The Plough Inn Review

Located in the village of Hathersage in the heart of the Peak District National Park, The Plough Inn is a traditional pub with a strong reputation for serving good food, having held an AA rosette for over twenty years. I was therefore expectant of a decent meal as I rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children on a snowy Saturday in March.

We'd spent the morning in nearby Castleton; there were a few road closures in the area due to snow but the pub is situated on a fairly major road so access wasn't problematic, and there's a decent sized car park on site. Inside the pub is fairly traditional but obviously well kept, with the largest selection of AA rosette plates on a wall I think I've ever seen. The welcome was friendly enough and we were shown to our table near the main entrance. Although only a couple of tables had booked, the pub did fill up considerably over time with a lot of walk ins. On offer a lunch is a full three course carte menu, a lighter lunch menu (including pizzas and sandwiches) and a short one course (but still appreciated) kids menu. Drinks wise, it's a pub so it's all fairly standard stuff; they had no Hendrick's but my two Whitney Neil's gin and tonics during the meal were fine.

Lunch began with a bit of unfortunate drama. My wife opted for the souvlaki chicken, which was an OK dish although the chicken was rather cold when served. This arrived with the margarita baguette from the children's menu which my daughter did enjoy. I'd ordered the spring onion tart tatin which unfortunately our waitress had put through as the spring onion rolls; a different waitress tried to deliver these to me but after some confusion these were (very) reluctantly taken away. These things happen, and there was a bit of an apology but no more than that (e.g. an offer of a drink) which would have helped and is usually what would happen at a restaurant bothered about service.

My son's starter of chips also hadn't arrived at this point, so basically only fifty percent of our table had starters for quite a number of minutes. When it did eventually arrive, my spring onion tart tatin was actually quite tasty, albeit the pastry element wasn't executed particularly well. My son did enjoy his chips though.

Our mains then took a long time to come out; the restaurant had become busier by this point, but even so, it was a very noticeable delay. I went for the blade of beef, served with creamed potato, texture of carrot, a tarragon onion petal and thyme jus. The accompanying elements were quite nice, but the beef itself (shredded beef combined into cylindrical lump) was pretty dry and there was nowhere near enough jus for the dish, with barely a thimble full on the plate. My wife went for The Plough Burger (must be good if they put their name on it, right?) which was fine but we've had far better burgers in the past.

Despite a less than stellar first couple of courses, of course, there was little chance of us leaving without sampling dessert. My brulee lemon tart was pretty mediocre in truth, and bizarrely despite being a cold dessert, it was served on a very hot (i.e. just out of the dishwasher) plate. My wife's sticky toffee pudding was a better effort and the kids did enjoy their various ice creams and sorbets.

And so, after a lengthy wait to finally receive the bill, a long and not particularly impressive meal came to an end. Service throughout was OK aside from the slip up with starters, not especially attentive but not terrible, however the menu pacing was way too slow for a pub lunch. The food though, although well above the standard of everyday pub grub, was not as good as I'd been expecting with basic cooking errors on pretty much every dish we were served. The Plough Inn is a decent venue in a nice part of the world, and I'd happily pop back in for a pint and a sandwich, but in all honesty I don't think we'll be back for a three course meal anytime soon.