Occasion: Sunday Lunch
Party Size: 2
Overall Rating: ** Poor/Average
Date Visited: January 2013
Price Per Person: £9-12
Price Per Person: £9-12
The Old Mill is a restaurant that sits alongside the Premier Inn on Wakefield Road, Brighouse. This Chef & Brewer chain claim to “serve freshly cooked, great value pub meals and drinks and our monthly changing food specials are created with skill and flair by our chefs”
The restaurant itself is easy to find with plenty of parking, from the outside it looks charming and has an inviting character.
When you enter there are 2 well upholstered armchairs and a table near the door that tempted me to take a perch! The venue has a mixture of carpet and wood floors, and the walls are neutrally painted with exposed brick. This is an old converted mill so has lots of charm and it’s warm with open fires dotted around. This is quite a big place with seating areas in every direction so you shouldn’t struggle to find a table but you can book in advance.
We arrived about 3pm and the rush for lunches had passed with only a few tables being left that were still dining. Looking at the menu the options were good offering an impressive selection of starters from Scallops and Black Pudding, Mussels and Bubble and Squeak. The mains included all the pub classics such as Fish and Chips, Lamb Shank, Pies, Burgers and Steaks. They also offer a 2 or 3 course set menu priced at £14.95 or £17.95. Being a Sunday we both opted to have the Sunday Lunch.
I opted for the £8.99 Roast Chicken, which was served on a lovely vintage plate. The portion was very good, half a roast chicken with nice crispy skin and all the trimmings. The chicken itself however, was very dry which was disappointing, the roast potatoes looked good, but they were heavy and dry and not fluffy. The Yorkshire pudding was a great size, but chewy, appeared reheated and dehydrated. The vegetables were undercooked, the broccoli in particular was near impossible to cut. The sage and onion stuffing was ok and the gravy was a nice consistency but not enough I had to ask for extra to try and replenish some moisture to the meal.
My friend is vegetarian and on the Sunday Roast menu there was only one vegetarian meal available priced £8.49 for the Nut Wellington. This arrived well presented and looked appetising, it was tasty even though a little dry. The vegetables again were not well cooked and the green beans were not even trimmed. This was not a horrible meal just nothing special.
The staff at the The Old Mill were presentable, friendly, attentive and efficient and the orders were served in good time so pleased with the level of service here.
In conclusion, I’m sorry to say but the chef’s at this particular Chef & Brewer do not have the skill or flair they claim. I was disappointed I paid nearly a tenner for a sub standard meal- it is not priced in line with the quality of food served. A more suitable price would be £4.99 as I have had better roasts at a budget Carvery. It’s not a place I’d rush back to for food however the restaurant is lovely, cosy, warm and ambient so worth visiting for drinks. In comparison to the Mustard Pot and Caleverley Arms reviewed earlier on in my blog for their Sunday lunches this place lags behind given they were all around the same price. The Old Mill gets a deserving poor score on the food but I’ll mark it with an average for the ambience and service.
The clue is in their claim to serve "freshly cooked" meals. It's industry-speak for 'all our food is centrally catered, all we do is reheat it and plonk it on a plate'. Nice plates, though. ;-)
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