The Pack Horse Hayfield

The Pack Horse Hayfield has received high praise from national restaurant reviewers, is recommended in the Michelin Guide and is currently rated number 18 in the UK’s Top 50 Gastropubs. I recently ate at this Peak District pub and found the accolades well justified.

Whether you plan to go a la carte in the unfussy restaurant or turn up on spec for bar snacks after a walk, you’ll find great quality cooking at a reasonable price.

THE PACK HORSE HAYFIELD

I was supposed to visit The Pack Horse Hayfield in winter 2021, planning to have my birthday dinner there. But a forecast of blizzards meant to attempt an evening car journey from the hilly Staffordshire Moorlands to the even hillier High Peak would have been foolish. The staff member I spoke to on the phone was very understanding, even waiving the fee they were quite within their rights to charge for an on-the-day cancellation.

Mind you, I doubt they’d have a problem filling my table. I’d made my booking a month or so in advance, around the time The Pack Horse had received a glowing, high-profile review in The Times which talked of ‘pub perfection’. So I’ve no doubt there was a waiting list of people eager to take my place.

But it wasn’t until the end of summer this year that I finally got around to re-booking. Myself and partner ID arrived in the village Hayfield early one Saturday night where it was already doing a roaring trade. Which should be unsurprising for a venue currently number 18 in the Top 50 Gastropubs in the UK and also recommended in the Michelin Guide.

MENUS AT THE PACK HORSE HAYFIELD

Run since 2016 by Chef-owner Luke Payne and partner Emma Daniels, the ethos at The Packhorse is one of sustainability, seasonality and ethical sourcing. That means an emphasis on quality local and British produce, summed up by the phrase ‘eat well and in good conscience.’

There’s a full a la carte menu served Thursday to Saturday as well as bar snacks. As this really is a pub and not a restaurant, note that you can’t book a table for bar snacks as they’re for walk-ins only. Wednesday food service is just snacks and there’s roasts on Sundays.

On the night I went, snacks were individually priced while the a la carte menu offered 2 or 3 courses for £40 or £48 with supplements for a few dishes. However, at the time of writing, they’ve switched to all dishes individually priced.

BREAD & BUTTER, AMUSE BOUCHE, SNACKS

In the mood for a good feed, ID and I decided to go for some snacks as well as starter, main and dessert. Ordering from the a la carte menu also got us bread and butter plus amuse bouche.

The bread was a thickly cut slice of chewy and flavourful sourdough apiece. The deep yellow quality butter came in one generously portioned puck.

The amuse bouche, a cup of  gazpacho with a swirl of basil oil, arrived at the same time. Refreshing and well-balanced, it made me realise that when I occasionally make this cold soup mine is way too acidic.

For his snack, ID chose three natural Lindisfarne rock oysters (£10). Living in a landlocked part of the country, getting super-fresh seafood isn’t that easy. But the Pack Horse uses the highly regarded Hodgson Fish and ID thought these oysters were just as enjoyable as the Lindisfarne oysters he’d eaten on their home turf (or rather surf, I suppose).

In a flurry of activity, the oysters, like the gazpacho, arrived with the bread and butter. Not that it matters greatly, but it did seem a little odd to have everything brought at the same time. My snack wasn’t among them though, it appearing a few minutes later.

MANCHESTER EGG

If you’ve heard of The Pack Horse Hayfield, then you may know of its legendary Manchester egg (£7.50). It’s a take on the Scotch egg which includes black pudding along with the pork. Just like all those images I’d seen on social media, the yolk of mine was perfect for a warm Scotch egg.

I’ve eaten a LOT of Scotch eggs in my time, including with black pudding. But this was by far the best I’ve tasted. I liked that the breadcrumb coating was paper thin, and the flavoursome black pudding was the sort I love: identifiable pieces of white back fat studding it.

What I couldn’t work out though was from where the taste of a superior sort of Daddies/HP brown sauce came. I detected a familiar sweet and spicy flavour but couldn’t see sauce anywhere. I later realised my confusion was due to not having done my homework. The thing about a Manchester egg, you see, is that the egg should be pickled. And Luke Payne’s recipe includes a sweet pickling liquor with coriander seed, chilli, allspice and clove. Hence, presumably, the hint of knockout brown sauce that made it so good.

