An area of outstanding natural beauty, Chew Valley attracts thousands of visitors every year to its world-famous lakes. This month flavour discovers yet another reason to make the journey…

Just a short drive from Bristol and Bath, and within a rods cast of the world renowned Chew and Blagdon fishing lakes, the family-run Blue Bowl Inn is an 18th century country pub priding itself on using the best of the surrounding countryside to service the kitchen.

The pub’s adjoining restaurant overlooks the picturesque Mendip Hills and has fast become the jewel in the its crown since being taken over six years ago, welcoming locals and visitors in equal measure. Between tried-and-tested classics such as a hearty ploughman’s or steak ale and mushroom pie (a real favourite), and irresistible offerings of pork loin in a cider and cheddar sauce and braised beef in Stilton gravy, there’s something to suit everyone’s taste. For head chef Mark Riches, it’s the pub’s accommodating approach to food that keeps people coming back - “We want to keep people happy, so as long as we’ve got it the kitchen, you can have whatever you want – I can easily cook gluten and dairy free dishes to order”.

The restaurant is open all day every day, offering a smaller menu between 2-6pm. Mark also claims to serve ‘the best roast in the Valley’: “My food is as close to home cooking as you can get; all our roasties for example are cooked in beef fat and people can’t get enough of them”. Local butcher Nick Jeffries supplies the pub with all its meat and donates extra cuts that are raffled off for charity every Sunday.

Ideally situated, the kitchen uses trout caught in the nearby lake, which is smoked by landlady Tracy Walton’s father, and features on the menu in the form of a baked fillet with a creamy parsley sauce. The pub also keep quails in the garden and offer a quail’s egg salad for under a fiver; expect to pay almost double should you see it on another restaurant menu.

Such an abundance of local produce also leaves little need to buy anything in: “Apart from our desserts which are traditionally made by Maggie’s Country Kitchen, everything we do is home-made without exception – I think that’s pretty rare these days”, says Mark.

In the age of the enigmatic gastropub, places like The Blue Bowl Inn where you can expect a warm welcome and hearty local fare are becoming increasingly difficult to find, and are all the more worth shouting about when you do.

On one of England’s typically cold September nights, my partner and I ventured to the ever-popular Blue Bowl at West Harptree. Easily spotted as you drive along the Bristol Road, this well-established traditional pub has a huge open-plan, vaulted dining room overlooking the large gardens and play area.

You would be forgiven for thinking that a country pub may be quiet during the week, but the reputation of The Blue Bowl has people huddling from the cold, busy finding tables well into the evening – there is surely no better recommendation for great quality food than that. As we sat down, we eagerly awaited a peek at the extensive menu. There were many offerings typical of traditional home-cooked fare, such as homemade soup (£3.25), steaks (from £12.75) and steak and ale pie (£8.50), complemented by dishes with a contemporary twist, such as the hot goat’s cheese salad to start (£4.95), and the whole sea bass, grilled and topped with butter prawns, lemon slices and parsley (£11.25).

We eventually settled on the Blue Bowl chicken liver paté (£4.95), which was the chef’s own unique blend of chicken liver, butter, cream and brandy served with toast and butter. It was too good to share and was by far the best I have eaten in the South West – the attention to detail that made the course perfect for me was an abundance of hot toast. My partner’s choice of garlic mushrooms – sautéed button mushrooms in a rich garlic cream sauce, was incredibly tasty and served piping hot. Both starters arrived with a crisp salad perfect for enjoying with those last drops of sauce – neither of us were prepared to leave the tiniest amount.

The staff let a few minutes pass before bringing our mains – a welcome break as we had ordered hearty main courses. I followed with steak and ale pie (£8.25), packed with tender pieces of steak cooked with mushrooms in real gravy and encased in short crust pastry – it was divine, the steak was more than plentiful, tender and rich and the gravy thick and undoubtedly homemade, as was the pastry. The boiled potatoes were covered in lashings of butter and cooked just how they should be. Slightly less heavy, but still a wonderful portion, my partner tucked into 12 fresh pieces of whole scampi accompanied by proper home-cooked chips – even the generous serving of tartare sauce was described as perfect.

Although we resisted, we were very nearly tempted by some of the classic puddings like homemade bread and butter pudding (£4.25) and unique ice cream flavours like honey and ginger (£3.95). It is certain that any dessert served here would be excellent – I will make sure I leave room next time.

Pubs serving good, wholesome homemade food are not easy to come across, but The Blue Bowl is certainly one of the best. Everything we ate here was top notch – Tracy and her team have made a regular out of me.

Beautiful 18th-century Cask Marque Trust-rated pub at the foot of the Mendip hills, just half a mile from Chew Valley Lake. A large beer garden, big children’s playground and massive menus that include Chew Lake trout (seasonal) add to the broad appeal, while an extensive range of excellent pub grub, an appealing kids’ menu, a fab Sunday lunch and a superb selection of real ales and an extensive wine list complete the scenario. If you can’t bear the thought of leaving (and why would you?), there are a selection of lovely rooms (including a family room) available upstairs. • Children welcome up to 9pm; good disabled access and facilities.

It’s such a pleasant drive to the Blue Bowl at West Harptree, through the beautiful ChewValley countryside and past the Chew Valley Lake that you can’t fail to arrive with lifted spirits. After a busy Saturday I was looking forward to relaxing and someone else cooking us a jolly good dinner and I can say right away that I wasn’t to be disappointed. As well as boasting quite palatial rooms to let, a large restaurant and on occasions live music, the Blue Bowl is at heart a proper old-fashioned country pub. A notice pinned to the bar announced a “meat draw” with profits to be donated to the British Army Benevolent Fund, a very worthwhile cause, and it put me in mind of a holiday long ago in Devon when we spent the evening in a pub, beat the locals at darts and won the meat draw which was by the look of it, an entire sheep rather erratically wrapped in newspaper. We had to give it back as we thought our landlady at the B & B would charge extra for a sheep in the room!

Selecting two pints of wallop to be going on with (they have a Cask Marque award for real ales) we took a look at the specials board; there were plenty of fish dishes; baked salmon fillet on Caesar salad caught my eye, and also pan-fried bacon steaks with mushroom and Dijon mustard sauce. The restaurant was full to the gunnels and we had the last table, tucked away in the corner, overlooking the very pretty garden. The menu is well rounded with both old favourites and new and together with the specials you are spoilt for choice. To start, we took cauliflower cheese soup for me, and whitebait for him, followed by Cheddar pork loin steaks cooked in cider sauce and marbled with Cheddar cheese, and spaghetti bolognaise served with garlic bread and salad. There is a note on the bottom of the menu saying “don’t fancy chips? Try jacket, new etc…. Quite frankly I don’t know anybody who doesn’t fancy chips and if they say not they are probably lying. Anyway we ordered them.

Both starters were good although the main courses definitely deserved the medals, the pork loin was so tender and the cider sauce rich and piquant – good for squashing the chips in – and the spaghetti bolognaise just like mama makes. Altogether we had a lovely time, the service was efficient and friendly and even the bill was reasonable!

 

Jacquie Vowles

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Tel: 01761 221269 | Email: thebluebowl@googlemail.com

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