The Red Lion, Bradley
The Red Lion in Bradley, south west of Stafford, has been beautifully renovated and offers a mix of well made pub classics alongside accomplished modern British cooking. When I visited recently it was clear to see why it’s recently earned a place in the Michelin Guide.
The Red Lion in Bradley has been on my radar for some time. It’s one of four properties currently owned by the Staffordshire-based Lewis Partnership and, after being extremely impressed by my visits to their Moat House Acton Trussell, I added The Red Lion to my list of places to try.
Under its current ownership, The Red Lion’s reputation for quality food and drink has steadily grown, earning it a place in the 2018 Michelin Guide.
The Red Lion is also well known for its afternoon teas, winning the Taste of Staffordshire Good Food Award’s Afternoon Tea of the Year in 2017. It was also a finalist in the Casual Dining Restaurant of the Year category.
In the light of these accolades, my expectations were pretty high when we arrived for an early evening meal one recent Saturday. I was accompanied by my partner ID, who was also my photographer for the evening. Committed tasters of each others’ food, this means I also get to sample twice as many dishes.
SETTING
Five miles south west of Stafford, The Red Lion sits in the village of Bradley, next to the picturesque thirteenth century church. The Red Lion itself dates back to the seventeenth century. Beautifully refurbished, you can still see some of the original timbers. The interior tastefully combines the old with the new, largely traditional but with comfortable, modern touches.
There were already plenty of customers in the spacious bar when we arrived. Walking through to the rear restaurant area (watch your head on those beams if you’re tall), a few diners were already seated. We were shown to a corner table near a window where the Shropshire hills could just be seen on the horizon.
RED LION MENUS
Like many successful pubs these days, The Red Lion shrewdly offers old favourites alongside modern British cooking. There’s ‘Pub Classics’ with starters like prawn cocktail and pate and mains such as haddock and chips, burgers, pies and salads. If your tastes are more gastropub, then head to the ‘Main Menu’ where alongside starters like smoked salmon parfait and crab cakes with garlic aioli there’s an interesting choice of mains including chicken breast with crispy chorizo ballotine and Romesco sauce, and roast monkfish with red pepper risotto, breaded mussels, cured ham and vine tomato salad.
You can mix and match from either menu and there’s also plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. At lunchtime, there’s a separate menu with a range of sandwiches and two or three course fixed price menus. Traditional roast lunches are available on Sundays.
STARTERS
pressed chicken & wild mushroom terrine with prune chutney
For my first course, I chose pressed chicken and wild mushroom terrine with prune chutney (£5.95). This was a very elegant plate of food. Presented on a long, off-white platter, the shades of white, beige and green contrasted pleasingly with the darker shades of mushroom and chutney.
The terrine had a pure, clean taste. I’d hoped that the wild mushroom wouldn’t overpower the delicate flavour of chicken and it didn’t. Little cubes of potato and fingers of baby leek were expertly cooked. The leek had a mildly pickled yet sweet flavour and, together with the spots of prune chutney, added welcome acidity. A few shards of very thin, very crisp seeded bread provided well-judged textural contrast.
red onion & Staffordshire cheese cheesecake with pickled pear & walnut dressing
ID’s starter of red onion and Staffordshire cheese cheesecake with pickled pear and walnut dressing (£5.95) was a dish I’d considered. When we’d eaten a tasting menu at The Moat House Acton Trussell we’d both loved the goat’s cheese custard. With The Red Lion coming from the same stable, we thought the cheesecake might be pretty good too. It was.
The cheescake, of a fine and smooth texture, was properly cheesy and of a generous size. The substantial red onion element was found at the centre of the cheesecake. The soft onions had an almost chutney-like flavour, both sweet and acidic. The cubes of pickled pear dotted among the mixed salad leaves were perfect. Neither too soft nor obtrusively hard, the pear chunks had a pretty, almost pink hue. Crunchy walnuts gave more texture.
My other half thought this dish might have benefitted from a more modern presentation. Perhaps with the different elements separated out on a plate rather than the cheesecake sitting on top of the mixed leaves, pear and walnuts in a bowl? On the flavour front, however, there were no worries at all.
MAIN COURSES
Gressingham duck breast with leg croquette, black cherries, port sauce & celeriac sauerkraut
For my main course I chose the Gressingham duck breast with leg croquette, black cherries, port sauce and celeriac sauerkraut (£17.50). As with my starter, I thought the presentation of this dish was excellent.
While sweetish, slightly acidic sauces are often served with duck to counteract its fattiness, I find this is sometimes overdone. This results in an overly sweet dish, although thankfully not the case here. The glossy sauce had an intensely savoury, meaty character with the sweeter flavour sensibly in the background. Dibs and dabs of the port sauce were placed here and there rather than blanketing everything.
The sliced duck was served slightly pink and had a good flavour. Sitting under the duck was a nice tangle of shredded celeriac. Demonstrating again the kitchen’s skill at balancing flavours, the celeriac sauerkraut’s pickled-fermented edge undercut the richness.
The chunky cubes of carrot, like the vegetables in my starter, were precisely cooked. Not too soft, not too hard. I detected a subtle spicing on them which I couldn’t quite identify. Simple mixed spice or something else? No matter, I liked it anyway. I liked the fat black cherry halves, shiny with sauce, too.
