Bamber Bridge: Walton Fox

5:59pm Friday 4th April 2008

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The Walton Fox in Bamber Bridge is in such a convenient location at the beginning of the M65 near B&Q that I have often used it for a swift half but never had a meal there.

It's a charming place, a new building made to look olde worlde, with lots of country cottage features like the big open fireplace, stone-flagged floors and wood panelling.

The décor is busy but charming with plenty of ornaments, pictures and wall hangings to attract your attention, and all the tables and chairs are different.

We settled for a big table in a quiet corner away from the bar and perused the menu. There was plenty to tempt and it was all so well described, it made choosing difficult. In the end, I opted for breaded mushrooms with garlic dip while my better half went for the soup.

It was tomato and roasted pepper soup, very tasty and not too heavy, served with two lovely Italian bread rolls.

The mushrooms were good and plentiful, but the dip was a bit bland.

For mains, my better half went for the beer battered fish, chips and peas. The fish was lightly battered and tasty, the chips were almost French fries and could have done with a bit more body to them, but it was a good meal.

I chose the arrabbatia linguini, "linguini pasta in roasted tomato sauce with generous shavings of parmesan reggiano and garlic bread". You had the option of chargrilled chicken as an extra, which I ordered although I wish I hadn't. The pasta was fresh and quite delicious, the sauce very tasty, and with the lightly flavoured garlic bread, would have been a perfect meal in itself.

The chicken however was over-cooked and a bit rubbery. I was going to wrap it up and take it home for the dog, but he-that-is-easily-pleased wanted to try some and it was soon wolfed down.

There were some delicious sounding sweets on the board, but we were both positively full.

So we declined desserts and paid the bill which, for the two courses, came to just under £25.

And how did it fare?

Food ****, drink ****, service *****, atmosphere ***** and value ***