Review: The Fernhurst, Blackburn (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Review: The Fernhurst, Blackburn

2:23pm Tuesday 24th April 2012 in Latest restaurant reviews By Anna Mansell, Features writer

I’D been impressed with the new-look Fernhurst on a few late evening visits with a large group.

And needing a speedy dinner between work and a show at Thwaites Empire Theatre, it seemed a convenient choice for myself and a colleague.

The car park was packed and it was busy inside when we arrived at 6.30pm on a Tuesday — it was their ‘kids eat for a £1’ deal night, although there didn’t seem to be a large number of families around.

Revamped after its sale by Thwaites to Greene King, the pub is now part of the Hungry Horse brand and offers some enormous meals at pretty low prices.

We didn’t even look beyond the first couple of Big Plate Specials as they sounded huge, but we were pretty peckish and the burger offerings caught our eye.

I ordered a Cajun chicken burger and the Big H cheese and bacon burger, a side of onion rings and two glasses of white wine, which came to £16.07.

In little more than 10 minutes our food had arrived and the burgers looked pretty good; there was plenty of cheese, just a single rasher of crispy bacon, and the burger was thick and well-cooked without being dry, while the chicken was a fresh breast well-coated in spices.

The chips were a touch over-fried and it was a shame the coleslaw wasn’t homemade, although there were no claims it would be.

The new-look venue is lighter and brighter than its previous incarnation and, while it’s owned by a chain, there are some nice local touches including black and white photos of Blackburn landmarks in years gone by and bright colour shots of local celebs Diana Vickers, Lee Mack and Iain Balshaw.

It’s far from fine dining, but it does exactly what it says on the tin: For cheap and cheerful pub grub we were well fed and watered.

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