Red Lion Inn

Another venture by the Rutland Inn Company, designed to bring first class local produce and British foods to a wider audience through the re-opening of village pubs that have closed their doors. The refurbishment at The Red Lion Inn has taken a look back to recreate the warm and welcoming atmosphere of a traditional British Inn with the result that those with happy memories of pubs the way they used to be are likely to be delighted. It may or may not be true that the death warrant for King Charles I was signed at the inn, but the place certainly has the smack of history about it.

Confirmation of this can be found in the fact that it has been voted Michelin?s Pub of the Year 2008 and The Good Pub Guide?s Inn of the Year 2008, but two of the latest in a galaxy of such tributes from those who are in a position to judge.

On the culinary front look for well-tried dishes such as ham hock terrine with home-made chutney, smoked haddock, Welsh rarebit, bubble and squeak, and jam roly-poly with proper custard. The emphasis is on local produce: sausages from the village butcher, game from the Belvoir Estate, dairy, beef, lamb and pork from local farms and all served with a warm Rearsby loaf at the table.

For cheese buffs there are local cheeses with both Cropwell Bishop and Colston Bassett Stiltons. The menu also offers pub foods with excellent Rearsby Bread sandwiches and to show even more local loyalty Mrs King's Melton Mowbray pork pies, fresh with their home-made chutney and pickled onions are always available. At lunchtimes a two or three course meal might yield spinach soup with nutmeg cream, Dexter beef sausages with sauté potatoes and onion marmalade, finishing with Red Lion bread and butter pudding served with crème anglaise.

A typical dinner menu could start with pub cured gravadlax with soused cucumber, Red Lion eggs Benedict from Sherricliffe Farm, or splendid tomato soup  with spiced cream. Main courses span a wide range of attractive dishes including Lincolnshire sausages with grain mustard mash and onion gravy, venison pie with Toft's Hill blackberry jus, or roast monkfish with a bean cassoulet and crispy bacon. In season watch out for that wonderful bird, roast partridge from the Vale of Belvoir, with chestnut cabbage, pear and bread sauce.

The quince is a real old English fruit, difficult to find these days, but here it comes as a compôte to partner a crème brûlée, assuming you have not already yielded to the Rearsby treacle tart with clotted cream and blackberries. A veritable Aladdin's cave of interesting and very well priced wines are more than likely to tickle the noses of even the most hardened wine buffs, and their listing under their natures rather than the more traditional headings makes for quick identification. I particularly liked 'full, fruity and flavoursome reds' - but then I would.

They take reservations for the dining room but also have a lounge area with a dining table in it which they save for 'chance customers'.  The bar not only offers well kept local ales but also a superb selection of speciality bottled beers and ciders available by the glass to have with your meal, all more than equal to the challenges imposed by an imaginative menu.

With friendly, knowledgeable and informative staff and a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, it is no wonder that it was an almost instant success and has already been given a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

More information is available on their Website, including menus and details of their wines and ales.