THE PLOUGH AND HARROW
Worcester Road, Drakes Broughton, near Pershore
Tel: 01905 841041

AS nature turns the leaves on the trees into brilliant shades of red and gold, so thoughts of a culinary nature inevitably start to turn towards autumnal comfort foods.

Crisp, cool salads are thrown off the menu in favour of warming fare such as sausages and mash and pie and chips as our instinct to stave off the cooler weather kicks in.

And if it’s good, traditional, hearty food you’re after, then the Plough and Harrow could be a good place to start.

This country pub and restaurant between Worcester and Pershore has a menu that will satisfy even the biggest appetites and the pub currently has a two-for-one deal on its main courses.

My dining companion and I settled ourselves in on a Saturday evening – it might be advisable to book as the restaurant does get busy at the weekend – and set to work. We chose chicken goujons and traditional prawn cocktail to start. The three strips of succulent breaded chicken were nicely cooked and were served with a crisp mixed salad and a chilli sauce, which certainly had a kick.

The prawn cocktail was a nice size, with the right ratio of prawns to salad/sauce, although my companion said that the brown bread it came with could have been a bit fresher.

For main course, I chose sirloin steak (£16.95) with peppercorn sauce. The steak was cooked exactly as I had asked and there was plenty of it. It came with a generous portion of chips, peas, mushrooms, tomato and onion rings.

My companion chose a 12oz gammon steak with fried egg (£12), which was also cooked well.

It too came with a good portion of chips and this time the bread that was requested to accompany it was nice and fresh.

For desserts, we shared a chocolate and Malteser sundae and a cheeseboard.

The sundae came with oodles of chocolate ice cream, mixed with fresh cream, Baileys and, of course, Maltesers. There was plenty of it and it was not too sweet, which might have been the case.

The cheeseboard was a generous helping of local cheeses and biscuits – including a stilton to die for. Looking around, it was clear that the desserts, all of which are about the £5 to £6 mark, were all very generous helpings.

If I was being picky, the white wine I was served could have been colder and the cheeseboard didn’t come with any kind of fruit accompaniment – some grapes or apples would have been nice.

But all in all, the food was plentiful and we both left with full stomachs.

The bill with two drinks came to £46, which we thought was pretty good value.

HOW IT RATED

Food: 3
Service: 3
Ambience: 3
Value for money: 3