Beef, Pork & Turkey @ The Cunning Man 26/10/2014

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I decided to go for a walk along the River Kennet on Sunday afternoon – it was a reasonably pleasant day and there was a handy pub an hour’s walk from Reading town centre called The Cunning Man.

It looks nice on the outside, with a presumably fake thatched roof (forgive me for my lack of thatch expertise – Thatcher yes, thatch no) and plenty of outdoor seating – a rather pleasant setting.

 

I decided to enjoy a pint outside in my very own tepee hut area, albeit still rather dirty with last night’s cigarette butts everywhere, whilst awaiting my dining partner for the afternoon.  It was pleasantly warm – for a northerner – at around 15’C.

The menu sounded good – as you may have worked out by now if there is an option for more than one meat, it is very difficult for me to avoid choosing this.  I am yet to conclude as to whether this is a wise idea – does my greed obstruct my ability to appreciate a particular roast?

We were quickly seated, albeit with some confusion by the staff – our order was taken pretty much straight away, I went for a pee, came back and it arrived.

First impressions upon viewing were of a more generous helping than The Moderation had managed – 4decent baby carrots for a start, which is 3 more than the aforementioned had considered appropriate.

The cabbage was…bland.

The roast potatoes were average at best.  They kind of tasted like they were microwaved.  More soggy and solid than crispy – but I have had worse efforts.

The herb-crusted loin of sweetcure pork was just a slice of pork with no immediately obvious hint of herbs.  I have no idea what sweetcured means.

The chipolator unwrapped in bacon was fine, the stuffing was a very round circle of very average stuffing-meat.

The beef and turkey were fine - turkey probably the best meat of the 3 - but probably only a slight upgrade from the Toby Carvery.  All the meats tasted roughly the same.  1 slice of each around 3-4mm thick.

And the reason why everything tasted the same?  The gravy.  We did ask how thick the gravy was before ordering, and the waitress said it was quite thick this week.  I like a good consistency.  The thicker the better.

This was a good consistency.  It looked promising and we got extra gravy upon request – not sure why it wasn’t poured in the Yorkshire, which is close to a criminal offence, which by the way seemed very similar to a slightly-larger than normal Aunt Bessie’s frozen Yorkshire pudding.  But the flavour of the gravy was so over-powering – again a tomato-based taste, as you can see from the hint of red.  I really don’t get this wannabe-fancy different tasting gravy.  Just some beef or chicken stock will do.  Hell, even serve me Bisto granules if you have to.

So overpowering that I had to have a rest halfway through, despite not having eaten anything prior to this.

Had the gravy been reasonable, then it would have pushed the high 6’s.  A decent amount of food and the quality was fine.  As it is, it was marginally better than The Moderation and it receives a score of 5.4 out of 10.

All that leaves me to say is, if moo enjoyed my review, please share, like and invite.

Sorry.  That was worse than the gravy.