous meal and not at the best of prices either, this is not the first time we have been let down by the legendary pub grub, but it sure will be the last!!!!
Thanks,
Andrew

[Seabadger]

Most pub grub has always been pretty awful, but there were some gems. One of the problems now is that most pubs are owned by chains, and offer standard menus and serve standard food prepared in huge volumes and microwaved or boiled on-site - uniformly poor or at best bland, in other words.

You can quite often find pubs that are still independently owned or part of a small chain, where owners and and their staff may take a much greater interest and pride in what their kitchens turn out - can't think of any easy way of finding them, other than Googling the pubs themselves.

[Dave E]

Echo to the above, pub grub has always been hit and miss. Finding a pub that you know serves good food can be tricky (and they always seem to close down 6 months after I find them for some reason).

[village]

safe pub grub=a packet of crisps, or maybe some peanuts if you feel like pushing the boat out.

[ombre]

Pork scratchings for me..lts like sunday lunch in a bag :lol:

[village]

Pork scratchings for me..lts like sunday lunch in a bag :lol:

Ah but they're not like they used to be.....mainly those crap Mr Porky ones which are full of stuff they sweep of the floor.

[Daz]

I went for a bar meal two weeks ago and paid £12 for a dose of Montezuma's Revenge and another £5 three days later for a pack of imodium tablets to put it right.

[rfrazier]

The first time I saw "food" in an English pub it was a mouldy[1] jar of pickled eggs. I thought I had happened upon a mad biological scientist convention.

[1] It could, I suppose, have been herbs in the pickle, but I suspect not.

Best wishes,
Bob

[ralphy]

Must be lucky I guess!

Around where I live there are about 5 good food pubs; all of them are independantly owned/operated, with an emphasis on local produce and all with decent beer on tap. The only potential downsides are that the food tends to be a bit dearer than chain pub fare and also the menu does not have the endless range of starters/main/dessert - a sure sign of pre-packaged, mass-produced microwave-able 'cooking'.

R

PS Afterthought: the only other downside to the above 5 pubs is that none are within walking distance, but I have always applied a fair and equitable system of driving to pubs/restaurants/"do's" with SWMBO; I drive there, she drives back.

[Glamdring]

It's one of our not-so hidden shames. We should hang our heads but people eat it, pay for it and want more so why should the pubs change? We have a chav culture. :(

[swanbourne]

If you expect cheap food to be good, then you are delusional. However, if it's not cheap then you expect it to be good.

Eddie

[Seabadger]

Around where I live there are about 5 good food pubs; all of them are independantly owned/operated, with an emphasis on local produce and all with decent beer on tap. The only potential downsides are that the food tends to be a bit dearer than chain pub fare and also the menu does not have the endless range of starters/main/dessert - a sure sign of pre-packaged, mass-produced microwave-able 'cooking'.

I'd guess that's not massively unusual (unless you live some absolute hell-hole, back end of nowhere sort of place), it's just a case off knowing where they are. If you go into a pub at random, the odds of getting good food are probably 1 in 10 absolute tops.

We should hang our heads but people eat it, pay for it and want more so why should the pubs change?

Lots of pubs have changed. I've lived in west and north west London for 13 years and there has been a huge change in the pub market, mostly positive, during that time - and that's bearing in mind that the first gastros opened up a few years prior to me moving down - the Eagle, Lansdowne, Engineer etc. My experiences outside London have been mixed - a tendency to think that if you rip out the carpet and use a blackboard as a menu then the job is done doesn't cut it anywhere, but my overall experience is that it's slowly getting better elsewhere as well.


The chains will never change until the chains and managed houses move away from the reheated stuff, but that would cost more and they'd need a complete culture change away from homogenisation of menus and the guarantee of a minimum standard, even if the standard is poor.

[Bry1975]

Most of the chain pubs use frozen grubs can't say any more. :D

Regs

Bry

[ralphy]

Most of the chain pubs use frozen grubs can't say any more. :D

Regs

Bry

My point exactly.

Just as an aside I've just phoned one of our 'pubs of choice' and ask what's on the menu tonight. Reponse? "Scallop and bacon salad/asparagus & parmesan/ pork terrine/vegetable soup for starters, sea bass/tagliatelle/pork tenderloin/chicken casserole for mains." So that's a grand choice of 4 starters & 4 mains.

And tomorrow? "Dunno, Chef'll tell us when we've had our food delivery in t'morning".

:thumbup:

R

[Stanford]

From memory (which is not that great these days :? ) there was a revolution around 25 to 30 years ago when a few pubs in my area started to focus on the quality of their food (as well as their cellars) and it was possible to get superb food and beer in some nice 'country' pubs.
At that time there was (and still is), a huge divide between those few pubs and the rest where a packet of crisps, honey roast nuts and a pickled onion were about all you could (safely) buy and consume.

