The Bennetts End Inn, Knowbury
Sharon Walters is impressed with the new team at one of her old favourites
It's more years than I care to remember since I last visited the Bennetts End Inn up on the lower slopes of the Clee Hill. On the outskirts of the village of Knowbury it has fantastic views and a lovely garden to take in the panorama.
I often went there with friends who lived in the village but they moved away and so my visits stopped.
It's had a few landlords since and just over a month ago changed hands again with a local trio in charge.
Recommended to pay it a visit I ventured up with a friend on a glorious summer day. The views were as spectacular as ever and the garden a delight.
Matt Tommey, Craig Powers and Kelvin Woodfield – all with bags of experience locally including running pubs and cheffing at places such as Dinham Hall and the former Hibiscus – are the threesome and what a great job they are doing in the short space of time they have been there.
There's a good range of real ale along with a full bar service and a reasonable wine list.
There's a light menu, a 'full bodied' list and a specials board which changes regularly. Having said that there is not a vast choice, a plus point. Menus that are too extensive often fail miserably as a lot of the food is not fresh.
Gay and I settled in the restaurant area which overlooks the garden and also has those views.
The specials board had some lovely treats on it as had the main menu.
I was torn, as usual, between a pasta dish and a chicken choice off the specials board. Matt heard my musings and said he could do the tortellini with asparagus as a starter (£4.95) and then I could have the chicken with chorizo and sauteed potatoes as main (£11.50). Perfect.
Gay went a little retro and 70s and had a classic prawn and shellfish cocktail (£5.95) and then more up-to-date with pork belly (£11.95). And then I went retro with a Blackforest Gateau (£5) while Gay came into the 90s with sticky toffee pudding (£4.50).
To accompany was some dry house Chardonnay.
First some tasty bread sourced at Clee Hill bakery Swifts arrived to keep us occupied while we waited for our food, and that didn't take too long. My pasta did not look like a starter, more of main size! It did not disappoint with rich tasting pasta encasing creamy asparagus.
Gay's starter may have sounded retro but did not look it, served in a tall glass filled with large and juicy prawns and crayfish in a piquant rosemarie sauce with a quenelle of crab on top. "They didn't serve it like this back in the day," she commented.
My chicken was a real delight. I am tired of people telling me chicken is tasteless. That's because they probably bought cheap, mass produced poultry grown indoors with poor quality food. Buy a decent chicken, and you don't have to spend a fortune on so-called free range – try going into Andrew Francis butcher's in Ludlow and buying one of his 'run-of-the-mill' ones. I defy anyone to say they are tasteless.
The chorizo added some spice but did not overpower the dish while the potatoes were very moorish.
Gay's pork was melt-in-the-mouth tender and served on a bed of cabbage cooked with bacon. Like me she couldn't manage it all (and we did need to try the puddings!) and Matt arranged for the remaining pork and chicken to be parcelled up for my little man at home – Jack the dog.
It really was a push to make pudding and we did leave some but it was still a valiant effort on our behalfs. Beautifully presented and so, so wicked, although mine did have some healthy fruit along with zesty sorbet.
Matt, Craig and Kelvin have done some work on the pub and plan to do more. It won't be long before I go back to see how they're getting on.
ADDRESS:
The Bennetts End Inn
Hope Bagot Lane
Knowbury
Ludlow
Shropshire
SY8 3LL
01584 890220
