Daily Echo Review

“Sunday lunch is an excellent test of a pub’s food. It should be so easy to do well, and yet so often is disappointing; limp vegetables, potatoes like rocks or meat that looks like your dog wouldn’t eat it.

I once had a Sunday lunch in the New Forest that tasted like someone had poured bleach on it. The carrots were simultaneously overcooked and rock hard and the gravy looked like melted candle wax. We ate so little of it the waiter was too embarrassed to ask us “how was everything” when he collected the plates.

But we’d heard good things about the food at the Langton Arms – in fact the last time the Echo came it got a rave review – so we were optimistic when we rolled into Tarrant Monkton on Sunday lunchtime. And having looked inside, we were confident enough to go off for a walk.

We arrived back at the pub after 3pm – a real test of a pub kitchen. Would we get the end of the day’s roast, with wilted veg and a little dribble of gravy? Keen to find out, I ordered the roast beef, and my boyfriend the roasted partridge.

A confidence-inducing interval elapsed (long enough to suggest some of the meal was been cooked as opposed to reheated) so we took advantage of the complimentary Sunday papers, while munching home-made bread washed down with local ales.

When it arrived, the beef was pink (oh the joy!), with a huge, crispy Yorkshire, lashings of gravy and goose-fat roasted potatoes, fluffy and crisp. The vegetables (grown in the pub’s controversial vegetable patch) were well cooked and full of flavour.

The partridge was moist, crispy skinned and (he said) delicious. The red cabbage was tender and sweet, the fondant potato a perfect accompaniment.

Landlady Barbara Cossins came over for a chat, and to express delight that we’d eaten the legs of the partridge (the first customers of the day to do so, she said).

It’s obvious from the food that she’s passionate about what she does, sourcing everything locally and yearning to be innovative with the menus. So it didn’t take long for her to persuade us to have a look at the desserts.

We chose sticky toffee pudding, which was moist and cakey with just a hint of dates. The butterscotch sauces was deep and rich and buttery and as for the ice cream it came with – heavenly.

It was one of the nicest Sunday lunches we’ve had for ages.

The pub itself is gorgeous – the fire of a few years ago means the interior is sleek and modern but while the outside is Wessex thatch and countryside. (And if you feel like a bit of entertainment after dinner, there’s always the skittle alley.)

Tarrant Monkton may seem like a world away – even as you drive through the village it’s hard to imagine there’ll be a thriving pub at the end of the road.

And in terms of food, it’s certainly a world apart from your average pub grub. But it’s a world I’d happily drive miles to visit.

Our meal, with a pint and a half of beer, came to £35.”

Want to find out the food we have on offer! Why not have a look at our Restaurant or Bar Menu