THE COCK
Pavenham
REVIEWER: JUDY RILEY
What do you want when you go out for a meal? Good food? Nice ambience? Friendly and efficient service? If you’re anything like me, probably all three.
So it can be disappointing, at the end of the evening, to find yourself totting up the pros and cons of the experience only to come to the conclusion that two out of the three don’t quite fit the bill – if you’ll excuse the pun.
The good news is that, having been dark for a while, The Cock at Pavenham is open for business again.
Considering the pub occupies quite a large, village centre site, bar and dining space is limited. But the lovely open fire is welcoming on a chilly Friday night and, if the place wasn’t buzzing with both drinkers and diners – which it was when we went there recently – you could challenge all-comers to a no-holdsbarred game of Bedfordshire skittles.
The menu is a reassuring mix of old favourites and contemporary gastropub staples with a twist; nicely cooked, well-presented and competitively priced.
Bangers and mash – cooked like this anyway – fully deserves to be numbered among our finest national dishes.
Ditto, the house steak and ale pie which is packed with meaty chunks of good beef.
Chicken can often seem like a dull choice on a night out but with imagination, skill and the knowledgeable addition of a few herbs it can reign supreme if you’re peckish. The home-made fish cakes are good and come served with a tasty tartar sauce.
Although we had passed on ordering starters the selection of desserts was just too tempting to ignore. Bread and butter pudding, rice pudding and chocolate tart were all excellent and the plate of stilton and biscuits was a supper dish in itself.
At £15, a decent bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon was very reasonably priced.
So where was the problem? Part of the fun if you are going out to eat with friends is the conversation that accompanies the meal; the conversation that you have with your friends not that which is going on, unsociably loudly, at the table next to you.
Maybe we were unlucky but in a small space that has wooden floors and curtainless windows it’s hard to compete with shouting fellow diners.
And while service with a smile may sound like an old-fashioned courtesy, you don’t want to feel like you’re keeping your waiter from something far more important than serving you the meal for which you are paying.
Overall impression? Food: really good. Ambience: tiring. Service: let down the quality of the cooking.
Dinner for four including a bottle of wine came to a very moderate £76.60.
For more information call: 01234 822834.