Peter Barron visits a village pub in North Yorkshire and puts its strong local reputation to the test

PUBS and restaurants live or die on reputation and the Fox and Hounds, in the pleasant village of Carthorpe, on the road out of Bedale, is one of those places which tends to crop up in conversation.

A number of friends and colleagues had said good things about it and, on a Google search, it came out as Tripadvisor’s number one place to eat in the Bedale area. A pretty safe bet then?

According to its website, the free house has been serving travellers for 200 years and has been run by the same family since 1883, with Helen and Vincent Taylor currently in charge.

We turned up just after 7pm on a Saturday night, having been given the option of a table either in the restaurant or the pub lounge. It’s an attractive ivy-clad pub in a nice location and was already busy when we arrived, underlining its clear popularity.

Despite the booking for the restaurant, we were told our table had actually been reserved in the lounge. Not a great start but, to be fair, that was remedied without fuss.

The wood-beamed restaurant is pleasant and homely enough although we initially felt it was a little nippy. That said, it did warm up as the evening went on.

With the brewery just down the road at Masham, I couldn’t resist a pint of Black Sheep Bitter and my wife, Heather, went for her usual large glass of Sauvignon Blanc. This one, nicely chilled, was a Buitenverwachting, Constantia - “a floral, guava nose with a youthful fresh fruit and just a hint of spice” - £16.95 had she ordered a bottle.

For her starter, Heather chose from the vegetarian menu which offers dishes as either starters or mains. She plumped for the caramelised onion and goat’s cheese start (£5.75 as a starter, £9.95 as a main course) and loved it.

I went for the mushroom soup which was rich in flavour and piping hot. All in all, an encouraging start, consistent with the Fox and Hounds’ reputation for high quality food.

For her main course, Heather selected the medium hot vegetable curry with rice and accompaniments, which turned out to be a dish containing banana, red pepper, cucumber, raisins and tomatoes.

For me, it was the chicken breast, filled with Coverdale cheese in a creamy sauce. It came with fresh, crunchy vegetables and a choice of boiled potatoes or chips. It’s never much of a contest when it comes to boiled potatoes or chips – the chips win every time and these were good ones.

However, we were both disappointed with our mains. The vegetable curry was spicy enough but “nothing special” and Heather wished she’d made a different choice.

My chicken breast was underwhelming too. Fairly bland, with the Coverdale cheese not oozing out as I’d expected and the creamy sauce a little sparse. Again, one of those occasions where you look back at the menu and wish you could have another go.

Having said that, the dessert made up for the mains in quite spectacular fashion. We decided to share a “Fox and Hounds Special” which was a taster of all the desserts on one plate (£11.95).

It really was a labour of love as we worked our way through a generous plateful, comprising: plum tart with vanilla ice cream; meringue, honeycomb ice cream, toffee sauce and crunchy sugared nuts; poached pear, brandy snap basket with blackberry ice cream; mango and passion fruit semi fredo; and chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and fresh cream.

Even without the starter and main dishes, it would have been a task to get through the full dessert special and seldom have I heard my wife make such excitable sounds while eating out.

You know the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Meg Ryan fakes it? Well, this wasn’t far removed from that.

The service was excellent throughout – friendly without being over-bearing – and the final bill of £63.20 was entirely reasonable.

Would we go back? Yes, I think we would – if only for another crack at one of the most enjoyable desserts we’ve encountered on our eating out excursions.

FOOD FACTS

The Fox and Hounds Inn, Carthorpe, Bedale, North Yorkshire, DL8 2LG.

Telephone: 01845-567433.

Closed Mondays. Open the rest of the week from 12pm to 3pm and 7pm to 11pm. Food served 12pm to 2pm and 7pm to 9.30pm.

FOOD: 3/5

AMBIENCE: 3/5

SERVICE: 4/5

VALUE: 3/5