It’s got its own very swanky webiste (click here) which rightly boasts of the numerous awards it has won recently. So [...]]]> Being a milestone birthday today, we decided to head off to The Compasses at Pattiswick, which is off the A120 to the west of Colchester – about 10 minutes from the A12 at Marks Tey.

It’s got its own very swanky webiste (click here) which rightly boasts of the numerous awards it has won recently. So what of our trip this sunny March lunchtime?

The ‘gastro pub’ isn’t actually a pub at all – it’s a restaurant that has been built from some cottages, with a barn-style extension. It’s beautifully decorated inside to a very, very high standard – much more so than you might expect from the outside.

They have a very reasonable set menu for lunch and weekday evenings – only £7.50 for two courses. As it was a special lunch we went for the ‘a la carte’ and weren’t disappointed.

Starters were smoked duck with a salad, and deep-fried goat’s cheese, with the former laid out very nicely on a slate platter.

Mains were a herb crusted cod with kale and potatoes with a thyme cream sauce, and field mushrooms with a creamy stilton and chive topping with rocket, and a tomato sauce. Portions were just right for a lunchtime – if this was your main meal of the day you’d be feeling a little hungry later! Service was top quality, and the ambience complemented the food nicely. At just under £50 for two for lunch, with a half pint of beer each, your getting food of a quality that you would pay twice as much for in posher restaurants. We’ll be trying the set lunch at some point in the future and will report back on that.

Having had an absolutely horrible January and February, the 1st March 2010 was a gloriously sunny day – although still quite chilly. We’d [...]]]> We did a quick tour by car of the Essex/Suffolk borders, to do some initial planning for a guided tour for a coach tour of visitors from Yorkshire for later in the year.

Having had an absolutely horrible January and February, the 1st March 2010 was a gloriously sunny day – although still quite chilly. We’d almost given up on spring showing any sign of appearing!

We drove out of Colchester through Eight Ash Green, and under the Chappel viaduct, past the East Anglian Railway Museum, where we’d been on Friday night for the 1st Chappel and Wakes Colne Winter Ale Festival. The effects of the extremely heavy rain over the weekend were clearly visible, with nearby rivers swollen and fields flooded.

It’s a lovely drive out through Halstead (watch out for the crinkle-crankle wall!) and Great Yeldham. The latter has a couple of pubs which will be investigated in due course. We stopped off at Castle Hedingham, only to find the castle closed for the day. Doh! All was not lost though, as we popped into The Bell Inn for a quick half pint. It’s an old pub, which has a big beer garden, and retains a lot of its original charm, and also serves beer straight from the barrel.

The character of the pub, polished wooden tables and bare floorboards, was set off nicely by a monocled gentleman sporting a handsome walrus moustache!

Next stop was Clare – a lovely village, with an impressive church and some unspoilt architecture.

Feeling a bit peckish, we were disappointed to find the deli/cafe full, and so headed up to try the Adnams ‘The Cock’, only to find that closed. (nb for an excellent resource on Suffolk pubs, go to Suffolk CAMRA). The Bell Inn was a few yards up the road and we headed in there to find it pub aimed much more at locals, but who can dish up an excellent ham, egg and chips. No monocles or walrus moustaches though!

I’ve got a burger due shortly, and am 3g-ing this. If you leave Colchester at 7:15 you can be [...]]]> Even further afield at the moment! Reporting live from The Wellhouse, Exeter, at a table overlooking Exeter Cathedral, sipping a pint of Headstrong from the Blackawton Brewery which is based in the Tamar valley at Saltash (website :  http://www.blackawtonbrewery.co.uk).

I’ve got a burger due shortly, and am 3g-ing this. If you leave Colchester at 7:15 you can be sitting at The Wellhouse by 11:45, which isn’t bad going. And especially if you book online and get a First Class return at only a fiver more than full price.

They’ve got The Jam’s ‘This is The Modern World’ on the jukebox, and the beer’s nice. What’s not to like?

A winter ale festival is nirvana for me, featuing virtually wall to wall stouts [...]]]> It was a busy week, and Friday night was the only opportunity to get to this year’s Winter Ale Festival in Colchester. I was at Google HQ the following day, and I’ve been busy today writing that visit up on another blog..

A winter ale festival is nirvana for me, featuing virtually wall to wall stouts and porters, and over a couple of hours the Essex Days Out made a noble effort to sample as many as possible!

We managed to nab seats on the stage of the Colchester Arts Centre, thereby standing (or sitting) on the exact spot that artists as varied as Count Arthur Strong, John Shuttleworth, The Blockheads, and Andy Parsons have recently entertained us. The Arts Centre is an old church, and it’s a great setting for music, comedy and beer festivals.

