Now that really is a question. Any pub worthy of its name offers Sunday lunch of sorts. Prices range from two for £10 to £12 for a main course. In my book the perfect Sunday lunch is one that tastes home cooked – by your mum – if your mum just happened to have been the love child of Michel Roux and Jamie Oliver (now there’s a thought). For that home-cooked taste I rate the Swan Inn & Bistro at Olney. A plate piled high with gorgeous meat and veg, including their yummy cauliflower cheese, the sauce mingling with the gravy. For ‘restaurant Sunday lunch’ we’ve always enjoyed the Bull. Their beef is beautifully cooked, a little rare, their tomatoey gravy is super tasty, artful vegetables. I recommend it to anyone.
New to the battle is the Bell and Bear who absolutely pull off the home-cooked, restaurant quality combo I was looking for. I can’t put my finger on what makes it so good. Maybe because you get a great pile of vegetables (carrots, asparagus and cabbage, all from local Emberton gardens). Or because the gravy is proper gravy not ‘jus’. Or because the yorkshire puddings are home cooked and rather fantastic. But mostly because the beef is rare breed, from down the road in Gayhurst, served beautifully rare and with so much flavour I can still taste it. For £8.50 it is amazing value too.
So really you are spoilt for choice – the only option is try out all three and make up your own mind. After all it is Sunday, and there’s no washing up!
