Restaurant Review: Worksop pub offers great food at great value

More often than not, these trips into the culinary world tend to be solo voyages.
The Anchor Inn in WorksopThe Anchor Inn in Worksop
The Anchor Inn in Worksop

Not so with my trip to the Anchor Inn in Worksop one Friday evening as I was part of decent sized party all heading for a meal out after a hard week at work.

It was also an event to say goodbye to a couple of hard-working and long-serving colleagues and some fine fare was the order of the day.

And at the Anchor Inn, fine fare is what you get in spades.

The Anchor is an interesting place, two venues in one.

One half is a traditional older style real ale pub which is small and compact and on a colder evening (which this wasn’t) with a warm fire, very cosy and pleasant.

The other side is the much larger and more modern spec restaurant with plenty of seating for plenty of people.

And given the standard of the food we had, I suspect they are never short of bookings or takers for their tables.

Indeed, it already looked to be filling up nicely when we arrived in the early part of the evening.

With everyone in place and drinks ordered, we surveyed the menu and the choice was excellent.

If you’re not a fan of grills or traditional English pub food then you might not find exactly what you want, although you will probably still come pretty close.

But if, like me, you do love the grill section of the menu, then you will have a difficult time indeed narrowing it down to what you want.

Beek, pork, lamb and chicken dishes were all available and all at fantastic prices.

In the end, I went for the 16oz rump steak for what seemed incredible value at just £7.95, especially when you consider that the price included thick-cut chips, which were more like roast potato wedges and tasted just as good, onion rings, peas and mushrooms.

The portions were not small either, if you have an appetite, this is the pub for you.

The stead was tender and juicy and delicious and I enjoyed every mouthful.

Elsewhere, my colleagues were also tucking into hearty chicken or fish dishes and all were saying the same things which was that they were delicious and great value.

Top value, however, probably goes to the mixed the grill that one of our party set his sights on.

For the same price as my large steak, he got a huge platter full of meat (turkey appeared to be the only meat type missing from what I could see) plus all the accompanying chips and vegetables.

That was the smaller of the mixed grills and for a couple of pounds more, there is a large one although he seemed to have just as much on his plate as he would have had with the bigger version.

Nevertheless, he tucked in with gusto and made a pretty fair job of tackling it.

After the huge main courses, I didn’t think we would want dessert but a glance at the dessert menu changed out minds.

I went for the sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and once again, there was no desire to scrimp on the portion sizes.

Elsewhere, colleagues were tucking into a variety of chocolate dishes, including the man who had eaten the mixed grill, whose dessert appeared to one colossal piece of chocolate cake with ice cream.

I can only presume he has hollow legs.

All in all, the Anchor was a superb choice for our meal and everyone left feeling very satisfied.

If I had one criticism, it was that the service was rather slow at times and we waited a long time between the main course and the dessert.

But that aside, it was top marks all round.

John Smith

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