To ask what dishes you would say are 'pub grub'?

[Ilovepearjuice]

My friend is hoping to take over a pub and wants to keep the menu to fairly traditional, starting with the firm favourites. She asked for some opinions on what these favourites would be.

My initial thinking was:
Fish and chips
Lasagne
Pie and mash
Ploughman's
Roast on Sundays

So, people of Mumsnet, when you think of a proper, traditional British pub, what do you expect to see on the menu?

@AutumnLeafy

Baked potato lunch

Tbh I'd just look at Wetherspoons menu and do variations on that. They know what sells.

Good point

Ooh the 80s are calling me back …

All day builders breakfast with chips, bread & butter & a mug of tea/coffee

Mince & dumplings

Shepherds pie with spiced red cabbage

Old fashioned mixed grill

Then some veggie & vegan options needed.

Sorry lapsed vegetarian here, can only suggest

Vegan Singapore curry with water chestnuts, mushrooms, bean sprouts & 1/2 & 1/2 rice and chips

Vegetable gratin with steamed green leafy vegetables

Definitely want to echo a pp saying offer half portions for kids. We holidayed in England recently and ate at a few different pubs and were fed up of "breaded item and chips and peas" on kids' menus. The meal that went down best with my toddler was a picky plate of hummus, carrot and cucumber sticks, bread, cheese and grilled chicken. He loves chips too but some variety and thought for the kids would have me returning!

Burgers and chips. Surf and turf. Pie and chips. Sausage and mash. Chicken tikka masala. All day breakfast. Scampi and chips. All things off top of my head that I can get in the local pubs round my way.

I would probably like to see more "extra" type options. The typical is chips, onion rings. Fresh bread rolls with butter, dips/pate etc could go down well. All served on proper plates with sauces at the table not the stingy packet ones for me.

I could really eat a surf and turf right now.

Steak and chips
Lasagne
Cheese and onion pie
Steak and ale pie
Scampi
Hunters chicken
Ciabattas
Carbonara
Chilli

Cauliflower cheese. With option to add bacon bits &/or mushrooms

Ooh yes a decent fish pie with plenty of fish

All day breakfast
Burgers
Pies
Sausages
Chilli
Hunters chicken
Fish
Scampi
Club sandwich
BLT
Tuna melt
Garlic bread

A good veggie option (not butternut squash or mushroom risotto!)

Scamp and chips for sure

Setting decent for vegetarians and vegans.

Cottage Pie
Ham Egg and Chips
Sausage and Cheese Pie
Scampi
Lasagne
Fish and Chips

Loads of good ideas already!

A nice fish option - e.g. salmon with a lemon and dill sauce.

Good sandwiches- best one I had recently was a hot prawn and crayfish with salad and marie rose on a ciabatta.

Chips but only proper, homemade ones that start with a potato! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's being served chips that started as frozen oven chips!

Chicken parmigiana

Chicken wings.
Chili.
Meal-sized salads.

I'm starving now

On top of other suggestions (and there's a good trade in Curry Nights in a lot of places), what I think would be good is if there's a place where people with allergies/intolerances can be sure the food is reliably safe to eat. I don't just mean in terms of nuts or seeds or the new regulations, I mean things like;

Dairy Free - no milk in the burger buns (so bin the sodding brioche) and the ability to ask for vegan cheese without having to pay the best part of a tenner for a flat mushroom.

Gluten free - no breadcrumbs in the sausages, burgers, the mustard (yep, premixed Colman's has gluten, mixing up your own from the powder doesn't), using cornflour or potato flour to thicken stews, not putting all burgers on buns as a matter of course because 'can't you take it out of the bun?' isn't making it gluten free, if you serve chilli (meat or veggie/vegan, just have tortilla chips that are gluten free for everybody, as no one will notice the difference except for celiacs (because they can trust them). Same with poppadoms instead of Naan - get GF ones for everybody - obviously Naan isn't GF, but why put the poppadoms out of action as well? Not buying in chips that are coated in flour. Being able to have something in breadcrumbs that is GF would be great - like fish and chips, Scampi and chips, etc.

Don't confuse needing to be GF/DF with being vegan. Because that makes for the worst of all worlds.

With the margins on food, it would be pretty easy to plan into pricing so that nobody is penalised by having to pay more for less in order to eat safely - Spoons' vegan curry is about a teacup's worth, but costs as much as a huge curry full of dairy and gluten as thickeners, for example; which is pretty shit for those who can't eat anything else on the menu.

Essentially, where a substance really doesn't have to be in a meal, make it easy for it not to be there and normal for somebody to be able to order it without being told 'oh, we're out of that' and I think that'll also get a dedicated bunch of regulars eating there who just can't trust the other pubs in the area.

Burgers (beef, chicken and veggie)
Lasagne (maybe with a veggie option)
Chilli con carne or vegetable chilli
Fish and chips
Rump/sirloin steak
Gammon steak or ham
Some sort of pie (e.g. steak and ale, chicken and leek, cheese and onion)
Sausage and mash (maybe with a veggie variant)
Some sort of curry
Decent chips
Decent jacket potato or sandwich menu at lunchtime (maybe with hot options like toasties or panini's)

Not read the full thread but definitely lasagne! I always order that because it's yum but a bit of a faff. Even better if it comes with garlic breadth and child. Carb tastic

@AutumnLeafy

Ham egg and chips Burger Fish and chips Gammon of some sort A salmon dish no one orders

I'm the one that orders the salmon dish!! It's annoyed me that so many places have reduced their menus since Covid and taken my favourite dishes off - even posh places are doing more gourmet burgers type of stuff

Pie and excellent chips also a must.

Bloody starving reading this thread. Wasn't hungry ten minutes ago!

Depends on the size of kitchen and cold storage. Mine is tiny so need to work with ingredients that work over many dishes. Also agree buy fresh and local and cook from scratch.
Our best sellers are steak pie, ciabattas, soup (excellent profit on soup), macaroni and nachos.
Good luck to her

I'd expect to see:
Pie and mash/chips
Sausage and mash
Fish and chips
Lasagne
Ham, egg and chips
Sunday roast

I'd like to see:
A good choice of veggie options (veggie lasagna would be my favourite)
A kids veggie option that isn't pasta or pizza... Ideally more than one option.

I like fish pie or fish cakes