Inn @ West End, The

As I have remarked on a number of previous occasions, every so often one comes across a restaurant, pub, whatever where you know that they have seen the light and that all is well, and likely to stay that way. Here at The Inn is such a one. Just to look at the exterior is to know straight away that this is a proper pub, where things are done well or not at all.

Gerry and Ann Price have been at the pub since the turn of the millennium and I doubt if there has ever been a moment when it looked back. Serving some 25,000 meals a year to a pretty regular clientele has to prove something, even if only that having a wine merchant as landlord can be very useful.

Various menus abound. The winter menu offers six starters, four starters/light bites, and eight main courses. An English crumpet with hot smoked Scottish salmon, scrambled egg and chives, Cumberland sausages with mash, spinach and onion gravy, or lightly curried smoked haddock kedgeree with a poached egg are but three of the dishes which bring people back to The Inn.

In fact Gerry's background ensures that plenty of game and fish find their way on to the menu and a popular dish in the spring features a selection of fresh fish with a smoked salmon and herb beurre blanc, served with purple sprouting and new potatoes. The chances are that the vegetables could have come from his own prolific garden which is bursting with goodness.

On their way back from the coast collecting fish, the team not infrequently call at Hyden Farm, a small organic family farm on the edge of the South Downs Way in the Meon Valley, Hampshire, to pick up lambs, pigs, guinea fowl and ducks.

The weekend menu offers two courses for £25 and could include wild Scottish mussels with cider, rosemary and home made bread, followed by confit of duck with braised red cabbage, parsnip purée and a local honey and thyme jus.

Prices are marginally higher than elsewhere, but I can hear Gerry explaining the reasons why that is the case and would have no cause to query them. A pub that does food on this scale is measured by just the same criteria as any other, but those that do it as well as this one take pride in their operation and are entitled to charge more as well as recover their extra costs.

Rest assured that the phrase 'cobbler's bairns' does not apply here and Gerry's expertise in wines shows through clearly. Hear the Michelin Guide; 'Well-prepared to modern British standards and good value lunches in this smartly renovated Victorian roadside pub; occasional wine tastings from a diverse cellar'.

Nowadays nobody seems to be able to face life without a mission statement. The Inn combines humour with brevity - 'Where great food, fine wine and a jolly atmosphere are all compulsory'.

See you there?

Their constantly updated  Website is a useful source of additional information, including the wonderfully down to earth letters from the Landlord.