Since then, although there are still pubs producing good fresh food, I think much of the food is mass produced and just re-heated on site, but is not always that bad.

Still, in my book, pubs are meant for drinking, not food or telly :) :drunken:

[Seabadger]

And tomorrow? "Dunno, Chef'll tell us when we've had our food delivery in t'morning".

I'm pretty reluctant to eat in places that don't do that really, although obviously I do from time to time. It's also a far more cost effective way of running a kitchen.

[matts]

I'm not sure that it used to be good, I think we just didn't eat out as much and so it was a treat. Most pub grub seems to be brake brothers or 3664 nowadays and supplied frozen and then reheated.

There are exceptions, but around here they know they are and charge accordingly. £16 for bangers and mash in a pub seems a little steep to me, even if it is served in a "jus" (gravy apparently)...

[markc]

2 good pubs for food within an easy walk of where we live. Plenty more within a short drive. I think it depends where you are and (quite a bit) on the luck of the draw.

I can name good (and bad) pub eateries in most of the places I have lived. I would say, however, that most (that I've tried) haven't been bad - must be lucky I guess.

Cheers,

[chrisparker]

There are plenty of good places around the York area.

And there are plenty of chain pubs to avoid.

Here's a tip though, if it's got pictures of food on the menu walk out.

Chris.

[Bry1975]

IMO Some of Brakes and 3663 grub isn't bad. Brakes were using Holland's Pies to make their own. And any Lancs or West Yorkshire man will know Holland's pies! :P


Regs

Bry

[Daddelvirks]

Pub grub used to be great.
But you have to be very carefull where you enter these days.
It's sort of hard to find a decent plaughman's lunch for a fair price. ( that's what pub food was all about).
But, on my way to Cornwall I allways stop at the Travellers Rest, near Exeter, and up till now, they never let me down :)

Cheers,

Daddel.

[Glamdring]

What sort of prices are we talking about here? I do know that few pubs around here warrant my attention. Either the food is poor or the service desultory. Or both. For this they charge £5.95-£7.95.
I have found an unlikely place opposite a Harley Davison showroom that can be good if you get to the carvery when the food is just served. Then I can ogle the bikes on the way out.

[Seabadger]

What sort of prices are we talking about here? I do know that few pubs around here warrant my attention. Either the food is poor or the service desultory. Or both. For this they charge £5.95-£7.95.

A few sample menus from pubs I eat in quite often:

http://www.the-engineer.com/pages/dinner.html

http://www.thelansdownepub.co.uk/content.asp?pageid=12

http://www.thechamberlayne.co.uk/our-menus.php

http://theparadise.co.uk/food-and-drink/a-la-carte-menu

All very good, although the service at the Lansdowne is famously poor. The prices are pretty typical around here for pubs that you'd actually want to eat in.

[seadog1408]

we are lucky here on the south coast as there is soooo much competition, that if a pub has bad food, it soon gets a reputation and people go elsewhere to eat.

when we have our informal GTGs we use a pub that does THE best burger in the world, mmmmmmm. :D


cheers
mike :wink:

[Parabola]

I know two decent pubs food wise near me (Cheshire)

The Roebuck in Mobberley (which is half way between Wilmslow and Knutsford and

The Axe and Cleaver in Dunham (though this can be hit and miss)

[Glamdring]

What sort of prices are we talking about here? I do know that few pubs around here warrant my attention. Either the food is poor or the service desultory. Or both. For this they charge £5.95-£7.95.

A few sample menus from pubs I eat in quite often:

http://www.the-engineer.com/pages/dinner.html

http://www.thelansdownepub.co.uk/content.asp?pageid=12

http://www.thechamberlayne.co.uk/our-menus.php

http://theparadise.co.uk/food-and-drink/a-la-carte-menu

All very good, although the service at the Lansdowne is famously poor. The prices are pretty typical around here for pubs that you'd actually want to eat in.

That's what I was thinking. No way would I pay £15 for a pub lunch main course. Heavens, man, I'm a Yorkshire Scot!

[Seamaster73]

Here's a tip though, if it's got pictures of food on the menu walk out.

I remember being given that advice in Paris as a student, and it's always stood me in good stead.

The mind-bogglingly cheap prices charged for food in the mega pub chains like Nettospoons has a lot to answer for.

[Seabadger]

That's what I was thinking. No way would I pay £15 for a pub lunch main course. Heavens, man, I'm a Yorkshire Scot!

It's true though that you get what you pay for much of the time. To offset the cost of some of those, though, I do enjoy a good Thai from the Churchill in Kensington which is about £6 a dish, and you'd struggle to pay more than £10 per head for a real feast at my favourite Indian in Vauxhall.


As for pictures on menus - do they really exist? I'd always thought it was a joke :?

[chrisparker]

As for pictures on menus - do they really exist? I'd always thought it was a joke :?

