The Rock Tavern, Stourport on Severn

9:54am Friday 28th March 2008

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AS soon as you walk into the Rock Tavern you get a nice feeling about the place. Recently refurbished, the modern-looking restaurant is all brick walls, oak tables, and comfy chairs covered in funky fabrics.

My party of four visited on a Wednesday night and it was good to see that the dining room was busy, filled with the chatter of happy customers.

The menu offered a good range of pub favourites, such as fish and chips, pies and steaks, all at very reasonable prices - and anything with a star by the side of it was included in the special offer of two courses for £9.95 or three for £12.95.

To start, two of us opted for deep fried camembert with cranberry sauce, one for garlic mushrooms and another for whitebait.

It was a surprise to see the hefty portion of camembert deep fried in batter as opposed to breadcrumbs, but thankfully the batter was extremely light and it was a delicious, if rather filling, start to the meal.

The helpings of mushrooms and whitebait were also very generous and the empty plates proved they were a good choice.

For mains we chose a steak and ale pie, gammon, an 8oz sirloin (£10.95) and liver and onions.

The succulent, tender chunks of beef in the pie were a triumph and the puff pastry topping was light and crispy, but disappointingly the thick gravy was far too salty and proved difficult to eat after a few mouthfulls.

However, the other three main courses went down well. In particular, the sirloin steak, requested extremely rare, was expertly cooked.

The dishes came with separate servings of golden, crunchy chips - there was creamy mashed potato with the liver and onions - and vegetables. Sadly, the limp, overcooked portions of carrots and cabbage left a lot to be desired.

The service until the desserts was friendly and faultless, but somehow, after being given the sweets menu we seemed to be forgotten.

Half-an-hour later our surprised waitress said she assumed someone else had taken our order of a rhubarb crumble and custard, a raspberry roulade, followed by four coffees. After the slight mishap, it was followed by another blunder, when our coffees turned up before the desserts.

On their eventual arrival, the crumble proved to be chewy, bland and uninspiring but thankfully the light and tangy roulade fared better.

The bill came to a very reasonable £63.95 for four, including a bottle of wine and a beer. If you're looking for a decent night out when cooking is just too much hassle, a trip to the Rock Tavern might be just the ticket.

HOW IT RATEDThe Rock Tavern, 80 Wilden Lane, Stourport-on-Severn Telephone: 01299 822962Food ** Value for money **** Ambience **** Service **