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?

A good pie with nice vegetables on the side like buttery carrots, broccoli.

Lunchtime sandwiches. I loved going to a pub when I was a student and having a beer and a bacon, brie and cranberry warm baguette. I would order that in a heartbeat if I saw it on a pub menu! I think they also did a chicken, bacon bbq sauce and cheese one. Things like that say 'traditional pub' to me.

Things like cheesy chips, onion rings, options to add bacon bits, barbecue sauce, etc, read “cheap frozen food chain pub with fluorescent lighting” and I’d run a mile unless desperately, desperately hungover.

Another option is to do one thing, but really well

Near me, there is a place that just does (very good) burgers, nothing else. They've been going for years. Always busy, and I assume not much food waste, as the menu is limited

My heart sinks when I see a huge menu and I just know it's all straight from a Brakes lorry

Soup in a basket

Burgers
Scampi
Onion rings
Chicken goujons

Lol @ soup in a basket!

Giant Yorkshire pud filled with bangers, mash & onion gravy

I am gluten intolerant and don't eat meat.

I really struggle now that many options are vegan, I love cheese and cream!

I would happily sign a disclaimer to stare that I am happy to eat food from a kitchen that also prepares food with gluten. (I understand that those with coeliac could not do so)

I would like the option of a burger or hotdog without the bread, what do they call it when you get all the parts?

I would love to see
Salmon, chips or new pots with salad or peas.
Colcannon with gravy
Clive's GF pie with chips and gravy or potatoes with salad.
Omelette or Frittata

A hearty vegetable soup, Hunky Dory's in Newport did the best soup ever

Gluten free puddings with custard
Ice cream Sundaes

Light Bites/Smaller Meals- as I get older I really can't eat large portions.

Good luck to your friend,

@Nowmum43

As a veggie I wouldn't eat at a pub if the only dish available was pasta or risotto. Lasagne would be ok but a good pie even better. Also if doing a Sunday roast making sure there is a good veggie roast option.

I agree, it's disappointing to see a menu where the vege dishes are something fairly easy that I could make as well or better at home. My favourites would be a pie, shepherd(less) pie, v lasagne, bean chili with all the sides.

Scampi and chips
Screams pub to me

Agree with someone up thread who said to not limit their Sunday menus to just a roast I don’t understand why places do this ….. well I do understand I lived in a pub for a few years and my family had it for longer than that but as a customer if I wanna lasagna on a Sunday I want that option

It depends where it is,
If countryside walkish pub I love pubs that do a nice ploughman's, soups and then your list.

If mid town carvery is always a good option to offer.

If costal I like to see some sea food.

Nice stew served in a giant Yorkshire is always good and something I can't often be bothered to do at home.

As a non-brit I always go fir fisha and chips, steak and ale pie or shephards pie

MIXED GRILL

Mac and cheese
Veggie lasagna

I’m veggie in case you hadn’t guessed

I must admit I would only visit a pub with this kind of menu if I was on holiday or out for the day somewhere and needed to eat but there was no other choice.

I wouldn't visit a local pub for this kind of food unless I was meeting friends and the food wasn't the main reason I was in the pub .

@LaurieFairyCake

Prawn cocktail Various things in baskets Ploughman's

Wait the 70's are calling me ..

LOL Oh yeah. Don't forget the scampi and chips Or chicken and Chips in that basket.

I think a pub only needs to do

Pie and peas
Egg and chips
Scampi and chips
Ploughmans
Curry
Full English
Sunday roast

Menus from 3 pubs I have eaten in in the last year;

prattsandpayne.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2021/08/August-menu.pdf

www.therailwaytulsehill.co.uk/menus.html

9495d4d9-f128-4c49-957d-c8b203b10ee4.filesusr.com/ugd/92189b_3509b708bc684b478b12dd757db71c8c.pdf

All far more interesting and contemporary than most if gone stuff listed here.

The middle one is an ordinary successful, non posh S London pub.

I would eat at your third pub @EdgeOfTheSky . Sounds nice .

shinynewapple21

I would eat at your third pub @EdgeOfTheSky . Sounds nice .

The font on the menu is enough to
put me off that one!!

Chicken and leek pie
Roasts
Cottage/ Shepherd’s Pie
Fish pie

All far more interesting and contemporary than most if gone stuff listed here.
Those menus have burgers, fish and chips, and ham and chips on! They just say “fries”, put the prices with no £ on, and call their mains section “big plates” to fool you into thinking you’re in cutting-edge gastro territory. I’m on to them.

Not sure about this “stew in a giant Yorkshire pudding” option that keeps being mentioned. Isn’t it difficult to eat? And makes the Yorkshire pudding all mushy? And just, why?

Those menus have burgers, fish and chips, and ham and chips on! They just say “fries”, put the prices with no £ on, and call their mains section “big plates” to fool you into thinking you’re in cutting-edge gastro territory. I’m on to them

Indeed.

But the point is that the OP’s friend is taking over a pub.

Whether it’s Wetherspoons, ‘Gastro’ orientated or local pubs, the standard offering now covers more than ploughman’s, egg and chips and burgers, even if they include those things, have more veggie options, and has a nod, however pretentious or inauthentic, to more contemporary dishes.

People are pretty used to the small plates / large plates type options, ordering things to share. Etc.

A couple of vegan options. Maybe a curry and a tagine.

Presumably your friend has experience in this industry of pub management? In which case would should not be joining an industry body and knowing what works for different demographics?

We can post random dishes until the cows come home but its all pretty academic if we don't know what is the target audience. What sells in an urban Spoons (fast, standardised and cheaper) won't be the same as what is popular in a Sussex village with tourist traffic or a street corner independent in Manchester.