The lowdown on the Brownlow
IT is fair to say the memory of one of the warmest summers on record is a distant one now.
I remembered, ruefully, how I’d moaned about how hot it was back then as we approached the Brownlow Arms in Caldwell very briskly, teeth chattering. A bit of warmth wouldn’t have gone amiss as even in the short distance from the car park to the pub’s front door the cold got into your bones like an alien life form.
Caldwell is a small village off the A66 in North Yorkshire with a population of just over 100. Not enough to keep a pub going unless it was on its game and attracting people from outside the immediate area. As the Brownlow Arms was full of diners when we got there I had early indications it was on its game. Its Sunday menu was ambitious. There were around 16 starters with fish being a popular theme. And not just any old fish. There was avocado and curried crab salad, whisky prawns with tomato and chilli, tempura battered king prawns, crab and prawn tart, salmon fish cakes and on and on it went.
With so much fish on offer it was only natural that Mrs Eats suggested we share a baked Camembert with redcurrant jelly and crusty bread at £7.50.
It’s a bit like posh cheese on toast and was a pleasant winter warmer to kick things off, going very nicely with my pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord (£3.50 a pint).
Onto the main courses and for Sunday roasts you had roast beef, sirloin of beef, roast pork, roast lamb or turkey with all the trimmings. Mrs Eats went for the lamb at £12.
I fancied something a little different, again tempted by the fish choices, which included beerbattered Whitby cod or scampi and chips, as well as a filet of sea bass with king scallops. But then the pork tenderloin and black pudding stack with a mushroom and mustard sauce caught my eye, costing £11.50, and I went for that.
The vegetables the dishes we were served with boasted chunky chips and mushy peas as well as the usual roast potatoes, mash, carrots and greens. The chips were particularly nice.
Mrs Eats loved the lamb, well cooked and tasty, her Yorkshire pudding was good too, not too chewy or too crisp.
Meanwhile my pork was cooked to my liking, the black pudding was excellent and the mustard sauce tasty and creamy. It went particularly well with the chips.
And the helpings were so big we didn’t have room for a pudding, even though there were a couple of boozy twists on traditional puddings that piqued our interest. There was the whiskey marmalade bread and butter pudding and the Pimms spiked Eton Mess. All the puddings, served with cream, ice cream or custard, cost £5 except the cheese board which costs £6.50.
Overall impressions were very good. The service was fine and the young staff dealing with a busy service did so with much good humour. The food was of good quality, tasty and filling and thanks to the shared Camembert, we kept the cost down.