Anyone else not like Gastropubs?

[WisteriaLodge]

It's probably just me and I'm probably being unreasonable but anyone else not like them? They seem to be everywhere now, they look pleasant enough but they all look the same including the over priced menus, pale blue or grey tongue and groove in the dining/ bar area, I don't know, I just want a real old fashioned 16th century country pub with a roaring fire! There's no point to this post I'm just musing (moaning) but I can't be alone in feeling like this can I? My local pub has just been turned into one with a local 'celebrity' chef turning the menu all fancy. Maybe I'm getting old ha ha!

To let you know our triple cooked chips were steamed,air dried then fried.
I worked in a gastro pub for yrs and there are good a bad sides.
Good is consistent decent size portions,bad is the over description on the menus and pandering to every customer s whims.
There are still independent pubs around.
Creativity is being replaced by a reassurance that the food will be the same wherever these chains are.

Just after Covid, the landlord of our village pub put a message on the fb page saying basically, "Look, we were struggling before Covid. We're really struggling now. I don't want to sell it to the gastro chain, but if you lot don't start eating and drinking here, I'm not going to have much choice."

Luckily, it worked, and we still have our lovely, traditional pub. The loveliest homemade pie and crinkly chips on a willow pattern plate, with a big jug of gravy if you want. Perfect on a miserable weekend!

@WisteriaLodge Said shovel rocked every time I used a knife and fork.......

How to check whether your meal on a shovel is wanky or not:

Are you standing next to the driver on the footplate of a moving steam engine?

If your answer is no, then it's wanky.

Nice one @pinneddownbytabbies

I'd have to send it back and ask them to put it on a plate, I honestly couldn't put up with that

To be honest... the menus are always the same.
Hand battered/beer battered cod...
28 day aged sirloin
Pan fried whatever....
Artisan whatever else...
Locally sourced whatever piece of flesh...
The ubiquitous halloumi ....
pulled meat/pork belly
Lamb rump ....

Always the effing same.

Up there with gastropubs are chain pubs that think they are restaurants. You get pounced on when you walk in and they ask 'have you booked' when you say you just want a drink you get directed to a dark and distant corner

Yes they are, in fact they are all the same even the decor, at least with a genuine country pub you never know what you're going to get food/decor wise

That proper made me laff.

I'm reliably informed that a shovel-cooked bacon and eggs eaten on the shovel on the footplate of a steam loco, while coasting down an incline on a cold sunny morning is gastronomic heaven for a hungry fireman.

I can see why it wouldn't quite be the same if it was a deconstructed hand-foraged mushroom salad drizzled with a line-caught oyster reduction.

Breakfast served, believe it or not at motorway services!

Despite the frying pan, that looks like a good fry-up!

I haven’t read all the comments but has anyone mentioned my pet hate which is a steak on a piece of wood (totally unhygienic) or a dessert on a piece of old roof slate? Although, when my dessert comes with a jug of pouring cream or custard, I do take great pleasure in l tying it all run off the aforementioned roof slate and pointing it out to the waiter / waitress for the umpteenth time….. all I ask for is a plate or a dish.

Ergh I hate them, I enjoy proper traditional food.
I hate how they have taken crap, cheap food and tried to make it something... mac and cheese in particular riles me. Its a cheap easy meal and they throw some stupid description on the menu about it and charge £15.
Fish and 4 triple cooked chips, no veg or salad included.
Things presented on anything other than a plate.
Deconstructed anything.
All over priced and often very small portions.

There is one by me where a scotch egg sat on rocket leaves, nothing else on the plate is £12??? Glasses of wine start at £9. It's not even London. Its always empty despite its lovely location.

It's the "sides" which wind me up.

Steak, chicken, fish, whatever is on the menu for £20 upwards, then they say "would you like any sides with that?"

What, you mean it doesn't come with anything and I have to order potatoes, veg etc separately at generally £3 a pop? Just add the cost on to the main meal (or better still include it in your overpriced chicken dish!

I have no problem with them tbh.

I love a Sunday Yorkshire Dales 7 mile walk, followed by a good pie and triple cut chips and a few glasses of Australian Shiraz followed by sticky toffee pudding.

If this is defined as a “gastro” and a sin and I’m a sinner, then ok 🤷‍♀️