Farmers Arms: Bispham Green, Parbold

12:14pm Friday 28th March 2008

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Pleasing five people when you go out for a meal is pretty hard as usually there is one course or other that doesn't come up to scratch.

But a trip to the Farmers Arms, which is about a 15 minute drive from Chorley, was a pleasant surprise as all five of us agreed that everythng we'd eaten had been enjoyable.

The dining room, overlooking the garden is large and attractive and when we went one Sunday, it was full with a mix of families, couples, larger groups and people dining alone.

Despite the numbers the service was quick and friendly, with never an over-long wait for the next course As well as the usual menu, which is reasonably priced, there was a list of specials which even had choices for vegetarians and vegans, something you don't usually see in a pub. Starters included duck pate, mussels, soup, tomato and mozzarella salad and Thai fish cakes with a dipping sauce.

I chose the fishcakes which were tasty and my companions plumped for the mussels in garlic and white wine, chicken pate and melon, which were all quickly finished off. These were followed by a refreshing lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate.

For mains there was a wide selection to choose from including meat, game, fish and vegetarian.

I decided on a filo pastry tart of brie, spinach and tomato which was accompanied by potatoes and an attractive salad and was delicious.

We also ordered a salmon and prawn salad which looked and tasted amazing, sea bream on a bed of stir fried vegetables and noodles, a roast dinner with turkey and beef and poached chicken breast in a lemon and honey cream sauce.

Despite the generous portions we managed to squeeze in a pudding. Two of us had ice cream which was a perfect finish to the meal and two others had mixed fruit crumble with custard.

All in all it was a relaxed and enjoyable visit and we'll definitely dine there again.

How did it fare? Star ratings: Food *****, Drink ****, Service *****, Atmosphere *****, Value ****