Coalbrookdale Inn, Coalbrookdale

Reviewer's rating **** Rex Key enjoys a trip to Coalbrookdale and discovers some excellent food and quality real ale.

The imposing Coalbrookdale Inn has a deserved reputation as a leading real ale pub, but is less well known for serving quality food.

It has a compact restaurant room with space for about 20 covers, and offers a varied and tempting menu at prices comparable with many half-decent restaurants.

We booked in on a Friday night and pushed through the friendly crowd in the bar enjoying some of the best real ale in the region. In a month there are usually a choice of about 20 tipples to work through.

The Coalbrookdale is just about within walking distance of my home (two miles away) so by the time I arrived I was ready for a glass of Hobson's Town Crier - a cool, full-flavoured and thirst quenching brew. This was enjoyed in the cosy, 1950s style dining room which features a gorgeous, stained-glass room divider and wobbly tables.

My wife Libby was on a sponsored slim at the time so I thought she would order a glass of water and a lettuce leaf or two - but she claimed the four-mile walk meant she could take on a larder full of calories (just this once) and not put on an ounce.

So she enjoyed a G and T before tackling a starter of sea food salad (£5.25). It was, she said, well presented, highly flavoured and a good choice. My mushroom surprise (£5.50 ) lived up to its billing and was pleasantly unusual. Thinly sliced mushrooms had been gently sauteed with onion and smoked bacon and flavoured with complementing herbs and served with a delicious garlic and wine sauce - very good indeed.

The duck had been expertly cooked and thickly sliced. I am not a chef and would not know (or particularly care) whether everything was technically correct, it was tender and tasty and damn good. That does it for me.

The vegetables were lightly roasted, so retained their flavours, and I polished off the lot. The chips were fat, and did not attract complaint but I managed to refrain from consuming all of them (as a sort of tribute to my wife's dieting).

Libby's grilled salmon with saffron sauce (£11.25) had her well and truly hooked. The moist flesh had retained much of its flavour and the smooth creamy sauce didn't overpower the salmon. An object lesson in how to treat quality fish and serve it well.

Time now to sit back, finish the rest of the house red and choose a dessert. Bread and butter pudding (possibly), treacle tart (a strong contender) or Bailey's cheesecake (£4.95) - it's got to be the cheesecake. I've rarely not enjoyed a cheesecake and the Coalbrookdale's version (complete with kumquat) is highly recommended.

Across the table the my wife was pleased and disappointed. Pleased because her pears in red wine and flavoured with cinnamon were super, disappointed because they were far better than the ones she prepares at home.

The total cost of the evening was just over £63 (including the tea and coffee), plus a bit of shoe leather.

The Coalbrookedale Inn website gives an indication of the courses available, including 12 starters, five vegetarian dishes and five fish courses, although not all of them may be available every evening.

As would be expected in a restaurant aiming for quality, the food is freshly cooked to order so there sometimes can be a delay. Timing is a personal matter, but I don't like rush, so a 10 to 20-minute wait between courses is perfectly acceptable by me.

Food is served every evening except Sunday with lunchtime meals available Friday to Sunday.

There are six rooms offered for overnight accommodation, with three at the Coalbrookdale itself and three it the nearby, and equally historic, Foundry Masters House.

Danny Wood and his wife Dawn (the chef) have been lauded for the six years they have been providing excellent food and drink. Danny's "previous" includes being a semi-pro footballer (and a Villa apprentice) and playing for England as a schoolboy.

ADDRESS

Coalbrookdale Inn, Wellington Road, Coalbrookdale, TF8 7DX

Phone 01952 433953.

MINI GUIDE:

Starters

Deep fried battered brie with cranberry dip (£5.75); home-made soup with warm crusty bread (£4.50).

MAINS

Sizzling satay with fillet beef and basmati rise (£13.25); chicken fajitas with flour tortillas and dips (£10.95).

DESSERT

Bread and butter pudding; treacle tart (£4.95).

Atmosphere

Jovial without being raucous.

Service

Friendly and efficient

DISABLED FACILITIES

Beware the steps, but the staff will assist.