Friday 22 January 2016

THE QUEEN'S HEAD - High street, Titchfield





We completed our trilogy of Titchfield high street pubs today by visiting The Queen's Head. We must confess to being slightly disappointed thus far with the standard of pub and food on offer in Titchfield. We had expected it to bare rich pickings for those of a foodie persuasion.

Alarm bells were quick to ring as we entered. It was noticeably cold inside and deathly quiet. By this I don't mean a lack of people, although there weren't many of those, I mean there was no music playing. This may seem like an unimportant detail, but if you sit down to eat in a pub where there is no noise at all, it sucks the atmosphere away like a giant pub plug hole. It's terrible, every word you say can be overheard by anyone else in the room.

There were two menus, one for the bar and one for the restaurant. I chose salmon in a cream and white wine sauce with sauted potatoes while Dad went for the "famous" steak and kidney pie with new potatoes. The prices were at odds with the pub, both meals coming in at around £12 - £13, too much. It didn't take too long for the food to arrive, and when it did, the pricing really has to be questioned.

My salmon was cooked well enough, and Dad's pie was fine, he was impressed with the pastry, which incidentally only appeared on the top of said pie. After that it all goes downhill I'm afraid. A bowl of vegetables for us to share held a rather uninspiring mass of pea's and cauliflower. My potatoes had escaped from the freezer and the wine in my sauce hadn't been reduced enough, leaving a slightly unpleasant acidic note throughout.

It's a nice enough little pub with its oak beams and fireplace, but you can't get so many simple things wrong and expect to impress anyone. The two unforgivable crimes in pub land are to allow your pub to be cold and silent. If on top of that you overcharge for average food, you truly are looking down a big old pub plug which will swallow you up.

Atmosphere          3
Service                 5
Food                    6
Value                   4
Verdict                 Poor

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