Every beer we tried was a winner, and these included Earl Soham’s ‘Sir Rogers Porter’ (‘black, full bodied and can be sweet’); Harwich Town’s ‘Redoubt Stout’ (‘full bodied traditional stout’) and a stronger 8%abv version – the ‘Imperial Redoubt Stout’; Mersea Island’s ‘Oyster Stout’ (’smooth dark stout with real Mersea oysters’), Nethergate’s ‘Old Growler’ (‘award winning dark porter, amazingly easy to drink’) and the same beer but with coriander – ‘Umbel Magna’; and Shalford’s ‘Levelly Black’ (‘winter stout, dark malty and smooth’)

The tasting notes are from the Festival booklet, and are rather more sophisticated than ours, which generally ranged between ‘that is nice’ and ‘that is nice’. I finished off with the ‘Imperial Redoubt Stout’, which was strong (by eck it was strong) but eminently drinkable, which isn’t always the case with very strong beers. And to soak up all that beer, there was the hog roast, one without crackling, and one with double crackling please.

It’s a long way to the 4th Colchester Winter Ale Festival, but there’s one shortly in Chelmsford 4th-6th Feb, and at the end of February there is the 1st Chappel Winter Ale Festival 26th and 27th Feb, although this latter is ticket-only, so don’t turn up on the day!

The reason for choosing The Dolphin for [...]]]> We’ve been driving past The Dolphin on the A120 (just to the east of Braintree) for the best part of 25 years now. It got an extension on the side of the original pub some years ago, and is an attractive pub, but we never got round to visiting.

The reason for choosing The Dolphin for a meal yesterday was quite simple – albeit rather selfish on my part! I’d been tootling around the web, and had been checking out the Chelmsford & Mid-Essex CAMRA website (click here) and found their neat guide to recommended pubs in the area, in PDF format. And the big selling point about The Dolphin is that it serves real ale direct from the cask.

So off we went, parking in the car park around the back (there is a small car park at the front). The original pub remains divided into two bars, with a log fire crackling away in the one we went through. The only minor quibble for me (it didn’t bother others) was that we were seated in the extension, which is open and clean and with a high ceiling – give me low ceilings, beams and a very snug pub atmosphere!

A pint of Ruddles from the cask with the first priority, and that was in excellent condition. The evening menu is of traditional fayre, nothing too fancy. Starters of whitebait, and of field mushrooms topped with goat’s cheese started us off, and I can vouch for the latter.

The least adventurous of us opted for the scampi main course from the standard menu, which included the usual favourites – local bangers and mash, beer battered fish and chips, locally sourced pie, steaks and mixed grills etc. The rest of us opted for items of the chef’s specials of the day. The brace of Barnsley lamb chops was tender, and whilst looking initially rather too much to handle, did disappear without any problems. Two of us went for the whole grilled Sea Bass on a bed of mediterranean vegetables and sauteed potatoes.

I had planned to take a photo of the food -before- eating it, but forgot to, so the only evidence I can supply is this :

It was absolutely delicious.

The one of who opted for a pudding (he is back to University today, so is feeding himself up), tucked into a very tasty pear and ginger cheesecake.

Three two-course meals, one three-course meal, a couple of rounds of beer and soft drinks, and fractionally over £20 a head. Not bad at all. If you’re after a more full-on gastro experience, there are a couple of places nearby (which we will be reporting on), but if you like your real ale, and don’t feel in the mood to have your food ponced about with too much, then we can recommend The Dolphin.

Colchester Castle was looking nice in the snow, and the hill at the back of the castle, originally intended to make it difficult for attackers to storm [...]]]> It looks like a thaw is on its way, so we popped out for a walk around Castle Park this Sunday lunchtime, and back via a couple of pubs.

Colchester Castle was looking nice in the snow, and the hill at the back of the castle, originally intended to make it difficult for attackers to storm the castle from the north, was perfect for sledging.

In amongst the usual snowmen was one which stood out – somebody with an artistic bent had given him a really impressive set of features…

There were several squirrels about – all of whom were quite tame.

Heading back home we popped into The Fat Cat on Butt Road, and a pint of Mauldon’s Eatanswill Old went down very nicely. There’s an interesting article about Mauldon’s brewery by Roger Protz here.

In contrast to previous visits to their regular [...]]]> Just a note about our short visit to Mark’s Hall Gardens and Arboretum last Sunday. We dropped by to visit their Christmas Farmer’s Market. It was £2 per car to get in, but we didn’t feel there was enough value for money from the market even at that low price!

In contrast to previous visits to their regular Farmer’s Markets, there weren’t anywhere near as many stalls, and instead of being thronged by visitors, it was fairly empty.  The market had opened the day before, so perhaps a lot of stalls had sold all their goodies and packed up and gone. The craft area was, with all due respect, mostly of a standard you would find at a church bazaar.

The saving grace was that the £2 admission also got you into the gardens and arboretum, which are lovely even at this time of year, if a bit squishy underfoot due to the recent wet weather. The best view was at the top of the gardens, where some bare trees with striking white bark contrasted beautifully against some red bushes.  Here’s a video :

And there were some equally stunning white-feathered bullrushes :

We’ll do a fuller review of the gardens in the spring of 2010. In the meantime you can find out more about Marks Hall at their website.