The Wheel Inn, Worfield

loosens his belt after a Saturday night meal.

When considering why you fall in love with a particular pub or eatery, it's hard to say exactly what it is that keeps you coming back.

People might say they are excited by a pub's delicious food, unusual decor, or dedication to the local community it serves. Doing just enough doesn't cut it. Adequacy doesn't inspire devotion.

Perhaps that's the problem with the Wheel at Worfield. Located next to the Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton road, it's in a decent location to pick up passing traffic.

Inside, The Wheel is clean, with big bay windows dropping some tables into pools of crisp light, while other nooks and crannies sit in the warmer glow of lamplight.

It is accommodating and welcoming, but its decor feels ultimately like any other roadside pub you might want to visit, and is a little too like a big chain bar.

The staff are friendly, accommodating and unobtrusive, and you feel well looked after without being pestered.

It took us a few minutes to get served, and when we were the courses were delivered at in a relaxed manner, at a leisurely pace.

The pub was light on clientele at the time of our visit, when we had expected it to be cranking into life ahead of a big Saturday night.

Throughout dinner, the atmosphere remained stubbornly flat, with the piped pop music serving only to highlight the lingering quiet elsewhere in the pub.

Few people came and went, and during the course of our meal, on what might have been a bustling period around 7 o'clock on a Saturday evening, we never felt like the tables around us were about to get full.

That's not something that could be said for our stomachs. As the starters were placed in front of us – pork liver and red wine pate with onion chutney for me, smoked salmon for my partner – I knew I shouldn't have bothered with breakfast.

Both meals came with a full dressed salad, and the toast to accompany my pate would act as a serviceable doorstop for the entrance to Westminster Abbey.

My pate was salty and underwhelming, with the taste of the wine lost in its depths, and while the salmon was moist, its citrus salad only differed from my 'plain' salad thanks to two slices of grapefruit.

With the vast starters making our belts creak, when our mains arrived I was beginning to gasp for air and regret that second biscuit with my lunchtime brew.

I had chicken with mozzarella and herb filling, white wine sauce and chunky chips, and once again it arrived on a four-poster bed of salad.

The chicken was cooked well enough, but the sauce and filling were a touch bland. The chips, on the other hand, were giant, fluffy and soft inside, and with just the faintest crisp bite on the outside.

I'm assured my partner's burger was excellent – she was positively effusive about its flavour and the quality of the meat – but again, half of it went uneaten as the giant portions took their toll.

We were offered a look at the dessert menu, but with my clothes beginning to tear at the seams as my stomach expanded, I declined with a throaty wheeze and a shake of the head.

The Wheel carries a small selection of fine local real ales, coming in just over the £3 mark, while its menu is basic but varied, and you feel that you know what you would get were you to repeat your visit.

Prices for main meals don't drop lower than £9.50, and a decent cut of steak pushes closer to £20, which seems like a lot for pub grub.

The ingredients on offer leave you wanting so much more from The Wheel. It enjoys big, promising premises by a main road, although it's not really within walking distance of many houses. Its friendly staff made us feel welcome, and the quality of the meat on offer would suggest good local suppliers.

But the end result is less than the sum of its parts, with too much food arriving at too high a price.

Yet a touch of refinement could so easily give the wheel the homely feel and rustic, tasty food which currently lies out of reach.

ADDRESS

The Wheel Inn, Worfield WV15 5NR

Tel: 01746 716208

MENU SAMPLE

STARTERS

Pork liver and red wine pate with onion chutney, £5.25; Smoked salmon with a citrus salad, £6.95

MAINS

Beef burger with chunky chips and salad, £9.95; Chicken stuffed with mozzarella and herbs, white wine sauce, chunky chips and salad, £12.95

SERVICE

Relaxed, unobtrusive, and served with a smile

ATMOSPHERE:

Very flat on an early evening at a weekend, and not helped by the piped pop music