The Red Lion, Hunningham

A bit of a surprise

I have eaten my fair share of dross and drank my weight in warm, flat, unloved beer and disappointing expensive wine in those ridiculously shiny, antipodeans staffed gastro pubs serving �ever so quirky� food that you have to order from that inanely formatted menu with ridiculous food descriptions that tell you every thing down to the last fleck of parsley.

So you can imagine my horror as entering the Red Lion in Hunningham, the hose reel attached to the outside wall caught my eye. Not a normal reel� No� A shiney Porche wheel used as said hose rapper a rounder, Christ not another leather sofa, scatter cushioned ball ache of a place, I thought. What ever happens now it�s going to be intolerable. At best.

BUT wait a moment. On entering the pub we were greeted warmly in a way that suggested they were expecting us. We hadn�t booked but were told that if the tables not laid its ours. So being only three of us we flumped ourselves down on a table for six. Not noticing how cleanly the first two pints of Guinness went down we opted for a bottle of Shiraz. Which was nice... then the starters arrived.

The kidneys were, it has to be said, incredible! Not since my days in places that serve really perfectly cooked offal have I had such perfectly cooked offal and devilled to perfection. Things are looking a lot better now and my attention was drawn to the walls, adorned by comic and graphic novel covers, which I did not clock when I first came in, acceptably novel but without being themed or crap. Another bottle of Shiraz was ordered and then the mains. My pork chop was thick, well seasoned and moist. Crikey!, the accompanying Blacksticks Blue and cider risotto was amazingly just that A perfect risotto, all served with a funny little chutney which was also yumshious.

After such a splendid meal and feeling rather drunk we left, taxi of cause, after splitting the bill, which was more than reasonable. It takes a hell of a lot to win me over but the Red Lion is good. Really quite good, in fact really, really good.

Go there if you want or don�t... No, go!

20 Dec 2008 20:01