The Earl Spencer

5 Reviews on “The Earl Spencer”

• Sarah Dean

  A nice gastro pub with plenty of seating. Foodwise, not so great for vegetarians. They only have one veggie option each evening and you don’t know what it is until that afternoon, so I’d never book ahead. morethangreens.com

  April 30, 2016, 6:22 pm

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• Phil

  Good for families and decent for the rugby. Closest pub to us that does a decent food service. Good beers on tap, friendly and tolerant regulars. Full of young families on a Sunday. Most tables booked ahead of time but not necessarily far in advance, having booked ours at 1130 on the morning. Decent chicken and pork roasts. A little more gravy on the chicken and – 1/2 point for charging extra for the Yorkshire puddings for the chicken. Very nice cabbage and root vegetables with the pork though. I don’t even like cabbage and it was finished. Only one telly for the rugby but apparently another upstairs. Overall a very accompanying pub (we stuck to our table but people were chopping and changing), good Sunday lunch, friendly staff and good beers. ~180 for 4 people, 2 starters, 4 Sunday’s roasts, 2 deserts, 2 bottles of wine, 4 beers, 2-3 coffees, glass of wine, glass of cider. (Don’t judge)

  January 19, 2016, 2:32 am

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• TheFoodaholic

  Having access to a car for me these days is proving to be a dream, especially considering I’m not the designated driver. The idea of becoming a responsible driver who has to drive other people around, thus preventing me from drinking – I can’t see a single benefit. Closer to home and craving a hearty lunch we found ourselves at The Earl Spencer. A charming Edwardian pub which was recently awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. Parking (again not me) here at The Earl Spencer is a bit of a problem, but it certainly beats a 1 Megabus journey which takes around 8 hours to get just about anywhere.The Earl Spencer really is a great local. It was cold and very wet outside when we arrived, the strong smell of smoke coming off the roaring fire lingered across the dining room. Paired with the lovely warmth in the room, some fantastic craft beers and a very good, accessible wine list – this is the sort of place you only wish was on your doorstop. Bib Gourmands are awarded to restaurants or pubs who offer good food, at affordable prices. I think the limit is 28 for three courses these days. We struggled to hit the 50 mark for the two of us with a pint of ale each. That’s certainly great value in my opinion. The menu at lunch sounds nice, but the evening menu sounds even better. To start we opted for the risotto balls stuffed with mozzarella and basil, topped with a tomato sauce and served alongside some salad leaves and basil sauce. It wasn’t exactly mind blowing, could have done with a little more seasoning but otherwise its nice crispy batter made up for the shortfall. The salad was a bit half hearted too and felt like it wasn’t even meant to be there.A leg of duck confit at 14 couldn’t be refused, especially if they were pairing it with some braised put lentils, bacon, leek and curly kale. An almost classic combination which didn’t let down. Those lentils were rich, meaty in flavour and had a lovely layering of chopped vegetables which really added flavour to the mix, as did the the smoky bacon. The duck was a lovely piece of meat and very moist in the centre – but for me the skin just wasn’t quite crisp enough. To look at you wouldn’t have guessed with its brown tinged colour but it was much softer than expected. Still it was very nice plate of food which could have been even greater if that skin was just given a little more time.I remember the first time I ate really good fish and chips and fell in love with the British classic. It was at a hotel in Reading – the last place on earth you’d expect to find fish & chips, or good food for that matter. But there it was on the plate, looking as delicious as could be, and every mouthful of the pristine white flesh a delight – from that moment on I was hooked. Here The Earl Spencer made a good effort at it. The chips were proper chip shop style. A little greasy, very crispy and fluffy on the inside. There wasn’t much in terms of seasoning but that was easily rectified ourselves. The batter on the fish was good, nice and golden but there just a little something missing – I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The side salad was again redundant and considering they went all out with the chips, mushy peas would have been nice. Dessert was the highlight our our lunch here at The Earl Spencer. Norfolk apple and treacle tart served with double cream really hit the spot, even after two very filling courses. The pastry was stunning. It was so light, perfectly baked – with a beautiful evenly coloured golden base. As soon as you slam your fork through the layers of juicy, sweet apple the base literally falls apart into thin crisp layers. A lovely cinnamon (I think) note run all the way though it and left a lingering touch of heat on the tongue. Imagine eating this, wrapped up against the wood burning fire – need I say more.We wobbled back to the car shortly after, I fell asleep – living the dream I say. The Earl Spencer was a nice surprise to come across. It truly is the local pub you’d want on your doorstop, with its cosy charm, outside seating in the summer and a good selection of drinks – with the added bonus of some good quality pub food. There is certainly room for improvement on the food side and as a local pub perhaps I’m looking deeper in to this more than I need to – but they were just awarded a Bib Gourmand and that’s nothing to snigger at. With such an accolade firmly advertised around the pub the bar is set high, and they’re putting that on themselves. Lets hope The Earl Spencer continues to deliver, and more importantly grow in to hopefully a perfect local pub – it’s already on the way. thefoodaholic.co.uk

  March 2, 2015, 3:22 pm

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• Dbulmer83

  Awful pub – bad staff, service, hygiene, food and management. This is a terrible pub, absoutely hateful staff who look like they’d rather throw up than serve you. The staff know nothing about their beers which is a surprise for a CAMRA pub and were positively rude when we ordered a couple of pints of Sharps – the barmaid after trying to dismiss us eventually pointed out that it’s called Doombar, which is true, but in a pub claiming to serve real ale, if Doombar is your only Sharps on tap then you should know the brewery and the beer and be able to work out that a pint of Sharps is a pint of Doombar, you shouldn’t look sniffy at your customers and then grudgingly pour a badly kept, poorly executed pint.Booked a table once for 11 people, turned up, were given menus, sat down with drinks, worked out our order, went to the bar to place the order and were told they were out of food. An evening ruined. Went this weekend, asked for some drinks and a bowl of chips, were told that despite the fact they do bowls of chips all the time, our snooty salesperson (she knew nothing, definitely not a barmaid) would not serve us chips without ordering other food ‘in case we run out of chips’For a pub that prides itself on its good food, never seems to actually have any food. And if you don’t like working with people or serving drinks, I’d suggest you don’t work behind a bar. Management are rude and dismissive. Such a shame as this is really handy for home, but I’ll walk the extra three minutes to the Park Tavern and get drinks, a smile and as many bowls of chips as I want.

  April 23, 2012, 4:34 pm

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• Epicurious

  The Earl is a great little gastropub and without peer in the area but the quality of the food is not as good as its golden age a couple of years ago.

  July 25, 2009, 9:28 am

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