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HAVE you ever hit a hole-in-one? Thrown a 180? Potted the black from the break-off?
Maybe you have. I’m proud to say that thanks to my misspent youth, I’ve managed all three. Once.
You see, I’m talking here about flukes. One-offs. Lady luck. Whatever you want to call it – one of those moments that makes your mates go, ‘you poxy get’!
Well that’s what I thought occurred before my very eyes at Retford’s King and Milller during a recent fill-up.
I had a mixed grill. Steak, THREE sausages, chicken breast, gammon steak, chips, fried onions and of course the obligatory grilled tomato – 28oz of meat in fact, for just shy of 9.
The steak was medium-cooked to perfection, the sausages lovely and firm and herb-laden, the gammon tasty and tender and the chicken was more than ample and very moist. I was delighted.
But surely this must have been one of those epiphany moments (it was near Easter after all) which will never be repeated.
There is no way a pub can serve up top-notch nosh at bargain-basement prices, and do it consistently well. No way.
And I would prove my point by going back a few days later and ordering the 10oz rib-eye – which vied for my hard-earned cash for 15 minutes on my first visit, before I eventually settled on the Mighty Mixed Grill.
So in the name of scientific research, I marched back in to the ‘Sizzler’ on North Road, and threw down my Gauntlet (a tenner) and demanded (asked politely) the 10oz rib-eye steak – on the rare side of medium.
Whilst waiting for the chef to serve up a pile of the proverbial – as I knew he inevitably would the lucky beggar him – I digested the menu’s claims to a 28-day ageing process for the beef, and its seasoning and char-grilling prior to it arriving before the diner.
‘Whatever’, I thought. The proof will be in the slice of beast, not the PR waffle in the menu of some chain pub.
But you know what, PR waffle it wasn’t. The Sizzler really does know how to care for its cows, and it’s all about the meat.
The sizzling skillets are not fussed with pointless garnishes, flicks or frills. It was just a delicately char-grilled piece of rib-eye steak, chips, fried onions and that tomato nobody ever eats.
So it wasn’t sheer good fortune on the chef’s part. The chef knows his onions, and more importantly, his beef.
And before I run out of time through my waxing lyrical about sizzling steak, I should mention my other half tucking into a chicken tikka tandoori effort.
It came with rice, a naan and mango chutney. It wasn’t Indian restaurant standard, but it was a very generous, tasty serving of chicken indeed, and all for 6.
There are a whole host of other dishes to choose from too, from mexican offerings to simple salads, but that would be like going to Alton Towers and not going on the Nemesis.
If you’re going to sample the wares of Retford’s King and Miller, you need to be eating like the former rather than the latter, and I assure you, like me, you’ll be back for more, because its quality has nothing at all to do with luck.
by James Mitchinson
Star rating HHHHH
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Weather for Worksop
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