STARTERS

For my starter proper, I continued the porky theme with pig’s cheek & trotter croquette. Coincidentally, I’d eaten a similar dish of crispy pig’s head five or six years ago at another Top 50 Gastropub, The Duncombe Arms at Ellastone here in Staffordshire.

As at The Duncombe Arms, there was a chunky cuboid covered in crisply fried golden crumbs. This time it sat on a pool of sauce gribiche, a mayonnaise-like sauce albeit made with hard-boiled eggs. Perched on top were little blobs of green bean chutney and a tangle of micro herbs.

Cutting through the crispy shell, the already deeply savoury aromas intensified. Inside were shreds of rich, tender and moist, full-flavoured meat. Forkfuls dabbled in the lightly creamy sauce with its little acidic nuggets of gherkin and caper were so satisfying. Added to that were the sweet but also lightly tangy notes of the green bean chutney.

ID also stuck to the theme of his snack with another seafood dish. His cured, flamed mackerel fillet had an attractively charred skin, and the flesh was cooked well. Its accompanying sauce was one I hadn’t seen on a UK menu before: ranch dressing which is of US origin. Traditionally based on buttermilk, here it came with a subtle taste of horseradish.

A little salad of diced cucumber flavoured with elderflower brought crunch and freshness.

MAIN COURSE: HIGH PEAK LAMB

I think I’m right in saying that whenever I’ve perused the Pack Horse menu, it always includes High Peak lamb. Which makes perfect sense as this area (and the Moorlands where I live) produces fantastic lamb, hogget and mutton. On my visit the offering took the form of lamb rump and shoulder. Neither ID nor I took very long to decide this was what we wanted.

The rump came as three chunkily thick slices. Nicely charred on the outside, juicily pink within. This was one of those dishes I just have to inhale before tucking in, there being something so special about the appetizing aroma of lamb meat and lamb fat. The taste and texture didn’t disappoint either. Wonderfully tender with the full flavour you should get with high quality British lamb like this.

At first, I couldn’t work out where the lamb shoulder was. Then I saw it was in the potato pavé. This is a dish of layered potatoes which, after baking, are pressed. It’s then cut into portions and fried until golden crispy. In this version, the soft shoulder meat sat in the middle of the pavé with layers of potato on either side.

If you wanted to quibble, you could say that some bits of the pavé might have been a little on the dark rather than golden side. But I don’t want to quibble as I loved it all anyway. I also enjoyed the cockles on top, perched on little dabs of a creamy sauce I couldn’t identify. Matching the coastal theme of the cockles were wilted sea vegetables which we supplemented with a side of very crunchy green beans (£4).

Bringing everything together was a lamb sauce which, although it might look thinnish in my photo, was in reality full of more exquisite lamb flavour.

DESSERT

My task of writing about our meal was made simpler by ID and I choosing not just the same main course but also the same dessert: dark chocolate and peanut butter delice. This was unusual as, although he loves chocolate desserts, I’m not so keen. But, judging by everything I’d already eaten, it seemed highly unlikely that I would be disappointed. So I gave it a go.

The oblong of smooth, dark chocolate delice, sprinkled with coarse salt, sat on a soft peanut-flavoured base. I was surprised to find that both barely tasted sweet at all. But they didn’t need to. Spooned up with the creamy sweet milk ice cream, plus bites of perfectly crunchy, almost smoky honeycomb, the balance was perfect.

There was more bitter chocolate to enjoy when we got a little treat with the bill. However, I’m afraid the dinky chocolate case with sea buckthorn gel got gobbled up before I remembered to take a photo.

THE PACK HORSE HAYFIELD: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

With such luminaries as the Michelin Guide and renown reviewers warmly recommending The Pack Horse, plus inclusion in the Top 50 Gastropubs, it’s probably no great shakes to receive high praise from a little blog like mine.

But you don’t have to follow industry awards or read national restaurant reviewers to appreciate this place. Whether you plan to eat a la carte in the unfussy restaurant or go on spec for bar snacks after a walk in the Peak District (your dog is welcome too, inside and out), I think you’ll find lots to enjoy.

Without drinks (we stuck to beer) our bill came to £117.50. Considering we had snacks as well as three courses, plus an extra side, I think that £58.75 per person is more than reasonable for food of this quality.

Highly recommended.

PRICES AND MENUS CORRECT AT TIME OF WRITING
ALL PHOTOS © MOORLANDS EATER & NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION

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