The Inn at Welland Review

Having been under the current ownership since 2010, The Inn at Welland is a renowned gastropub and stalwart fixture in multiple restaurant guides, having held both a Michelin Bib Gourmand and two AA Rosettes for several years. It seemed an ideal place to stop off (via a little bit of a detour) whilst journeying to South Wales for a family holiday, so I duly rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a cold but sunny October Sunday.

The restaurant sits on the edge of the village of Welland in Worcestershire; it's a very pleasant spot with open views on all sides and the sight of the Malvern Hills in the distance. On the practical side, there's plenty of parking which is always appreciated after a long drive, with a good size car park at the front and plenty of additional parking at the rear of the venue.

The building looks well maintained from the outside and that theme continues indoors; it's a very nice space for a relaxed pub meal. The welcome on arrival was perfectly friendly and we were shown to our table in the main dining area. One thing that was immediately apparent is they've crammed a lot of tables into the space; we were uncomfortably close to the table next to us (who hadn't yet arrived but did a short while later, it was a busy service) and the virtual corridor between the tables on both sides of this room was one person wide at best.

Of course, I completely appreciate the desire to squeeze in as many covers as possible into the space available (particularly during these challenging times for hospitality), but it was the most sardine-can-like venue I've been in for a long time, which was a bit of a shame. On offer at lunch is a fixed price (with supplements) three course lunch menu, plus a three course children's menu too which is always a bonus when eating with young children.

Drinks wise, the offering was impressive with a good wine list and plenty of interesting spirts and cocktails, including a much better than average non-alcoholic offering. I enjoyed a couple of my usual Hendrick's and tonics during our meal which were perfectly delivered, whilst my wife and daughter sampled and very much enjoyed a couple of the non-alcoholic cocktails on offer (from a range of five or six from memory).

Lunch began with a little bit of drama; like many places, bread here isn't free so I asked our waiter if two portions of the 'artisan bread' would be the right amount for the four of us. He said yes, and I duly ordered as so. A different lady then came over and said the bread portion includes six pieces of bread, so she'd changed the order to one portion. That was appreciated, but even if our waiter was a recent addition to the staff (which I think he was), it's something you'd really expect him to know before serving any paying guests, so I think there's a bit of a training issue there. In the end, the bread was pretty mediocre as bread offerings go, so I was happy we'd only paid for one portion.

Lunch proper began for me with the truffle cheddar souffle, served with wild mushrooms and sage cream. I've had some really great cheese souffles in my time, unfortunately this wasn't one of them. It was perfectly edible, but the flavours were bland and the technical execution was far from perfect, I'd been expecting a lot more from this dish. My wife went for the duck croquettes which tasted OK but arrived piping hot, almost as though Chef Mike had added the finishing reheat. They were supposed to be served with a five spice sauce but there was hardly any of that on the plate which was a bit odd also; the dish would definitely have benefited from a decent sauce. For the kids, my daughter was perfectly happy with the garlic ciabatta from the children's menu and my young son enjoyed just a portion of chips.

For mains, I opted for the roast beef (at a £3 supplement), served with a large Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, gravy and cauliflower cheese on the side. The beef was fine, and most of the accompanying elements were tasty, in particular the cauliflower cheese. The roast potatoes however were poor; the outer layer was rock solid to the point where a small pneumatic drill would have been useful to break through. My wife had the lemon and herb roasted chicken which was pleasant enough, albeit her chicken arrived with an unexpectedly large amount of unremoved bone which was disappointing. My daughter did enjoy her fish goujons from the children's menu though.

One positive I will say about the savoury courses is the portion sizes here are generous, so much so that my wife was too full to order dessert. I of course did manage to find some room like the glutton that I am, and my chocolate and brown butter delice served with coffee ice cream was a well executed and enjoyable dessert, and the best plate of the meal by far for me. The kids both went for the chocolate chip cookie from the children's menu which wasn't so good; the flavour was very bitter (a strange choice for a children's menu option) and it just wasn't enjoyable, I tried a decent chunk and wouldn't want to try it again.

My wife and I had a cappuccino each to finish which was fine, and so after collecting the bill (complete with 10% service charge) with no issue, a slightly disappointing meal came to an end. Service throughout was good on the whole; we encountered a lot of different staff throughout the meal (from memory I think it was six, which is a lot for a pub lunch) who were all very polite and pleasant, but with so many people trying to look after you, it's slightly inevitable the service will start to feel a bit disjointed. I think this was most evident when a waitress who we'd not seen at all during our meal decided to whip away my dessert plate whilst I was still eating over it and before our children had finished their desserts; that shouldn't really happen at any restaurant of a decent standard.

The biggest disappointment though by far was the food; whilst there was certainly some competent cooking on display (and the food was well above the standard of normal pub grub), there were some fairly basic errors on a lot of the dishes and the quality of the dishes overall just wasn't near the level I'd expected based on the awards the restaurant holds. The restaurant was heaving for Sunday lunch and I'm sure the big portion sizes will keep the locals very happy, but for me, despite it being a fairly enjoyable meal, I won't be rushing back here anytime soon.