Eat My Words: We review The Crown Hotel, Stamford
Working in the media is no longer punctuated by long, boozy lunches.
In fact, the LincsOnline team based in Stamford gets together socially twice a year at a push.
But thanks to a friendly shove in the right direction we decamped to The Crown Hotel in Stamford for a break from our desks.
A former coaching inn on the old Great North Road, which squeezed through Red Lion Square until 1960, The Crown is now an attractive setting for lunch.
The courtyard garden looks like Mr Fothergill’s had an attack of the zoomies, with floral displays in shades of pink bursting out of baskets and planters.
Meanwhile the inside is cool, calm and quirkily stylish.
It’s a hot day when we show up and so deciding where to sit was a tough call, but we opted to eat in the bar so the ice didn’t do that indecent thing of diluting our drinks.
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This said, being a clean-living and industrious bunch (on the whole), only two small glasses of house white were ordered (£5.75 a pop), a pint was hankered after but ditched in favour of lemonade, and the other three drinks for our party were also softies. Just like us.
Maybe we would have felt more adventurous without an afternoon of work ahead, and looking down The Crown’s drinks menu, my ‘fantasy round’ for us would comprise a large Chilean Maipo Valley cabernet sauvignon for me (£13), a bloody Mary for Kerry (£12), a large Viognier for Andrea (£9.75), a Pimm's for Abby the student (£8.75), a pint of Oakham Ales Citra for Chris (£5.50) and a 'bees knees cocktail' with earl grey, honey gin and lavender for Maddy (£12.50). We can dream.
With drinks on the way we pondered the menu, and all homed in on the ‘lunch baguettes’ (£9.50 to £9.95) as having an enticing choice of fillings.
Between us we managed to taste-test four of the six, with prawn and Marie Rose dressing coming out favourite, bacon, brie and cranberry gaining muffled, full-mouthed murmurs of approval, and the beef and horseradish a big thumbs up.
The chicken tikka could have done with more mint yoghurt to wet it up, and I’m afraid the cheese and pickle and tuna-sweetcorn options didn’t make it out of the kitchen - possibly because they are a little too similar to the sandwiches we eat on the other 226 working days of the year.
Each meal came with a small, fresh side salad and homemade-looking coleslaw, and we supplemented our French-stick feast with a single shared bowl of chunky chips, which we swooped on like a flock of seagulls.
Again, if we’d been on a longer lunch, with a second round of ‘proper’ drinks on the way, I suspect we would have been ordering combinations from the ‘small plates and nibbles’ (£5.95 to £11.50), which include mouthwatering descriptions: crispy gnocchi filled with spicy nduja, grilled halloumi, tempura king prawns, and Turkish-spiced lamb chops.
Even without these, though, we declared our midday dinner a winner, and decided much of this was down to the atmosphere of the place.
Anyone familiar with the Knead Pubs group, owned by Michael Thurlby, knows that its pints aren’t the cheapest but the staff are generally clued up, the decor provides plenty to look at other than your mobile phone, and the loos are clean and sport a generous ply of paper, plus fancy soaps and lotions.
The two young staff members who served us were attentive and helpful, although could have been more conversational, and the booth set out for us was just the right dimensions for a party of six.
Out of five:
Food: A tasty lunch selection ****
Drink: Fantastic range of cocktails and wines, a couple of real ales in among the lagers *****
Decor: Utterly delightful *****
Staff: Friendly and efficient ****
Price: You pay the price for nice ****
Have you had a great meal? Share your own Eat My Words reviews or tell us where to try by emailing: news@lincsonline.co.uk
