I only ever drove past The Blundell Arms. It's very near where I live, so I drive past it a lot! It just looked like another pub, and not very popular, as I never saw anyone parked outside. But in recent times I noticed A-boards outside mentioning food, so after a long time of realising this, I decided to look online, and lo and behold, it's not just a pub that has "food available", but a full on food-centric pub! Hoorah!

When I drove there, I realised that the reason it looked so quiet and lacking in cars is because there's actually a sizeable car park BEHIND it, and that in turn is the entrance people tend to use to access it.

When I walked in, I was very pleasantly surprised, this pub was not only very expansive in side (perhaps not in terms of headroom in some of the older parts!) but was wonderfully traditional, with beautiful rustic beams running throughout, and many nods to its past as a court house, showing the old stone placard, and a window showing the traditional wattle and daub construction.

The other thing I noticed is that this was a very bright space. The winter sunshine truly cascades through the windows, giving a wonderfully comfortable feeling. This place had a 'good' feeling as soon as I entered. 

I was greeted by a friendly staff member who took me to a table nestled amongst the rustic beams, where I was given the menus, and had chance to also peruse the lunch menu. The lunch menu was really good value, and I'd happily order from it, but in this instance I noticed on the main menu, amongst all the delicious traditional and classic pub food offerings, and "chef's inspired dishes"  was a gourmet burger. So I opted for that!

I took the time waiting to have a look round at the rest of the place, which is where Ashleigh, the staff member, told me about the building's previous uses, and how pleasant the place looks at night with all the lights lighting up the corners of this old building. 

When my burger arrived, I was quite pleased. The presentation was simple but that's all it needed to be, as it was a big burger, and a pot of triple-cooked chips. The chips were great, crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. The burger was tasty, but I wouldn't call it 'gourmet', as it was quite a standard burger, but grilled fully through rather than pink (due to health and safety demands usually), so it wasn't juicy, but was still tasty, regardless. The bacon on the burger was a bit fatty though, I had to pull strands of it off, but that's merely my personal preference. For the price, it was a good burger, and a tasty lunch. I'd certainly order it again.

The sundaes were really delicious, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my cookies and cream sundae wasn't just cookies and cream ice cream, but also loaded with chopped and crushed cookies throughout! Delicious!

As I mentioned, there's not a huge amount of seating in the downstairs space, but the best has been made of the space to allow people to sit without chairs and tables cramming all into the space. We sat on a side-bar with stools and read the food menu, which sounds very good, some really nice ideas for simple lunches, such as steak Canadian and black pudding scotch eggs, but today we fancied a bit of breakfast, and so opted for some toast, and the full breakfast, as well as a pot of tea for two.

It's well located for people to get to on foot, and although it does have a car park, I wouldn't say you could get more than 4 cars in it at any one time. The venue is split into three areas, the coffee lounge to the left, the sandwich shop to the right, and the fully licensed bar/function room upstairs.

As you walk in, you step into the coffee lounge section, which is bright, spacious, and modern, with purchasable art displayed on the walls. There are modern tables and chairs as well as couches if you just fancy a coffee and to read the paper. The owner, Stuart Farnell greets me warmly as I walk in, and asks "fancy a brew?". The main counter displays cakes and tasty goods available at that moment, as well as the selections of beers and wines available.

The food selection is mainly breakfast and lunch-based, with a specials board, and everything seems to be home-made and freshly made to order by Stuart, who also used to be a restaurant chef, and who as well as running the place as a friendly host, also tells me that he runs weekly community cookery classes at the venue, as well as other general events. He tells me how nothing quite beats home-made when it comes to his food offerings, to which I agree. Despite being fresh to order and home-made, the food is pretty reasonably priced too!

I firstly accepted the offer of a pot of tea, which hit the spot perfectly. I liked that the milk came in a teeny tiny traditional milk bottle too. For my lunch I chose to have a ham and cheese toastie, which clearly was freshly made. Not only was the quality very tasty, but it came with a little fresh salad, and the best fresh home-made coleslaw I've had in an extremely long time!