My parents seem to have an endless knowledge of Cheshire pubs, and a firm favourite of theirs is The Hazel Pear Inn. I've only been a few times, but each time I'm blown away by the lovely staff, cosy atmosphere and fantastic food. It just screams Cheshire, and as I haven't had a traditional Sunday lunch since I popped home briefly in the summer I was keen for a proper meal in an English pub nestled in the rural Cheshire countryside.
The Hazel Pear is a family-run pub in Acton Bridge that boasts roaring fires in the winter and a spacious patio and garden perfect for the summer. The menu is full of British food lovingly prepared with produce from local suppliers across Cheshire.
Every time I've been to The Hazel Pear it's been packed, so Mum called ahead and booked, but for some reason it was pretty quiet today. Unfortunately I only had my phone to snap photos, so please forgive the less than brilliant quality! I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Christmas tree on the way in, and there were Christmas decorations galore throughout the pub.
We settled down by a fire in the corner and perused the menu.
At the moment The Hazel Pear is running a Festive Menu, so obviously Mum and I chose that one.
To start, Mum had a Duck and Champagne Terrine.
I went for Smoked Salmon on Ciabatta. At this rate I'm going to look like smoked salmon by the time I get back to London, but as it's not exactly in a student-friendly price range I'm taking advantage of being home and having it practically every day!
For the main course, my mum had the Pork Loin, which was sliced thinly and served on a bed of mashed potato (an "island" as my mum said…) and from her clean plate at the end must have gone down well!
I'm a huge fan of turkey, and although we'll be having it tomorrow I couldn't resist it today. This was genuinely one of the best turkey dishes I've ever had. The meat was moist, the roast potatoes equal parts crispy and fluffy, and there was the perfect gravy ratio. I'd definitely recommend this!
These were accompanied by winter vegetables, which were lovely. My only criticism of the main is that the portions were too just too big!
My mum can't go for a meal without ordering a dessert, so we ordered a Christmas Strudel. We were told they were being made to order, so would take 15 minutes - which would have been perfect timing - but it actually arrived 40 minutes later. This was a little disappointing, but not the end of the world as we had coffee in the meantime. I've instagrammed pictures of The Hazel Pear's tea sets before, and the coffee is just as cute!
By the time the strudel arrived the fire next to us had gone out and it was a little chilly, but the dessert warmed us up. I'm not a fan of custard at all thanks to memories of lumpy, florescent custard at Primary School, but this was delicious. The strudel was bursting with flavour, and the pastry was suitably flaky. Again, my only criticism was the portion size - if we'd known how big it was we would have shared one instead!
We left extremely full and feeling a lot more festive, ready to make Dad jealous of our meal over his lunch out with the boys (we weren't too successful - he went to The Plough, which is always amazing…). I really do love The Hazel Pear, and couldn't recommend it enough. If you're after a hearty British meal in one of the most beautiful areas of Cheshire then look no further. Plus, I have endless admiration for pubs a social media presence, and The Hazel Pear is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and has a website. Amazing. Team that with the smart-casual uniforms of jeans and stripy blue shirts of the staff, cute crockery and roaring fires instead of radiators and I'm sold.
For someone who feels more at home in the city, coming to places like this makes me appreciate (and even miss) the countryside.
If you don't feel like cooking after tomorrow and definitely don't want to set foot in a kitchen for a while then venture off to Acton Bridge and give it a try. A meal here is a good way to avoid having to come up with inventive dishes to use up leftover turkey and having to do the washing up!
Trust me, The Hazel Pear won't disappoint.
*****
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