Tavern Fayre

I must admit, Tavern Fayre is one of those places I've driven past on multiple occasions, believing it to be one of those chain type food pubs, mainly due to its name and the style of its signage, but after reading wonderful things about it over on my friend DollyBakes' blog, I was eager to give it a try!

The first impression as you walk in is that you're not walking into one of those pubs where everyone's sat around looking at you as you step inside. I hate that. Instead, the décor inside is warm, friendly and welcoming, with roaring open fireplaces and colours and designs separating the large space into different areas without using big intrusive walls. This gave the place an eclectic and sprawling feel, and made you want to look around. In particular, the main restaurant area is two floors in height, but has beams where I assume the second floor would have been, which gives a very dramatic and interesting look!

When we first entered the above area, we stood at the 'wait here to be seated' podium for a few minutes, as nobody seemed to be available, but there was a lot of staff movement bringing out food and working behind counters, so it was forgiveable. The only thing is that on the podium was a notice, saying how smoking isn't allowed, but also nor was the use of electronic cigarettes. I've not seen this sort of problem before, so I can only assume they have their reasons. The entire restaurant is also wheelchair friendly, which is nice, and has free WiFi, you just need to ask someone for the password.

Before long, a member of staff appeared and took us to a nice little section in the middle of the restaurant, which felt like it was in its own little room due to the use of colours, flooring types, and fabric/curtain dividers. At this point, although it was forgotten with us, it seems as people are lead to their tables, they're also given a jug of water, which is a pleasant touch. I didn't realise this until later on, even though we had water glasses on the table. We didn't mind though, as we ordered some soft drinks straight away anyway.

There are a few things about this venue which don't quite marry together for me though. The general décor and furnishings are lovely, and quite traditional, but there is the occasional 'chef's special' chalkboard or sign which is done in a very modern style, looking like the sort of thing you'd see in a service station, and didn't quite fit in with the rest of the design. Sadly, the menus fell under this category too. I don't mean the content, but the menus themselves were a large two-sided piece of laminated paper, with the odd bit of cheap clip-art dotted around on it. A shame really as it was quite a cheap look, and the plastic was bending and splitting at the edges. Some nice properly made card menus would be a lot nicer.

The good thing though was the selection of offerings on the menus, which were very enticing, and good value too! Both my dining partner, Phil, and I at some point had decided on three separate meals each before we settled on a choice, but we made it clear to our friendly and helpful waitress that we'd be trying the other options next time! We also decided that we were going to opt for a main and dessert, rather than chancing a starter and having no room afterwards! The starters did sound very nice though.

Phil settled on the steak pie, which he said was very tasty with very tender meat. His chosen potato option of mash was a superb accompaniment, as it was creamy and buttery. No insta-mash here, folks! It came with a side of cabbage and carrots.

I however took Dolly's recommendation of the hand-salted gammon! I have to say that she was NOT wrong... this is quite probably the best gammon I have ever had! Bursting with flavour without tasting like a mouth of salty seawater! It was juicy and tender. I cut a bit of fat off the edge, but Phil then pointed out that it wasn't fat, it was just a gooooood cut of meat, and was delicious meat right to the edge! Superb! I chose to have roast potatoes for the potato option, which were nice. It also came with the cabbage and carrots. The carrots were cooked nicely, but they sadly didn't have much flavour to them. I had ordered some pork gravy on the side in case I wanted to try it on the gammon, as I prefer gravy rather than an egg or pineapple, but after tasting the gammon, the gravy did not touch a single bit of it! You really must try this gammon!

The meals were filling, but we were determined to have one of the amazing desserts we'd seen in the dessert cabinet as we walked in, as they looked wonderful! So we had a 'breather' as it were, and sat and chatted for a bit, letting our food go down. During this point I decided to pop to the Gents toilets, which were clean and modern, but had 9 urinals, two toilets, and two sinks... which seems a little odd to me. The only problem with the toilets was that the taps were those horrific single push button taps that tend to stay on for 4 seconds, and then shut off. Was it going to splash forcefully into the sink and spray all over me? Gladly not, but it was however a very weak stream of water. The hand dryers were 1980s looking monstrosities too. There was another one of those "electronic cigarette" notices in here too. Also I can't speak for the Ladies toilets, but the gents only had a single mirror, and it wasn't by the sinks, but was in fact on the other side of the room.

The toilets were fine, but just need a bit of a glamming up, stick in a couple of Dyson airblades, some proper taps, and you'd be laughing. 

Right! Dessert time! Phil had his eye on a big chocolate fudge cake he saw sitting in the counter, but when we went back, it seemed to have gone. However the waitress behind the counter pulled it out from underneath, and Phil's face lit up!

He was asked if he'd like it hot or cold, to which he chose hot, and chose cream as its accompaniment. He said that the chocolate fudge cake itself was deliciously chocolatey, without being a really heavy cake as is often the case. Other options in the dessert cabinet included a strawberry pavlova, LumpyBumpy, a fruit cheesecake, and a caramel creamy concoction I didn't catch the name of. Aside the desserts on show, they offer a range of hot desserts and ice creams. I opted for the "Hot Sticky Pudding", which didn't fully explain what it was, or how big it was, but I was told it was essentially a sticky toffee pudding, but with butterscotch. I love butterscotch. The girl showed me the pudding itself, which was in a little pot she brought out from under the chiller, so I was slightly worried that it was going to be microwaved, but for the time it took to come out, I don't think it was, I imagine it was popped into an oven again for a little while.

What turned up was a wonderful smelling steaming hot sponge, sitting in a pool of hot custard, drizzled with butterscotch. The sponge was piping hot, moist, wonderfully rich, and delicious! I'm glad I opted for it! Next time I might try it with ice cream instead, but the custard was heavenly, it has to be said!

So now it was time for the bill. Uh oh. You know when you've had a great meal out and you think, "this is going to be a pricy one, but it's a one off!"? Well that's how we were feeling as we went to pay... however, we found that our bill was a total of just £33.54! £33.54!! If this restaurant was in Manchester City Centre or one of the trendy suburbs, they could charge double that! We were thrilled, and told the staff we'd be back again soon, which we damn well will be, and probably with the parents!

Go and give it a try, it's a fantastic place for dinner! They serve food until 10:00pm Monday - Saturday, and 9:00pm on a Sunday. They also have a very large and spacious car park.


Two mains, two pints of soft drinks and two desserts came to £33.54


Tavern Fayre
Wigan Rd,
Hunger Hill, Bolton
(01204) 62861
www.tavernfayre.net