I’ve just enjoyed a belt-bursting and smile-inducing lunch at the Butchers Arms on the most miserably rainy day of the summer so far. There are few better pleasures on a rainy day than finding yourself somewhere cosy with good food.
This is the
Butchers Arms, Woolhope, Herefordshire. Not to be confused with the Butchers Arms, Eldersfield, Gloucestershire, which is actually only a few miles away and has a similar enough telephone number that the two pubs apparently swap customers on a regular basis; “hello, we’ve got your table of four at 7:30 and they’ve decided to stay here”. Also not to be confused with the Butchers Arms, Preston Bagot, Warwickshire, which is a little further away in distance and about three decades away in gastronomy. Who couldn’t smile at a menu that still lists “parma ham and melon”, or “peeled tiger prawns on iceberg lettuce with marie rose sauce”? Mustn’t get distracted though, it’s Woolhope we’re at.
This is a real country pub in the middle of nowhere, with wooden beams so low that wads of spongy padding are taped in strategic places for the taller visitor, a roaring open fire (in June, lawks, what’s the world coming to when we need a fire in June!) and some marvellous beers on tap. My first moment of joy was in beholding the Hobson’s Mild. I’m surprised to find myself able to say without any hedging that it is my favourite beer in all the world, so the Butchers Arms was off to a flying start.
We shared three starters. Haggis fritters were great, with a batter so crunchy that it would probably still be found crunchy if a plate was dug up in an episode of Time Team in four hundred years. Smoked haddock custard with coronation sauce was luscious, like an amped-up
kedgeree with the rice left out. The real eye-opener was a salad of celery and apple with pigeon breast, served on big chicory leaves with an orange dressing. At first the tiny lunks of dark pigeon among the pastel-hued salad looked lost and I was skeptical. But the whole dish ate deliciously lightly with the little punch of dense, salty pigeon adding an impact to each mouthful that was unexpected and frankly brilliant.
My main course was beef brisket with veg, and I got exactly what I should expect at a proper pub; a generous portion of an extremely well-cooked specimen of brisket in a sweet and meaty braising gravy with plain veg cooked al dente. Maureen’s main was nettle arancini served on a mushroom sauce with asparagus and it was delicious in every way. One of the things I enjoyed most about our meal at the Butchers Arms was the originality of the menu; there was nothing in the way of “gastropub staples” about it, Stephen Bull is definitely a chef who doesn’t need to follow fads or formulae.
We couldn’t leave without pudding (although it turned out that with pudding on top of all the other generous portions we almost couldn’t leave). Bread and butter pudding made with brioche and marmalade was good, although I must admit to preferring it more browned. My choice was apple crumble posset. See? Did you ever hear of a posset that wasn’t lemon? Well, this was deliciously fresh and I could easily have had two. If only I hadn’t been so stuffed that I could barely manage the last mouthful.
To cut a long story short, if you find yourself in need of a good meal near Hereford then you should be making a bee-line for the Butchers Arms. Granted, rather a rambling bee-line down picturesque lanes. It’s one of those rare places that simply could not have any detractors. If you’re a fan of hearty plates of unfussy food with big flavours then that’s just what you’ll get, but someone who likes looking for uncommon combinations and simply gifted cooking will be in hog heaven too.