On modern British meat dishes, we’re used to bon-bons of this and that: small, crispy bites filled with soft, slow-cooked meat. I’d assumed that’s what the leg croquettes would be. But these were traditional British croquettes with potato the main ingredient plus a little duck meat to flavour it. At first (entirely unreasonably as I’d got exactly what I’d ordered), I felt a bit short-changed. However, as I ate, the chef’s choice of potatoey croquette instead of meaty bon-bon was proved correct. The duck breast provided the plate with sufficient meat and, without those croquettes, I might well have been grumbling, ‘if only there was some potato…’
Head chef
Talking of the chef, it was interesting to hear The Red Lion’s Head Chef, Stuart Bruce, on a recent edition of BBC Radio Stoke’s show for foodies, The Takeaway. I’ve been on the show myself and love hearing from people who produce the food I enjoy so much.
Asked about his food heaven, Stuart talked about his love for hearty dishes like faggots and peas and belief that ‘simple things are often the best’. He explained this was reflected at The Red Lion where you’ll always find dishes like sausage and mash. ‘Don’t forget you’re a pub’, he said.
How fitting then, that ID had chosen his main course from the ‘Pub Classics’: Sausage and Mash (£8.50).
Sausage and Mash
You probably can’t tell from the photographs, but these were possibly the largest sausages I’d ever seen. And there were three of them. The sausages were full of pure porky flavour, no herbs or anything else to distract the attention. I think these are exactly the sort of sausage to have on a simple plate like this. The texture was quite fine, like a traditional British sausage rather than the coarser ones now in vogue. But they were none the worse for that and I would’ve happily eaten the whole lot, enormous or not.
I thought the little crispy onion bits on top of the sausages were an inspired touch. Onions in the gravy are all very well, but it does mean the textures are a bit samey. Much better, I thought, were these nuggets adding interest and another texture. The generous piping of mashed potato was smooth, buttery and creamy. But not too buttery and creamy – the earthiness of a very good potato still shone through. The vegetable accompaniment was simply peas. I don’t think there’s anything better with sausage, mash and gravy, so it was good to see the kitchen had avoided the temptation to add anything fancy schmancy. ‘Simple things are often the best’, after all.
DESSERTS
ice cream taco
I’m glad I spotted this dessert on The Red Lion’s Instagram feed, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have chosen it. Ice cream as the climax of a very good meal can seem like a bit of a wasted opportunity. However, the fanciful notion of ice cream in the guise of the savoury Mexican dish appealed to me. Ice cream taco (£4.95) looked like a fun take on the traditional ice cream sundae, so why not?
I could choose three different flavours of ice cream for my taco. Actually, I’ll apologise right now to our server who had to repeat the available flavours to me about four times. Sorry, it was my aging brain. Or possibly the wine.
Besides chocolate and strawberry, I couldn’t resist black coconut. I adore anything coconut, so would have chosen it anyway. But being black somehow made it even more appealing. Black coconut has apparently been a thing for a year or so now. The colour is usually provided by ash or activated charcoal, with claims of health benefits for the latter. But I’ve a sneaking suspicion that its popularity lies more in its immensely Instagrammable appearance.
Anyway, I loved the coconut flavour and thoroughly enjoyed repeatedly asking ID, ‘is my tongue black?’ and ‘is my tongue still black?’, like some mischievous child.
All of the ice creams were of good quality and the ‘taco’ was a perfectly crisp tuille. The fun folderols you’d want in an ice cream dessert were present too: fruity syrup, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, chocolate hundreds and thousands, mini marshmallows.
In short, a tasty dessert that brought a smile to my face. Albeit one stained black.
Dark chocolate truffle torte, coffee cream & amaretti biscuit
While I’m drawn to coconut desserts, ID regularly gravitates to chocolate ones. So naturally he chose the dark chocolate truffle torte with coffee cream & amaretti biscuit (£5.95).
The wedge of shiny-topped dessert was smooth and rich with chocolate, but not cloyingly so. Both the pastry case beneath and the softly whipped coffee cream on top were good foils to the filling.
Biscuit crumbs of various sizes scattered round and about added further bite to counterbalance the velvety chocolate. His plate cleared, ID declared the dessert ‘really good’ and excellent value. Praise indeed from this experienced connoisseur of choccy puds.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Without drinks, our food bill came to £48.80. For this standard of cooking, I think under £25 per head is amazingly good value. There’s a wide range of soft drinks, beers, spirits and reasonably priced wines available, including many wines by the glass.
On a busy Saturday night, staff were efficient as well as knowledgeable and friendly. They took the time the check we were enjoying our meal, enquiring if we wanted more drinks and brought them over quickly. They were able to answer questions about the dishes too.
Making our reservation at relatively short notice, we’d had to eat a little earlier than we normally would. So, particularly if you want to dine at weekends and have a preferred time to eat, do book ahead.
When we left at around 7.45 pm the restaurant was almost completely full. With diners able to choose from perfectly executed pub classics or imaginative, modern British dishes prepared with knowledge and skill, and pay a very reasonable bill at the end of it, that’s hardly surprising.
Nor would I be surprised if, in the near future, The Red Lion Bradley adds further accolades to sit alongside its current awards and place in the Michelin Guide.
Highly recommended.
All images in this post are copyright Ian Dakin Photography and are not to be reproduced without permission.