The Blue Bell — Restaurant in England

A lovely old pub with beams, busy very busy at weekends. A pleasant oak beamed glass sided extension to the rear with sheltered garden. Food is almost always delicious and cooked and presented beautifully. Last night a large filletted sea bream with Anya potatoes and seasonal vegetables at £15.50. My husband had pork chop with mustard mash, my sister local sausages on mash with seasonal veg and my brother in law a ruined steak at £20.50. It seems chef struggles to get steaks cooked to request especially on busy nights. Starters were huge price range £4.50 for lovely pea and watercress soup wonderfully green with huge chunk of wholemeal bread, yummy goats cheese, fig and pear salad £5.50 and my sister had a light bite of breaded cheese which were tasty with a mayo dip £2.50 but other starters were £12.50. Desserts were limited no mousse, no brulee, no pannacotta, no meringue and it was a hot night! The guys had Malva (butterscotch) hot pudding light and sweet with sauce and cream and my sister a small heavy chocolate pot very strong tasting with mango coulis (should have been raspberry didn't work with mango) and cream. The Blue Bell has hit the high spots over the past 2 years and prices are really creeping up. Vegetables are becoming fewer with sides being an almost necessary addition. Starters are becoming expensive and even puddings are noticeably increasing. Whilst necessary they could price themselves out of their healthy market! P!ease sort steaks two visits on the trot now and poorly...

The bluebell is a funny old place, sometimes you can have an amazing meal, other times it's all just a bit meh! The menu seems to change so regularly that if you do find a meal you adore (the curry last time we went was truly special) you can be assured it won't be there when you go back! The choices are also quite limited and the prices a little on the ridiculous side. Yes the food is nice but so is not having to remortgage after every visit, this is a village pub, not a gourmet London restaurant after all. Children are welcome but make sure you pack something for them to do, there is nothing provided and the service can be painfully slow (granted a lot of this is due to freshly cooked food which you can't really complain about I guess!) The portion sizes are varied, this visit mine left me hungry but my daughter's child size I would have struggled to get through (and that's despite the salt they'd doused it in!) Over all, I think on this occasion I really wasn't blown away and we'll definitely be looking at other restaurants in the area before heading back. It's convenient but just too expensive to be our regular local. If you do go though, I recommend the fish and chips, that's one meal they...

We went to the Blue bell today, Sunday for lunch. We pre booked several days before for six people and all was fine, Two days before we went we had an un expected visitor and so duly rang the Blue bell t see if we could add another person making a total of 7 people. We were told catagorically that they couldn't do this at all . Anyway as it transpired two of our party were unable to attend so our new guest was able to come with us, now only five. On arrival the place was reasonably quiet with several empty table all around the restauraunt area and pub, We came to the conclusion that they could just not be bothered. Without much ado we had a very lovely meal which was of the best quality and quantity. We all felt that the atmosphere amongt the staff was a little strained with no one smiling at all. I think the food desreves five stars but the attitude although pleasant would be far nicer if smiles were more...