Not such a Bum penny after all!!
The Grubgang meeting for this month headed in a different direction. After all ,we had seen a lot of Portsmouth restaurants recently!! So, we headed to Lee on Solent to see how The Bun Penny was fairing. As individuals, we had heard many bad stories about the pub from friends and family. In fact, the last time my parents had visited the place, they ended up walking out after waiting over an hour for their food!!
But, a few years later and several changes of ownership, we decided to give it another chance, choosing a busy Friday evening. The layout and decor is lovely, you do not feel crammed in, especially with their extension conservatory. The heating was a little on the high side, especially when tackling a winter menu!! We ladies got a little hot sat close to the radiators!!
The menu is just right.........plenty to choose from but not too many or too few meals. There were also a few dishes on the specials board, with a pie and sausage of the day to choose from also. We all had 3 courses for our £20 budget (our choice of drink did take it over the edge, but we needed wine!!) I chose the field mushroom, stuffed with goats cheese and pesto (delicious!), Mike had the calamari (again delicious), Dean had a bowl of nachos (very filling!) and Gemma had whitebait, which was very heavily seasoned and took away the taste of the fish a little.
After very good sized first courses, the mains were just as filling!! I decided on the chargrilled chicken burger which I have no issues about........it was cooked beautifully! Mike chose the ratatouille filled pepper, which he felt was a bit bland. Deans burger unfortunately was a little too chargrilled and over done and Gemma thought her lasagne was full of chunky vegetables and very tasty (even if Dean hand told her it was a vegetable lasagne!!)
Desserts went down very very well. The new forest ice cream is always a winner with their interesting flavours whilst dean and I had home made desserts in the form of a fantastic rice pudding and excellent fruit strudel respectively.
The service, if a little on the slow side, was friendly and welcoming and the facilities were clean and airy and gave us great relief from the hot rooms we were seated in!! On this occasion, it is the cooking of the food which has slightly let it down, but all in all we enjoyed our experience and I for one wouldn't mind visiting again in the future
Marks out of 10........................................................ 7 (Clairs choice)
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