Chicken @ The Lyndhurst 28/12/2014

The Lyndhurst used to be my local.  It always had a warm, welcoming feel to it, a good range of beers and good food.  Always.

So it was a surprise when it closed earlier this year.

Thankfully it has been re-opened, the kitchen has been refitted and roast dinners are back on.  Served until 6pm so as not to compete with the pub quiz at 8pm and at an efficient price of £9.95 – the cheapest roast I have reviewed to date.

The welcome was voluminously complaisant – warmth and humour exuded from the host and hostess, invigorating my slightly fragile mind and body, which was immediately endearing and I dearly wished to be able to give a review as warm as their welcome.

Beef and chicken were the options, I had reviewed lots of beef recently so it had to be chicken.  But wait a minute, there is a lamb shank available – oh yes please.

Actually, oh no there isn’t.

It is still panto season isn’t it?

When the roast arrived, my immediate impressions were of a home-cooked roast dinner, it looked similar to something my mother would make.

Sadly there was only one vegetable – peas were also due to be served however as they are the anti-Christ of the vegetable world due to their lack of discipline, I was left with just one rooty delight – carrots.  And they were fine.  Nothing more, nothing less.

The potatoes were real home-cooked roast potatoes, sadly no crispiness but these were an improvement on most of the offerings in recent reviews.

Two Yorkshire puddings were served – small in size and soft throughout.  They really should be soft-bottomed only with a somewhat crispy outer shell.  Far from perfection but better than the over-cooked offering from London Street Brasserie.

There were several generously sized slices of roast chicken, along with two wings.  It was definitely from a real chicken, it was tender, nicely cooked – however I felt it was a little ordinary in taste – some lemon infusion or some herbs would have greatly increased the score.

It being a chicken roast, I was disappointed that there was no stuffing offered.

Finally, the gravy.  Good marks for consistency, it was actually gravy-like consistency, however there was that tinge of something like tomato that a lot of places seem to feel necessary to spice up a roast dinner and ends up making the gravy, and hence the roast dinner, a touch tiresome.

I still asked for extra.

 

It’s a tricky one to give a rating to.  My heart wants to give a higher rating than my belly does, due to the very warm friendly welcome, and general excellent service – it seemed as though nothing was too much effort.

There was nothing wrong with the food and the home-cooked feel was particularly endearing, however there is plenty of room for improvement.

6.3 is my rating.  I do recommend a roast dinner here.

And I have a feeling that if I go back in a few months, which is inevitable, there will be a higher score.