It's no joke. The likes of Wetherspoons, Yates, Toby Carvery and countless other chain pubs all favour the gloss laminated picture type menu usually with a banner outside the hell hole displaying the latest 2 for 1 offer.

Chris

[chaplad]

Around where I live there are about 5 good food pubs; all of them are independantly owned/operated, with an emphasis on local produce and all with decent beer on tap. The only potential downsides are that the food tends to be a bit dearer than chain pub fare and also the menu does not have the endless range of starters/main/dessert - a sure sign of pre-packaged, mass-produced microwave-able 'cooking'.

I'd guess that's not massively unusual (unless you live some absolute hell-hole, back end of nowhere sort of place), it's just a case off knowing where they are. If you go into a pub at random, the odds of getting good food are probably 1 in 10 absolute tops.


[quote:2xdpd4bw]We should hang our heads but people eat it, pay for it and want more so why should the pubs change?

Lots of pubs have changed. I've lived in west and north west London for 13 years and there has been a huge change in the pub market, mostly positive, during that time - and that's bearing in mind that the first gastros opened up a few years prior to me moving down - the Eagle, Lansdowne, Engineer etc. My experiences outside London have been mixed - a tendency to think that if you rip out the carpet and use a blackboard as a menu then the job is done doesn't cut it anywhere, but my overall experience is that it's slowly getting better elsewhere as well.


The chains will never change until the chains and managed houses move away from the reheated stuff, but that would cost more and they'd need a complete culture change away from homogenisation of menus and the guarantee of a minimum standard, even if the standard is poor.[/quote:2xdpd4bw]
the eagle,wheres that in london?,we used to eat in a pub of that name,20 years ago,somewhere near kings rd i think.

[sestrel]

Its a real gamble sometimes; The swmbo and I went thought we'd go somewhere different recently, so we went to the 'famous' so gastro pub in Meavy callled the royal oak.
It took 45 minutes to arrive (nothing fancy either) wasnt particulalrly well presented, and bloody expensive. Meanwhile the waiting staff constantly moaned and bitched about how they needed to be somewhere else, as well as being bloody surley and unhelpful.
Will stick to the ones we know from now on, as we like to 'enjoy' our few meals out!

[Seabadger]

the eagle,wheres that in london?,we used to eat in a pub of that name,20 years ago,somewhere near kings rd i think.

Must be a different pub - this one is in Farringdon. http://www.timeout.com/london/restauran ... /4713.html - fantastic place and very much a pub rather than a restaurant that happens to serve pints.

[sweeney]

I think the standard of pub food has improved massively in the last 20 years. I can remember going to say, Cornwall on holiday in the early 90s and being astounded by the paucity and relatively poor quality of pubs serving food. Now you have far more choice and the standard is much higher. In the area we stay in there is a number of pubs you could happily count on to provide very good locally sourced food for a reasonable price. One even has it's own microbrewery attached which was unthinkable 20 years back.

We recently went to Beer in Devon and had a fantastic meal in a pub called the Barrel O'Beer. Not cheap, but for the quality it was fair enough. In fact, this looked like the best place to eat in the town as the dedicated restaurants looked pretty lame by comparison.

One downside however, is the fact that the balance has changed somewhat and there is a tendency for establishments to be more like restaurants that serve beer rather than pubs that do food.

My local boozer has been ruined by this tendency as they were pseudo-gastroed about 4 years ago and now produce poor quality food for people that don't like pubs. Little atmosphere and very little decent beer served (wine seems to be more popular now). Luckily there is a decent old man's pub a little further down the road.

[Glamdring]

I have the feeling that the public doesn't know what it wants from pub food. Of course they want good stuff but most don't want to pay more than a tenner for the whole meal. It's not meant to be a special treat but, say, a rest during a day's shopping and paying upwards of £60 for four is not on.
You also have to take location into account. If you live in a leafy greenbelt village then the pub might get away with serving hand-crafted food at £15 a main course. Most though don't and want decent grub to stop them having to cook when they get home.

I don't know what pubs pay for their food but I've heard Ramsay joke about how the eggs of posh restaurants cost x pence but the customer pays x pounds.

A pub meal should, for me, be a whole stage up from a takeaway along with the convenience of being able to sit and eat, but not at some of the prices I've seen quoted in this thread.

[Seabadger]

I'd rather pay 13 quid for something good than 8 quid for something terrible, which is pretty much what the choice usually comes down to.

In terms of cost, a pub serving proper food will need a proper, fully equipped kitchen and suitably qualified or experienced staff to run it, both of which cost more than having a guy round the back who just has to take things out of a freezer and pop it in a microwave. The cost of the food is of pretty marginal importance really - you'd expect a good place to use better quality and possibly more costly ingredients than would be bought in bulk by a chain, but at the same time a well run kitchen can make pretty efficient usage of their stock.

[Glamdring]

^
My 30yo nephew said that to me at lunchtime when I was discussing this thread with him. He without a penny to his name! :wink: