The Aspinall Arms — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

I've been going here for Wednesday lunch with friends every month for years. We've had varying experiences over that time but one common theme is dishes missing items. Its become a joke as to what will be missing next visit but cashews missing from the crispy beef salad has happened the most. Interestingly I notice missing items off dishes crops up in quite a few TripAdvisor reviews for The Aspinall. You have to wonder if it's deliberate and they hope customers won't notice?

Today with two quiches on the menu a Blackstick Blue cheese, spring onion and broccoli with apple, celery and grape salad or Kirkhams Lancashire, balsamic onion and leek with creme fraiche potato salad, my friend chose the former as she's trying to stick to a low carb diet as much as possible. It came with potato salad so she asked for the salad accompanying it as per the menu. My Goan curry came with no chickpeas (second visit in a row) and was lukewarm. My friend commented how tasteless her quiche was and anyone whose had Blacksticks Blue will know its full of flavour, so realised they'd given her the wrong quiche hence why it came with potato salad. It was mentioned to the waitress as were the missing chickpeas and guess what chefs reply was. The chickpeas were blended into the curry sauce (the sauce was so thin it had never seen a blitzed chickpea) and my friend was wrong (basically suggesting she was a liar) but having checked the quiche contained leek as in the Kirkhams Lancashire quiche not the Blacksticks Blue she ordered.

For all our loyalty over the years we got absolute baloney off the chef, how insulting and unprofessional. The problem with The Aspinall is the prices keep going up but food quality keeps going down as does portion size . The other niggle is some staff even though they have seen us umpteen times, won't even acknowledge they recognise us, no 'nice to see you back again or lovely to see you' it's as if you've never been before. We've put up with all these niggles but today finished us off, next month we will go elsewhere.

My advice is read the menu carefully and check what you get on the plate, we've lost count of the number of missing items. And take photos of your dish...

A well-presented site in a great location by the river and staffed by some lovely people, The Aspinall's reputation is pretty strong. The current menu has a lot to interest any diners, although at the upper end of pricing.

The quantities of central components of the most interesting plates was disappointing across the group - at those prices - 3x 2mm slices 6-7cm long of the (very nice) smoked duck breast, however prettily and tastilly combined with other sweet and savoury elements, felt mean at £7.95. Loch Fyne smoked salmon tortellini only came with 4 parcels - lite bite indeed - but at £11.95?

It had been agreed in advance that our party of 21 would be on 3 tables but our organiser didn't understand what she had agreed to....3 separate orders were taken by different staff and served sequentially. The result was that one table (a 5) were receiving their mains before the third table (of 10 including the guest of honour on her 80th birthday) saw their starters.

The Lamb Shoulders were very good: large, tender chunks of meat - I had to help my wife finish hers (after her Camembert starter - the best value we saw in both parts of the menu). The drawback was miserly portions of Dauphinoise, under-cooked greens, black-peppered carrot and a rather weak gravy.

The Malaysian seafood curry was pleasant but, again, miserly on the fish - seemed like portion-controlled 2 small mussels, 2 not very-king prawns, 2 chunks of salmon and of cod. A big dome of sticky rice was not needed for such a small amount of curry.

Staff were lovely over the birthday cakes, bringing plates and napkins plus (very carefully) a suitable knife. We tried their sticky toffee pudding (with which they kindly found some custard) and lemon & rhubarb posset, which were...

Was stuck between 4 and 5 star, so I thought I would round it up. We came in on a fairly quiet Tuesday with our dog who was as well looked after as us (which is a plus!)

We went for olives, bang bang cauliflower for starters then the vegan mushroom pie and the cauliflower Milanese. The pie came with cabbage, mash and a halved carrot. The carrot and mash were great, cooked to my liking. Smooth mash, slight bite to the carrot. The cabbage was slightly under for me, and a little under-seasoned too. The pie was good, however! And that’s the star of the show.

I preferred the cauliflower Milanese, it was a huge portion (good for us, we can eat…) and had a lot more flavour. It had a really nice texture and crunchy exterior which went really nice with the softer pasta bed. If I was being super critical, the pasta sauce was slightly acidic for me, but that’s my preference!

The mixed olives starter was more a bowl of black olives with 2 green ones and the bang bang cauliflower was good, albeit expensive for 3 and a half small florets. I wouldn’t go for this again, personally.

Whilst this sounds like a middle ground review, we thoroughly enjoyed the meal and we will be back again, maybe not in a rush. But it serves a purpose as a pub that does good, hearty, comforting food. Granted, it’s not Michelin star, but that’s not what we went for.

Aspinall knows its place and executes it very well. It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it’s good at. Friendly staff, quick service (but not rushed) and a nice coffee to finish (makes all the difference).

It’s nice to see a place kept clean (or at least the areas I saw) with nicely kept toilets too.

Thanks for a...