Catch a bite to eat here. (The Minnow (Weybridge))

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	The Minnow (Weybridge)
Date:	06/09/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good food, pretty courtyard and building.

Disadvantages: A wasted location

I visited The Minnow, Weybridge, for the first time a few weeks ago. It's located just across the road from Weybridge's stretch of the Thames, an we walked along the tow path a mile or so from Walton to get there. It a pretty walk, when it's light. A little creepy on the way back!

The Minnow potentially has a good location, Weybridge has a lovely stretch of river, however, it is across the road form the river so, there's cars going past and on the other side trees and bushes, block out the view. If you want a nice river pub, I suggest trying somewhere else because this may as well be in the middle of a city for all the view you get.

From the outside, the Minnow is an attractive building with a courtyard style garden at the front with seating. We sat here as it was a nice day. We arrived around 6 o'clock on a Thursday evening. It wasn't bustling but fairly busy, lots of 'after work' drinks.

Inside, it's a lot more formal, although a pub, it's one that's obviously proud of it's food and fancies itself as a high class restaurant. The bar was well stock with a good variety of the common and less common beer and wine requests.

I liked the atmosphere and the garden was sophisticated yet relaxed. I had just been reading Alice in Wonderland and actually looking around, I could imagine a few playing cards and a white rabbit jumping out from behind the little topiary trees! (Maybe I shouldn't have had that cider)

The menu is fairly extensive and we spent ages choosing what to have. We decided to share a starter, remembering for a change we often get eyes bigger than stomach syndrome when faced with such a tasty menu. Starters vary in price from around £3.95 for breads and soup to £7.95 for scallops. Although generally the menu is a little pricey for pub grub, I think they've put such a variety, with prices to match that you can eat on a budget of splash out depending on how far away from pay day it is!

We started with the rustic breads sharing platter which came with a roasted garlic bulb and butter. DIY garlic bread really I guess! It was quick to arrive and the plate was generous, though I think we word rustic was just put in for style. We actually got chunky slices of brown and white bloomer with barley enough butter and garlic to cover. Tasty, but did not live up to the expectations the fancy menu presents.

For mains we were spoilt for choice. The menu has around five or six tasty sounding salads, classics such as burgers and fish and chips (I always thin you can judge a pub by it's fish and chips), pizza, pasta, steak and a range of fish dishes including seabass and tuna. The special that day was also tempting a chicken and chorizo risotto.

My other half predictably chose steak, a 10oz rib eye which was served with piri piri butter and chips, priced at £14.95. I chose an exotic sounding lunguini with prawns. chilli, lemongrass and coconut. Having been watching Rick Stein's lastest series these sort of flavours are popular with me at the moment, though I couldn't help thinking it was mixing things up a bit to use linguini and surely noodles would be more suitable. A small portion of this was priced at £5.95 and a large at £9.95.

The service again, was quick but no exactly service with a smile. The staff seemed busy and the extras such as smiling and 'is your food ok?' seemed to have been forgotton, but we didn't mind. We got our food quickly and it was tasty which is the main thing.

I'm glad I went for the large portion of my dish, it was just right. I feel the small is more for a starter. I can forgive the pasta instead of noodles, as it was very tasty. Slightly milder in flavour than I was expecting, a bit more chilli would have been preferable. The prawns were delicious though. Not king prawns, the small shrimp type, but you could tell these were fresh not frozen ones that you get in a prawn sandwich. They were meaty and filling, not watery at all. This place obviously takes care in the ingredients they select for their dishes. My man was equally as impressed by his steak, though I didn't like to try any as he likes them done 'still mooing'. I did try a chip though. They were good, so I tried another just to make sure. Aren't we girls annoying?!

Pleasantly full we walked off our meal back along the river, such as shame we couldn't have enjoyed it while we were eating. Never mind.

Summary: A decent little pub for food and relaxing with friends