Dog & Doublet Inn: Sandon, Stafford

The Dog & Doublet in Sandon, like the other properties in the small but perfectly formed Staffordshire-based Lewis Partnership, offers great value and excellent cooking.

THE DOG & DOUBLET

The Dog & Doublet Inn at Sandon, some five miles north west of Stafford and roughly the same distance south east of Stone, is one of four properties run by the family-owned Lewis Partnership.

At their other three properties – The Moat House Acton Trussell, The Red Lion Bradley and The Bank House Hixon – I found lovingly and tastefully refurbished buildings, very professional and friendly staff and, most important, excellent cooking.

Admittedly, at the time of writing, I’ve only attended a preview event at The Bank House (full visit and review to come), but could see the makings of a great place, just like the others.

Nevertheless, when I set off for my first visit to the Dog & Doublet one recent Saturday, there was still that little nagging doubt of the greedy person in search of a good meal. Would they be able to pull it off again?

A thing I like about The Lewis Partnership is they always put the history of the property on their website. The Dog & Doublet is no exception and I loved the story of how the original pub got its name. Apparently, in the eighteenth century, villagers were so taken with a performing dog at the local fair who wore the short, tight jacket known as a doublet, that they renamed the pub after it.

Fittingly, The Dog & Doublet is dog friendly in the cosy bar and snug. However, as we didn’t have our dog with us, we booked a table in the stone-slabbed Arch Way, sandwiched between the equally comfortable Fireplace and Doublet Rooms.

I thought all the rooms were tastefully decorated and showed off the architecture beautifully. But it’s not overly formal and I loved the quirky jumble of mismatched tables and chairs.

THE MENUS

You’ll find a range of menus at The Dog & Doublet, depending on the time of your visit. These include Sandwiches and Grazing Boards (12.00 –  6.00 pm), Sharing Platters (12.00 – 8.00 pm) and a menu with items suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

My partner ID and I both ordered from the Main Menu (Monday to Saturday 12.00 – 2.30pm and 5.00pm – 9.00pm, up to 9.30pm Friday & Saturday). Here you’ll find a tempting range of Appetisers, Starters and Mains, as well as pub classics like beer battered haddock, fish pie, gammon, steaks and burgers.

STARTERS

SCRUMPETS

For my first course, I chose Crispy pressed lamb scrumpets, carrot and celeriac remoulade, tomato and mint salsa verde (£6.95). To which the obvious question is, what the heck is a scrumpet?

Well, I can tell you that scrumpets are a delicious way of using up leftover meat. Slow cooked lamb, particularly economical cuts like shoulder or breast, is a favourite but other meat can be used. After shredding, the meat is coated in crumbs and fried.

I don’t know whether the origins of ‘scrumpet’ have anything to do with the word scrumptious. But, judging by these examples, I shouldn’t be surprised. The soft lamb had a good, meaty flavour and its golden jacket a perfect, crispy contrast.

The accompaniments were suitably fresh, light and with a suitable astringency. Small dice of tomato and onion, along with the remoulade (think French coleslaw), brought crunchiness. I love mint and the salsa verde had plenty of it along with a good tang.

SALMON RILLETTES

For his starter ID chose Potted salmon rillettes, horseradish crème fraîche, cucumber and radish salad, sourdough toast (£6.75).  If you’re not familiar with rillettes, they’re similar to pate or potted meats and fish, for spreading on bread.

This version, with salmon, was delicately flavoured and nicely buttery. It came in glass jar and was a pretty generous portion.

At lesser establishments, I find salad garnishes can be rather a let-down. Limp, unimaginative leaves, unchanging no matter what dish they accompany. However, this salad was fantastically fresh. The cucumber was shaved in pleasingly long slices which, I think, make for much nicer eating.

MAIN COURSES

PORK BELLY

For my main course, I plumped for Slow cooked confit pork belly, apple purée, black pudding mash, braised red cabbage and rich calvados jus (£14.95).

To be honest, I’d almost been put off this dish due to the red cabbage. Just a few days earlier a friend and I had been saying how we hardly ever order red cabbage as it’s usually too sweet and overloaded with spice. But I’d also recently made braised cabbage with apples and smoked bacon to go with a superlative pie from The Village Butcher Ipstones and it was a knockout. So I took a chance that this red cabbage would be good too. After all, spices weren’t actually mentioned on the menu. Anyway, the lure of black pudding mash was just too great, so I went for it.

Well, it certainly turned out to be one of my better decisions. I always take a good sniff of a plate, and the aromas coming off this were incredibly appetizing. There was no hint of sweet spicing, Just a deep savouriness.

It was beautiful to look at too. A golden, crackly-topped slab of pork, meltingly soft within, sat on purple-hued cabbage and mash. A crisply fried shard of bacon or ham bisected the potato. Petal-like flows of tart apple puree and rich jus crept outwards from beneath it all.

