Riverdale

A pleasant pub on the Fosse Way about 6.5 miles NE of Cirencester. It is situated in a lovely part of the country, and, as it has rooms to let, could be used as a centre for exploring the Cotswolds

Accessibility is pretty good with slopes and a wheelchair accessible WC. Some areas are up single steps but there are plenty that are on the level. The disabled WC doubles as a storage area.

For a busy Sunday lunch time the service was informal but generally good however glasses of water had to be requested twice and wine was late coming to table.

Muzak was audible initially but the buzz of conversation soon drowned it out. Otherwise a very pleasant place to eat with different bar areas, a conservatory and tables available in the garden.

Food:

Starters:
Perfectly cooked scallops on a salad garnish with a balsamic dressing were excellent and a good coarse paté was accompanied by a couple of good, different breads, the flavours were not necessarily in keeping with the paté though.

Mains:
Pork loin was nicely cooked and reasonably flavoured, the bed of champ contained too large pieces of spring onion which, in my opinion, were a little under-cooked. Although nothing had been said I suspect the mustard and caper sauce had been made wheatfree by the removal of the mustard which was a disappointment but did show the care taken over my wheat allergy. Poached salmon and prawns salad contained a nicely poached, but not very flavoursome, fillet of salmon, plenty of variety in the salad with a good dressing and a handful of prawns in a Marie-Rose type sauce and good, hot, new potatoes.
Ubiquitous veg contained slightly over-cooked carrots with an interesting flavouring I was unable to identify, the best cooked broccoli I've had in ages in a restaurant and some nicely braised red cabbage.

Puds:
A decent lemon posset was smothered in oversweetened strawberries soaked in brandy.

Beer was good. A reasonable selection of wines by the glass included a pleasant chenin blanc from South Africa and a better Italian Chianti.
Espresso coffee was not particularly good.

At £75 for two the cost of the meal was on a par with many of the meals we eat around the country and cheaper than some and was certainly amongst the better prepared, cooked, and presented, meals we have eaten anywhere.

We have eaten in this pub several times and every time the standards remain high.