Riverdale

An attractive, well renovated pub with lots of entertaining paraphernalia, but possibly too much. Muzak was rather much in evidence.
Service was informal but good including a menu that had already been checked through for wheatfree dishes, table service was good and not over-attentive.
Although level throughout when the accessible WC door is open the interior can be viewed in a mirror from the bar and garden is gravelled making some access limited

Food

Starters:
My squid, garlic, baby plum tomatoes & chorizo were cooked in a burnt oil and the squid slightly over-cooked but it was a good idea well presented, the tempura pawns were excellent.

Mains:
My crispy duck confit had apparently been roasted and not quietly stewed in it's own fat so was very over-cooked and dry, the accompanying chorizo, sweet peppers and lentils were good but the whole was swimming in a very salt gravy. The slow cooked and pressed shoulder of lamb was superb as was the accompanying gratin of potatoes and the beans and courgettes but again the whole was swimming in a salt (but in this case better due to the addition of tomatoes and oregano) gravy.

Puddings:

Not much in the way of wheatfree puds so I had 3 cheeses, good varietal choices but the quality of which varied from good to dried out, along with the apple (golden delicious unfortunately) I had ordered it comes under the heading of 'could do better'. Mrs Riverdale had a superb trio of blackcurrant desserts.

A pleasant pint of beer and an interesting wine list from which I chose a halfways decent Fleurie.

At just under £85 this was towards the top end of pub food prices so value depended on the quality of the food and there were too many faults to make it good value. Wine markup was high but this was a pleasant place to eat with some things that let them down. The effort was there, and targets were high but not always achieved. Some chairs were not as comfortable as they might have been and the table linen, though striking, wasn't very efficient as spillages tended to run off the napkins.