Carpenters Arms, Burford

[david goodfellow]

We love the Cotswolds. With its honey stoned cottages and grander honey stoned mansions. Beautiful village after village of visual treat. Little wonder then, that highly authorative Forbes magazine named Burford as one of the best places to live.

High praise indeed, and many's the time we have travelled up and down Burfords main street much in admiration of what is on offer, that we too have been tempted to move to the Cotswolds.

The Carpenters Arms is not actually in Burford. Its in Fulbrook, about a mile or two behind the town, on a not so busy main road. Not an obvious stop off point for refreshment if your actually visiting Burford. In fact you would not even know it exsisted unless someone tipped you off. I suspect quite a few locals are equally unaware.

All is very welcoming and cosy inside. Young, pleasant, and reasonably eager staff are on hand to help. Its very pubby, but posh pubby, clearly aimed at the dining side of things. However drinkers are also welcome, as there is a decent size bar area.

Wooden floors and stripped back tables and chairs are the order of the day, adding to the country charm.

As this place has just recently been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and because we love the area it seemed fitting to give it a whirl.

The menu is very simple and changes daily. Appetisers list Beer battered black pudding (£4), Crispy whitebait (£5) and three others. Nine starters, Nine mains, five sides, six desserts and a decent choice of seven cheeses (three with biscuits, grapes and quince £8) compleat the picture.

Bread and butter was decent quality, and replenished without charge. It was cut on the feature butchers block, and brought to the table.

My wife enjoyed her Warm Goats Cheese baked in filo (£7.50)

In fact she enjoyed it very much. Nicely accompanied with pickled beetroot, some crunchy walnut and a balsamic dressing over the mixed leaves. Just her kind of starter really.

I,m a sucker for Red Mullet (£7) but whenever I go to France they always seem to be bigger than the ones my fish wholesaler seems to have on offer. Indeed this fillet was small, from a small fish no less and sat on top of some ratte potatoes, some bang in season blood orange segments and some watercress.

A couple of the sliced potatoes were burnt, and I was not really enamoured with the pairing with the blood orange, however this may just be a personal thing. Although no excuse for the potatoes.

We shared a plate of Carpaccio of Beef (£10) which was accompanied with a rocket pesto and some parmesan slivers.

My first choice off the menu would have been the Rump of Lamb but as my wife chose it I opted for my next choice John Dory Fillets and Linguine (£15).

Well it had other ingredients in the dish of course, such as, queen scallops,and plenty of them, and what was listed as "shrimp and lobster sauce". There were an abundance of shrimp, tasty but a bit on the dry side, I did not get any lobster, flavour or bits, not that I was looking for it though at the time of eating. In fairness to the chef perhaps I did miss it.

What I did get, however was the unmistakable feel of a small fish bone snaking its way across the roof of my mouth. I will forgive the kitchen for this mishap. It was tiny and thankfully slightly curved so no damage was done.

Apart from the bone, the dish was satisfying, but I would have liked another minute or two's cooking of the pasta.

My other half chose Rump of Lamb, creamed spinach and tiny onions (£16).

No complaints, a decent plate of food, up to Bib standards.

There was quite a long wait between starters and mains. In fact I was getting a bit piddled off with it. The place was only about a quarter full but it was explained that a group of thirteen were in the conservatory (which is to the rear, and out of sight) and this put pressure on the kitchen.

We did not venture into desserts, worrying about another long delay.

We skipped coffee, had no wine, but we did have some decent drink as this is one of 1600 Greene King pubs selling cask conditioned ales.

To sum up then.

All in all pretty much up and down I'm afraid. We like the place, however the long delay, the various inconsistant cooking, the burnt potatoes and the fish bone make for a less than impressive first visit.

If we lived local we would give it another whirl, but I can hand on heart state that we will perhaps not return here for one reason or another.

On reflection it is perhaps easy to have an expectation level higher than the norm if Michelin give any type of award. Therein lies the problem, Bib gourmands are supposed to be decent food at reasonable prices (with an upper limit of £28 for three courses).

Nothing wrong with the pricing I just think we hit the kitchen on an off day.

Two courses each, extra shared starter, couple of halves each, no desserts, no coffee, about £60.