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Every week I notice the Old Green Man’s (OGM)
green and grey advert in the local paper so I decided to go and
try it out!
We booked a table for 8:30pm on a Saturday
evening. When I phoned to make the booking they mentioned that a
wedding function was being held in their beautiful garden that
day and warned me they would be very busy.
The pub is situated in Little Brickhill which is
only a 10 minute drive from Central Milton Keynes. The Old Green
Man used to be a farmers local and a horse riders haven in it’s
time. There have been many changes and the OGM are continually
looking to move forward. No offence to farmers and horse riders
but the whole place is clean and fresh.
Décor
Our first impressions were good. You have strong
oak tables with very comfortable high backed, cream leather
chairs located away from the bar area. There is an impressive
wall created by logs stacked on top of each other on the far
side of the restaurant - smart indeed.
Atmosphere
On our arrival 85% of the tables were occupied
and within 30 minutes the remainder were occupied with nicely
dressed customers. I noticed that the crowd were mostly over
forty and well groomed. The background music playing in the
restaurant was drowned out by the laughing and chatting of the
customers. The waiting staff were very friendly and added to the
atmosphere (in a good way) but I’ll go into that in a moment -
you’ll realise what I mean when you get to the Cappuccino story.
Food
The menu offers five starters, which for me is
not a great amount but they are varied. You can choose from
Soup, Parfait, Potted Crab with Grapefruit and a couple of
salads. I opted for the Home Made Chicken Liver Parfait with
toasted bread and red onion marmalade (£5.95). For those of
you who may be unaware, this is, put simply, a creamy pate with
parfait being a French word for perfect.
When this dish arrived my last thought was
“perfect”. This was not an attractive dish to look at but the
parfait and onion marmalade tasted delicious with the chunky
bread. I would have liked more bread.
My guest picked Grilled Asparagus, Egg and
Roquefort cheese salad (£5.50). This again, tasted great;
the eggs came runny and the Asparagus crunchy – a wonderful
combination. The sauce was lovely but £5.50 for an egg and
vegetables does not represent good value. The plate was huge
too, which made the portion seem even smaller. I must also
mention this starter is served cold which was a surprise as we
assumed it would be hot.
Mains
The printed menus consist of “Old Favourites”
Ham, Egg and chips, Roast chicken, Steak and Kidney pie and fish
and chips. A stone fired pizza section; pasta section and “big
dishes” so, unlike the starters, a good selection of dishes to
suit all tastes.
I had an urge to try the Home Made Lamb and
Feta burger on Foccacia bread with chunky chips (£9.95). I
must first mention the chips which were incredibly long roast
potatoes and tasted wonderful. Perfect for a burger or a Sunday
roast! The burger was filled with succulent mince but lacked
feta cheese. For the average customer the burger was a little
under-cooked but as I prefer medium rare steaks, this was fine
for me. This dish also came with crispy lettuce and huge beef
tomatoes.
My guest pointed to the Feather blade of beef
served with creamy mash and beetroot crisps (£12.95) “I’ll
have that”. This is the shoulder on the cow. The folded mash was
well presented with the bright purple crisps poking out. The
beef was almost flaky, like you would find in a stew but it was
slightly fatty. My guest enjoyed the mash, but didn’t really
like the rest of the dish and left half on her plate. I had a
try and thought it was “ok”.
Desserts
Now on a review even if we are full we like to
sample the desserts to give you a view on all of the courses. We
were given the option to sample the whole dessert menu - Wow! We
felt very lucky!
I shall give you a brief comment on all five
desserts.
Rhubarb and white chocolate trifle - sweet,
creamy and tangy. Strawberry and cream Eton mess - sugary,
chewy and crunchy. Bailey’s Parfait (not again!) with home made
cookies - rich and creamy. They forgot the cookies, but did we
care? No! Homemade chocolate brownies - fit! (not my words).
Then came some specials: Mini dohnuts - puffy and sweet. Lemon
tart - tangy, zesty and crunchy.
To top it off they even brought us a selection
from the classic cheese board. Stop it we were stuffed! The
desserts are worth a visit and so are the staff for a good
chit-chat and banter.
Service
One word…brilliant! From the moment we made the
call to entering the restaurant and leaving the OGM we had a
fantastic time. We were looked after between courses and upon
going home. Laura our waitress was adorable, bubbly and calm
whilst being thorough at the same time.
We had just arrived back from Majorca where I had
the best Cappuccino ever. I was not looking forward to trying
one in England again. I told Amelia (another waitress) this
story and she grabbed a colleague. They were so excited and
determined to produce the best cappuccino for me. They had two
attempts with unfortunately, no great result. Another colleague
came over and made a perfect coffee. “Is it decaff?” I asked.
“No, sorry I’ll make you another” was the reply. They were
running around making coffees. Finally it looked good and tasted
wonderful, a great effort all round.
The OGM is an
enjoyable evening for both couples, groups and business
meetings. The food was, in our opinion, not at it’s best but
maybe in our quest to try something new, our selections were
wrong? Well done to the whole team who worked hard to ensure we
had a memorable evening. We will be heading back to try their
much talked about Sunday roast. |
