The Yorkshireman, Rugeley
Rugeley has little in the way of a cheery past -Palmer the Poisoner, The Bloody Steps - neither is it the gastro-capital of Staffordshire.
But it does have one or two decent pubs, one of which sits about half a mile outside the town centre.
The Yorkshireman has seen landlords and chefs come and go but you could almost always guarantee being fed a good meal there. Then, a year ago, the pub closed quite suddenly, and remained so until last month.
There were rumours flying around about poor service and over-inflated prices so I decided to check the place out for myself. And it has certainly changed its image - the interior has gone from traditional edge-of-town inn to restaurant-style chic.
Now, it could be said that the menu is a little pricey for a pub. But, once inside, you do feel as though you’ve entered a classy restaurant. The service is polite and attentive and, on the evening of my visit, every table was full.
The menu had tempting choices such as chicken liver and stout pate, and smoked haddock bake with tomato rarebit among the starters.
I chose the maris piper and watercress soup with a Stilton croute, but was informed, with an apology, that it had changed to parsnip soup with parsnip crisps. I’m not a fan of the vegetable so I opted for the sautéed seasonal mushrooms, at £4.
These delicious mixed pickings were lightly cooked in butter and piled on top of a warm toasted brioche scented with garlic and served with salad leaves and a sweet dijon dressing.
My dining partner chose the very chunky butternut squash and melon salad with port syrup, £3.50.
He followed this with pan fried halloumi cheese on courgette, garlic and thyme provencale, priced £8, while I chose the ‘posh’ fish and chips - battered medallions of monkfish with salt and vinegar, Hollandaise and real chips, £13.
There was plenty to eat and we struggled to clear our plates, especially as we’d added another portion of chips, £2, and a panache of seasonal vegetables, £2, to our order.
Among the desserts were warm bitter chocolate and vanilla tart, apricot and whisky bread and butter pudding, or poached pear in orange and ginger beer, and prices started at £3.
ADDRESS
The Yorkshireman, Colton Road, Rugeley
Tel: 01889 583977
By Debbie Bennett
One Comment
My wife and i had a meal at the Yorkshireman last night and as i told the waiting on staff was the worst meal we had out in along time,
My wife ordered salmon on a salad bed, which had clearly been made up earliar and been kept and served straight from the fridge on old lettuce which was turning brown, i had moules mariner, which were seved in a small fruit bowl luke warm straight from the “packet” neither of us ate more than a qtr of the starters.For the main course my wife ordered a simple gammon steak and chips and myself a rump steak and chips, surley anyone in the catering business could cook this,?? No the gammon was an enourmes oversalted peice of rubber seved with a ton of packet chips and the steak was chewey tasteless and fatty again served with a ton of oven chips, even the presentation was awfull seved on piled high platters with no garnish what so ever.We gave our thoughts to the waitress on leaving a full 35 mins after arriving and £52 later (we opted for a simple riocha at £19.0 (£6.00) at tesco, i would not return and would not reccomend and will be very surprised if the place does not go bust by the spring….. SJH.