Cricketers' Arms, The

The Cricketers' Arms has been transformed into an establishment capable of offering excellent food, drink and facilities to both aspiring cricketers, their families and anybody else who happens to be passing.

Sometimes the slightly grotty old pub so beloved of men, and reviled to the point of avoidance by women, has to face up to the indignity of a refurb, thus narrowing the gap between the sexes, leaving the old codgers to vanish into the sunset to find another beat up joint in which to reinvent their personalities.

Which is exactly what has happened here, making a strong case, it must be said, for renewal. The 18th century inn has lost none of its 18th century charm, but has acquired considerable new ability to offer a wider service, with Stansted Airport convenient but not obtrusive. And you can still play cricket.

There are now two first class restaurants, nine hotel rooms, private dining and meeting room, and the cuisine has extended out of all recognition. Lunch dishes mostly double up as starters or main courses, Fresh Scottish mussels cooked in a "Mariniere sauce" served with frites, Creamy smoked chicken pasta with pine nuts, red peppers, spring onion and tagliatelle and risotto of crayfish, caramelised red onion,
fresh herbs and parmesan shavings as some of the more popular dishes.

A good range of baguettes are available, desserts to go with either choice, including a notable selection of cheese, served with water biscuits and fruit chutney.

Dinner offers seared King scallops, sauteed snails in Ricard, and tempura of shrimps amongst the starters, before moving on to pan fried fillet of wild sea bass on crushed new potatoes with tomatoes, capers, lemon juice and dill. Grilled ostrich fillet on sautéed potato and red peppers with a mushroom duxelle and rosti, in close competition with fillet of beef served with mushroom duxelle in a puff pastry net with green peppercorn sauce, dauphinoise potato and Savoy cabbage.

Desserts are of the same interest and standard with spiced sticky toffee pudding and Madagascan vanilla ice cream topping the charts, hotly contested by apple and summer berry crumble with cinnamon ice cream.

One happy survivor from the cricketing hey-day is the quality of the beer, with Jennings Cumberland, Abbot Ale and Greene King IPA to name but three, strongly supported by the pub's own Punch microbrewery programme. Décor is full of environmentally enticing colours.

The wine cellar is well-stocked with a range of bottles that demonstrates a good nose at work offering loyal support to a batterie de cuisine that certainly deserves it.

Another practical advantage is that you can leave your car in the pub car park, grab a taxi to the airport, leaving your car there until your return. Those who have learnt the hard way that an airline ticket can sometimes be a bargain compared with the cost of parking at the airport will understand the advantages of this arrangement.

For further details see their Website.