Food file - Pub Review
The Hanging Gate, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.
They say you should never revisit your youth. But then, those were heady days when it was super-brave for a 17-year-old to sup three halves of Watneys' Red Barrel, scoff four packs of pork scratchings and adjourn to the local chippie for a piece of cod that could have been carved off Moby Dick. So given that this august hostelry was where, as a teenager with attitude, I lost my virginity, (alcoholically speaking, of course), I had to go back to the Hanging Gate.
Yet, alas, the favourite local of my long lost youth was just that - long lost. Blonde waitresses in crisp white aprons were buzzing everywhere. What had happened to Florrie the aged barmaid of my day? Long dead, probably. Well, she was 60 in 1956. The hastily-written menu of the '50s had been replaced by slickly-produced modern dossiers, proclaiming enticing dishes like peppered mackerel and beef and Guinness pie. So what about the food? After suffering a leather-bound bread roll and a bowl of insipid cream of onion soup I went for the fresh haddock.
At £9.50 a portion that seemed a bargain, and it tasted good, too. So, accompanied by peas that appeared never to have been near a freezer, plus waxy new potatoes and steaming carrots, the fish turned out to be an excellent choice. Mind you, if I had to be a nit-picker, the Hollandaise sauce, appropriately in a small dish rather than smothering my plate, arrived with a skin on top.
Sadly, I didn't spot any ghosts from my younger days, and there was no sign of Watney's Red Barrel behind the bar. But today's ale, as I have come to expect from John Smith's, was excellent. And that probably made up for the fact that I had to suffer the wailings of an obnoxious, talkative brat in the corner. But then, the Hanging Gate has become a true family pub rather than the drinking den I remembered.
PubChef rating (out of 10) Ambiance: 7 Value for money: 9 Overall impression: 8 Flavour factor: 8
