Mayfly, Fullerton
Location -
Mayfly
Fullerton
Nr. Stockbridge
Hampshire
SO20 6AX
Website - http://www.mayflyfullerton.co.uk/
Date of Visit - 26/05/2016
The Food
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| Mayfly, Ploughmans |
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7-Pickled Onion. Slightly acidic (OK, I know it's pickled, but you know what I mean). Good crunch, sliced in half, quite good.
8 -Pickle. Two pickles supplied in generous quantities and both in ceramic pots. A branston-esque type pickle of the catering variety, and a piccalilli. Whilst the brown pickle alone would not have scored highly, it was not bad, just not good, but including the piccalilli upped the score. Nice choice.
8 -Cheese / Ham. Exceptional! A reasonable cheddar, nothing exceptional about it. However, there was also Stilton (I do not like this, so got someone else to test it, and it passed muster), but there was also Ham of good quality and Pork pie. None of these items were prize winners, but this sounds a bit harsh as they were a long way away from shoddy too. The generosity and selection upped the score. I may be slightly guilty of quantity over quality here, but there was no fault to find, to be honest. I am vvery hard to please for a top mark.
8 -Bread. The Bread was good. It could have easily been an 8, and I feel that 7 might be a little harsh, but there we go. The bread was slightly too crusty, but a robust amount supplied.
0 -Spread (better be butter, or a choice). There was no butter! I asked and got some, but as the ploughmans was supplied there was no butter. Not sure if this was by design or oversight. to judge the ploughmans as supplied, no butter, no score.
5 -Presentation. Top quality presentation. A plank seems to be the way to server this dish now, and a plank it was. Generous in size, the bread had to be temporarily housed on a napkin, but ottherwise things were not flying off the plank onto the floor.
5 -Salad, etc. This was rather good. For a busy place where it will be prepped in advance it was fresh and crisp with a variety of leaves. It has a very good dressing with just a hint of herb, possibly Thyme that was quite wonderful and judiciously applied: enough for flavour, but not enough to swamp. There was apple too. Top marks.
3 -Originality. Nothing outstanding in the originality, but a very good effort all in all. One could almost tell that costs were watched with some of the ingredients, but somehow it was just on the cusp between OK and good, so well put together. It was quite expensive, but there was a lot of protein foods, and they cost, and it is a premium location type of establishment.
Food total: 44
Beverages
9 - The drinks consumed were Sparking Water (Hildon, which is local - so well done there), a biter shandy and a couple of Pimms that were very well made. Would have liked to try a pot of tea, but that may have destroyed the score, or might not. I may have to revisit and have a cuppa, as they have cream teas on offer too.
Drinks Total: 9
The venue
8 -Service. The service has the potential to be a disaster, as we arrived just as a rush developed, but they coped quite admirably. At this time, they seemed a little short staffed, and I admired the tenacity of the staff especially in the face of some pomposity from a disgruntled patron. However, the queue was soon dealt with. The food arrived in an improbably quick time and the service was polite. On inquiring about the absent butter some was located and handed over with extreme efficiency, and whilst the mystery of weather or not butter should have been supplied, the waitress was on my side in considering it most odd not to be present. (For the record, the butter was in a little packet, but it was a good temperature, and a very good somerset butter - it would have scored 4.......). The slight downfall was having to collect the cutlery, etc from a trolley, but we were eating outside. All in all, very good service.
6 -Atmosphere. The tried with the atmosphere, but given the location it should have been a lot better. Nothing particularly wrong, it was just rather more of a twee canteen than a hostelry. Having to queue for the bar rather than the usual scrum, having to locate a table and remember the number, paper menus, the usual pub tat decoration led to a sort of Weatherspoons feel. I quite like Weatherspoons, they are good at what they do, but with the prices being charged and the location it was in, I expected better.
5 -Location. Stunning. Awesome. Do go! Located on the River Test in a very beautiful part of Hampshire, it could only be made better by visiting on a beautiful evening where you can watch the Mayfly taking flight and be amazed at improbably large trout jumping and slashing in the river. Really the essence of the best of Rural England in a summer evening.
4 -Toilets. Good, clean and usable - but let down by minor attention to detail.
Venue total: 23
Score: 76
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