The Brewhouse

 

So named after its first incarnation, The Brewhouse (formerly the Cheetham Arms) seems to be firstly billed as one of three things depending on where you look online. It's either firstly billed as a hotel, a restaurant, or a pub, and not usually a combination of the three. From what I experienced, I would suggest that (especially given the venue's past), this is more of a modern pub which also serves a good selection of food.

Adjacent to one of the lounge areas in the bar, you can look through a glass window to see the brewing area, still full of booze barrels, the tap labels of which are on display in the window outside the pub. A nice nod to its brewing past. It also proudly sells ales from its sister company, Dunscar Bridge brewery, located down the road.

The venue itself feels like a strange combination of old-school pub and modern bar, mixing neutral tones and bright woods with dark woods and studded leather couches.

Our first problem was that as we drove up to the venue, we saw nowhere to park as it's on a road. We turned left after the pub into a small yard, which obviously wasn't meant for parking, so we parked further down the road. Only on LEAVING the pub did we see a not-very-prominent sign telling us that there was in fact a car park behind the venue, accessed by turning down a road before the the pub itself.

On this occasion, a group of four of us were here for lunch, having perused the menu online. Only two of us opted for starters instead of main courses. For these, we ordered goats cheese fritters, and crispy fried whitebait. Both arrived in good time and were tasty and well prepared and presented.

The other two of us ordered from the mains menu, choosing pub classics of steak and ale pie, and fish and chips. The first thing we both noticed was that the chips were very tasty traditional chips. Always a plus! My only gripe is that my fish was lay on top of my chips, which seemed a little odd, meaning I needed to lift it up and move it to be able to get to my chips. The fish had absolutely perfect batter, although the fish itself was a little bland. Good mushy peas though, and the home-made tartare sauce was excellent. Sadly, although the pastry on the pie was quite nice, the actual contents of the pie were quite dry, and could've done with a jug of gravy on the side to add some moisture.

At this point we had agreed that the visible staff of two young girls seemed friendly with good intentions, but not overly professional at times in how they were speaking and acting, just a bit too casual, and how we were having trouble getting their attention when they were looking at their mobile phones at the bar.

When we eventually caught the attention of one to be able to order dessert, we chose to get two sticky toffee puddings with four spoons, so we could share.

The puddings arrived, and looked great (admittedly on one of those big porcelain sombrero style bowls), but as the waitress walked off, we realised we weren't given any spoons, and we had to wave her over to let her know. She responded with, "didn't she give you any? She was supposed to give you some!" and a big annoyed sigh, before marching off, presumably to get the spoons. However it took about 4 minutes until she returned with spoons, leaving us sitting looking at the blob of ice cream atop the warm pudding starting to melt into a creamy splodge, with nothing we could really do.

Happily, the sticky toffee pudding was really tasty, and the butterscotch sauce that accompanied it really hit the spot!

My verdict on The Brewhouse is a bit mixed... I enjoyed the food, but as the place was quite a loud and busy pub, (with seemingly loud boisterous regulars at the bar) and the service was a bit lacking for a weekday afternoon, I don't think I'd go out of my way to come here again, but if I was in the area, I'd probably pop in for lunch.

The Brewhouse
987 Blackburn Road
Eagley

Bolton
BL1 7LG
(01204) 301 372
www.thebrewhousebolton.co.uk