Star rating: **** Returning home from The Guardian Hay Festival, my boyfriend Simon and I decided to stop en route for a bite to eat in Ludlow.
On the hunt for good food I rang a friend who lives locally for a suggestion of where to go.
She recommended we try The Unicorn in Lower Corve Street.
As I am notorious for getting lost my friend also supplied easy directions and we were delighted to find ourselves able to park right outside the place.
A historic, beam-packed medieval building, it had a character sloping floor, cosy lit fire and tables and window ledges decorated with flickering tea-lights.
When we arrived at 7.30pm there was just one other couple dining. An hour later the place was packed. Being a Wednesday night, this showed just how popular it must be.
A friendly and very efficient barman greeted us. He also served us our food.
At the bar I ordered half a pint of Stowford cider (£1.40) while Simon had a pint of Carling (£2.70). We chose a table and settled down to check out the menu.
It was comprehensive. As well as a full evening meal menu, diners could make up their own ploughman’s lunches, order open or closed sandwiches, breakfast from 11am to 2.15pm and set menus for two.
Lunch is served from midday to 2.15pm and evening meals from 6pm to 9.15pm.
Before I’d even looked at the menu Simon said he knew what I would choose for main course, because I can never resist mussels and he was right again.
For starters I ordered Marcel’s game & poultry paté with caramelised onion chutney (£5.50) and Simon chose Thai fishcakes with sweet chilli sauce (£5.50).
For mains, as mentioned, I ordered mussels served in their own juice with salad and chips (£10.75) and Simon went for meat pie (£9.25). This was supposed to come with new potatoes and vegetables but Simon asked if he could have chips instead of potatoes.
Our starters were served at lightning speed. Simon was delighted with his fishcakes and I could see why. They were hot, tasty and came with a good chilli sauce. The salad garnish was fresh.
I again was impressed with my choice. The paté had a proper topping of solidified fat, which I removed before diving in with my knife. It was obviously homemade, and very tasty with a coarse texture. It came with two slices of country-style white bread and the caramelised onion chutney again did not disappoint. The garnish was fresh. Everything soon disappeared off our plates.
These were then quickly cleared and very soon our main courses arrived. My plate of mussels was covered with a handy dish to keep them warm and then to drop the empty shells in. There were plenty of them and they were hot and tasty. I personally would have preferred garlic to have been added to the mussel juice as I found it a tad bland without anything at all.
After quickly scoffing the mussels I went on to the chips and salad. The chips were hot and golden and the salad again very fresh, and drizzled with a nice dressing. I was more than happy with my lot.
Simon was very pleased with his pie. He said it was hot, homemade, with a thin pastry topping (no puff pastry here thank heavens!). He said it was good, the pie had decent cuts of meat in it and the gravy was not too thick. The chips got the thumbs up. His vegetables were fresh and crunchy.
Although I was full, Simon fancied treating himself and ordered a golden syrup sponge with custard (£3.95). We didn’t have to wait long again for it to arrive. It was a good portion. The sponge was very hot and it tasted good - not too sweet. The custard was tasty and light - not lumpy, said Simon.
We finished off with a pot of coffee (£3.25) that again got the thumbs-up for not being too bitter. I was pleased to see children were welcome as well.
It had been a worthy recommendation.
ADDRESS
The Unicorn, Lower Corve Street, Ludlow.
Tel: 01584 873555
MENU SAMPLE
Starters
Whitebait with soft mustard sauce (£4.75); Antipasta with Parma ham, Milano salami, olives, tomato (£6.25)
Main courses
Braised beef steak with a mushroom risotto and red wine sauce (£12.50); Salmon fillet with tagliatelle and sun-dried tomato (£12.25)
Desserts
Profiteroles with dark chocolate sauce and ice cream (£3.95); Vanilla crme brulee (£3.95)
ATMOSPHERE
Relaxed and welcoming
SERVICE
Friendly, efficient and helpful
DISABLED FACILITIES
No facilities due to age of building, although flat access into premises.
SMOKING POLICY
No-smoking restaurant. Smoking permitted in bar.
By CATHY STANWORTH
One Comment
I can only suggest that conditions at the Unicorn have improved greatly since I was there five weeks ago. Having read reviews on the Unicorn I booked a table for Saturday night while staying in the area for the weekend.I have since found out that the sample menus and reviews on the website are way out of date.My wife was looking forward to some fish as the website declared them to be ” seafood specialists ” unfortunately there was only whiting and salmon on the menu. On being handed the menu I enquired if it was the bar meal menu as it was so ordinary.I ordered a rare fillet steak at about 22-00, when it arrived it had been sliced in half for some reasonand was medium, I complained to the waitress who said oh you’ve got it medium rare, I replied it’s medium, she said did you want it rare ? I said yes that’s what I ordered. Areplacement steak arrived which was medium rare and the chips had barely been blanched and were completely white. All in all very ordinary food grossly overpriced, inexperienced staff and we could barely breathe in the bar because of the cigarette smoke. I rang my taxi to take us back to the hotel early our night ruined. Last week I met a young couple from Ludlow while on holiday in Greece and they had experienced poor food and service at a family celebration at the Unicorn. What a differnce from lunchtime at the Blue Boar, friendly attentive staff, good food at reasonable prices.I will never visit the Unicorn again.