Waggon at Birtle, Rochdale

[Harters]

I really wanted to like the Waggon. Really I did. Its website reads as though it should be the ideal neighbourhood restaurant – although as the former pub is situated a bit in the middle of nowhere on the main road between Bury and Rochdale, there aren’t many neighbours popping in for dinner. That probably accounts for why ours was one of only three tables occupied on this Wednesday evening.

If I was solely considering the food, I would pretty much give it the thumbs up (although on tonight’s efforts, I’d say the current Good Food Guide Cooking 3 is a bit generous). However, I was considering the whole experience. And the charmless room, reminiscent of the dining rooms in small market town hotels, does nothing to enhance it. Nor, for that matter, do the equally charmless, if efficient, staff.

But as to the food, the menu is short and relies on a good choice of comforting dishes. Bread came quickly and was of reasonable quality – an olive oil foccacia was almost dripping with the stuff but had a very over-salted crust.

We both started with the restaurant’s homage to the Bury black pudding. Slices of Chadwicks pudding in a crisp tempura batter sat on some well dressed leaves, scattered with some dice of Lancashire cheese, apple and bacon. A mustard vinaigrette was drizzled round the plate. Two companies sell puddings at Bury Market. There’s the Bury Black Pudding Company, which gets all the press publicity. And then there’s Chadwick’s, which gets all the queues of local customers. Cracking starter – punchy complementary flavours, good range of textures.

Local ingredients pop up again in the main courses but I went with a dish described as “salted brisket, Toulouse sausage and ox tongue with Alsatian cabbage”. Or “choucroute garni” if they’d wanted to be poncy. Also in the bowl, a few new potatoes and carrots. This was hearty rib-sticking winter food and I wolfed it down, in spite of the fact that it was all a bit underflavoured.

Hayton’s are another trader at Bury market. In this case a none too shabby fishmonger. Apparently, fish is always a “special” at the Waggon depending on what’s on offer from Mr Hayton. Tonight it was halibut and plaice. My partner went for the plaice – simply fried and with a caper, lemon, herb butter sauce. Absolutely lovely piece of fish, perfectly cooked. Less good was the bowl of cabbage, carrot and broccoli. Worse were the obviously bought-in frozen chips. But the fish was a redemption.

None of the desserts looked particularly interesting but I tackled a pineapple and caramel tart with a mandarin sorbet. It was OK, although the pastry needed some more crispness. The sorbet and my partner’s ice cream were from Cheshire Farm. The farm is at Tattenhall, not too far from Chester. It’s a very popular place for folk to take their children for an outing. And, yes, they make a wide range of ice creams and sorbets on the farm. Unfortunately, they aren’t very good at it.

So, in summary, it’s place you might go to if you lived on the immediate plot. Food isn’t bad. Prices aren’t bad (£65, including drinks before, a half bottle of white wine and a bottle of water). But I’d be in no rush to make the 40 minute trip again.