For me, this was a wonderful, hearty dish and there’s not a thing I’d change about it. I particularly enjoyed the black pudding mashed potato, which I’d never had before. Still retaining its inherent potatoey-ness, the black pudding seemed to make the mash even earthier.

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD

Wanting something a little lighter, ID chose for his main Classic chicken Caesar salad, anchovies, crispy bacon and croutons, Grana Padano, Caesar dressing (£11.95).

Now, I should say that other half and I consider ourselves quite the connoisseurs of Caesar salads. We make it at home regularly but find, eating out, it often falls short of the mark.

Firstly, if you want to serve me Caesar salad without any anchovies then you can forget it. If you do give me anchovies and they’re those brown, cured ones then that’s better than none. But I’d really rather you kept those for the dressing and put mild, delicate white anchovies in the salad. And, kudos to the Dog & Doublet, that seemed to be what we got.

Another area where many Caesar salads fall down is in the dressing. Quite often it’s just not gutsy enough and there’s a rather miserly amount of it. Happily, that wasn’t the case here. Lots of strong, flavoursome dressing and plenty of cheese strewn about too.

As with ID’s starter, the leaves were spanking fresh. They included lots of big, crunchy whole leaves from a head of lettuce. Not straggly bits and bobs from a sad bag of leaves you’re sometimes presented with.

The chicken breast was tasty, although ID thought it would’ve been easier to eat if the kitchen had sliced it rather than left it whole.

But that’s minor quibbling. After finishing every morsel, ID declared, “well, I’d be very happy if I’d made that.” Perhaps that sounds arrogant. After all, we’re just enthusiastic home cooks. But, believe me, when you’ve been making a dish for years and have perfected it to just how you like it, it’s pretty impressive to get that same, wonderful thing served up in a pub restaurant.

DESSERTS

PECAN TART

As you’ve probably guessed by now, given how good everything else was, my dessert of Individual pecan tart & hazelnut mascarpone (£6.50) was wonderful.

The pastry was buttery and biscuity-crisp. Being something of a pedant, I even turned the tart over to take a peek underneath. I’m happy to report that was nicely browned too.

Pecan tarts, similar to treacle tarts, can be unbearably sweet in the wrong hands. But here, the soft, toffee-like filling was just right, meaning I was happy to polish off the whole lot. I was helped by a very generous topping of crunchy pecans.

I’m not sure I detected hazelnut in the mascarpone, but didn’t really care. The richness of the Italian cream cheese was sensational studded with what we’ve come to know as chocolate soil. It made me wonder why I don’t use mascarpone in cooking for often. (Answer: I’m too fat already).

The light, ripe raspberry and strawberry garnish lifted the whole thing. The intensity of the strawberry was actually quite startling. I’d not eaten one for a while and it’s easy to forget how good they can be.

SALTED CARAMEL CHEESECAKE

ID’s dessert was Baked salted caramel cheesecake & vanilla ice cream (£6.50). We love a proper, baked cheesecake and this was a great example. Sturdier than the whipped, uncooked versions I think they’re much more satisfying. I also think the unbaked versions, nice as they can be, give the air of being a bit of an afterthought, as they’re really no effort.

The cheesecake itself was plain (no bad thing in my opinion), the salted caramel element brought by brittle toffee pieces scattered over the top.

ID would’ve preferred a salted caramel element to be distributed through the cheesecake, maybe in the form of a sauce. But I disagreed. I think a velvety, plainish cheesecake with a contrasting topping was the way to go.

The dessert was finished with a scoop of very good vanilla ice-cream and more of those fruits and crumbly chocolate soil.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Without drinks, our food bill came to £53.60 or just under £27 per head. As with all the Lewis Partnership properties, I think their food is excellent value for money. To drink, I had a large glass of Australian Shiraz (£7.30) and ID a pint of Joule’s Slumbering Monk (£3.30).

Besides the menus I’ve outlined, you can also stop by for breakfast (Mon-Fri 7.00-10.30am, from 8.00am at weekends) or book for afternoon tea Tue-Sat. Early doors menu (one course £9.95, two courses £12.95) is available Mon-Fri 5.00-6.30pm.

Besides the consistently great food, I was again pleased to find the familiar Lewis Partnership top-notch customer service. There always seems to be a good ratio of staff to punters and I’ve invariably found them to be friendly, efficient and knowledgeable.

But while there’s those familiar, reliable constants, I also like that each of the properties have their own distinct identity and unique menus.

I think we’re pretty lucky here in Staffordshire to be home to them. But if you’re further afield, then you can take advantage of one of The Dog & Doublet‘s eleven guest rooms, one of which is dog friendly.

Highly recommended.