Well, following another meal at the Duncombe Arms I felt that I should give you an update on the current situation.
I had dinner there the other day and the following is what I found:
Food
The food was excellent. I had the Steak, Ale and Baby Onion Pie which was served with mash and heritage carrots with a rich onion gravy. Excellent is the only word for it. Really tasty with soft, melting beef and lovely light crisp pastry on the top. It was served in an individual white porcelain dish. The gravy was equally good and the carrots were crisp and tasty without being under cooked. My only criticism was that I could have done with more gravy!
The Bar/Garden menu is now available in the evenings and the Restaurant menu is available in the Bar and Snug so all is good on that front.
Unfortunately the menu has not changed since the pub re-opened and there are no “daily specials”, so, although the food is good, regular eaters are now getting a touch bored.
Beer
They now have Abbot Ale and Doom Bar. Abbot is perhaps a shade lighter than Doom Bar, but they still have two pretty solid bitters. I hope that they will change this so that they have a light, golden ale, which is the current fashion from brewers such as Oakham, and a heavier bitter such as Abbott.
In addition there are various lagers, of which I should mention Stella Black, which is noticeably better than the regular Stella and, of course, there’s Guinness. Also there is Fuller’s London Pride which is chilled and on gas!
Service
Service is critical to the success of any pub or restaurant and things are OK here. However, although the service has improved markedly since the opening week, I have had mixed reports with a few in the village saying that the service in the restaurant was slow. I have only eaten in the bar area and all has been fine. So that’s “watch this space” I guess.
Summary
All in all, not a bad job so far. The pub has a nice feel to it with a good mix of diners and drinkers and a good “buzz”. Fridays and Saturdays seem pretty busy, which is good, whilst earlier in the week is quieter, with Monday and Tuesday being fairly sleepy, which is not unexpected in a village pub with a fair number of London commuters as residents.
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