Lunch at The River & Rail, Hampton Loade

My mother and I were running late to have lunch on a Thursday in November so decided to go to a pub, near to her house that I’d never been to before. When we pulled into the car park it wasn’t encouraging as we were greeted by a dated, ugly 1990’s building close to the river bank (wasn’t helped by the fact it was overcast, damp and cold).
Passing through the front entrance the situation got worse when we were confronted by an equally tired and drab interior from the same era. It was a symphony of different shades of ‘poo’ brown (1990’s Black Country chic). Added to this we were the only customers. We nearly turned around but it was getting too late to find somewhere else still open. The saving grace for the interior was a great big roaring log burner, kicking out loads of heat and that the lighting was low enough to disguise the worst of the decor.
Friendly enough waitress handed us the menus and things started to look up. On the surface it looked like your bog standard pub menu but they were describing dishes as homemade and not too many options, which is normally a good sign. From experience I find the more on offer means the less likely it will be any good. There is no way any small to medium sized eating place can keep freshly made ingredients for lots of different dishes. Normally a large menu leads to ‘ping, ping’ food which has been hastily reheated.
I chose their home-made burger and chip’s at £8.95 and my mum had Fish and Chip’s at £10.25.
Encouragingly the food didn’t come out super fast despite being the only customers (also the waitress got the timing right between giving us enough time to order and not hurrying us). Both of us were very impressed with the food. My burger was succulent with plenty of fresh garnish and the skinny chips were perfect. Equally my mother’s fish was cooked just right. The portions were the right size (too often I’ve had pub food where more is left and you end up leaving half of it). Nothing tasted as if it was straight out of a freezer.
This is not gourmet dining but simple food done very well. Definitively worth a visit if you can cope with the interior. Cheap as well.
www.theriverandrail.net