Millstone Inn at Mellor

We've been exploring the Lancashire countryside and have finally made our way to The Millstone at Mellor, a delightful country style hotel / inn with a reputation for great local food lovingly produced by the team lead by Anson Bolton.

I follow Anson on Twitter but he didn't know I was visiting until after the visit and we paid for our food, just in case you were wondering and also I haven't been requested to carry out a review.

The Millstone at Mellor is a village inn and restaurant serving the local community and visitors from near and far, housed in a lovely old coaching house the Millstone features both formal and informal dining areas. The emphasis is on hearty freshly produced food which features lots of local seasonal produce. Beef from the Trough of Bowland lamb from Pendle, poultry from Goosnargh and seasonal fruit and vegetables.

The menu is imaginative and extensive enough to have something for everyone, yet not too long that you worry about the freshness of the produce. Anson works with local suppliers to ensure that his "Inn season" specials menu features the freshest local seasonal produce.

Millstone at Mellor is situated in the Ribble Valley (just) and should definately feature on any food lovers list of must visits  if in the area. Another plus point is that this is a Thwaites house, so they have some wonderful lovely locally produced beers on tap, such as Wainwright ( Mr Lancashire Food's favourite) amongst others.

                             

So on to our visit, we arrived for lunch and were warmly greeted and seated in our choice of the informal bar area, the millstone has a lovely homely ambiance and we were soon joined by other diners, in fact by the time we were leaving things were pretty busy.

Having never visited and a little unsure of portion sizes we decided to dive straight into the mains on the daytime menu, although we were sorely tempted by the "Inn season" specials menu which sounded delicious. Intrigued by the fish finger bap on the menu,  I ordered this as my main course, where as Mr Lancashire Food plumped by the Bowland steak, kidney and Thwaites Wainwright ale pudding.

I loved my fish finger bap, homemade golden battered goujons of fish served on a soft bun,with little gem lettuce and Caesar dressing and capers ,with a wrapped lemon on the side, the dish was also served with thick cut chips and a dinky little dish of homemade potato salad. £7.95

Mr Lancashire Food's pudding was accompanied by chunky chips, proper mushy peas and ample quantities of gravy . £11.95

We both loved our mains, proper chips and great tasting fresh British food, I was particularly impressed by the potato salad, the best I have had in a long time. For afters we initially had decided to share, but on reading the tempting sweets menu, I ordered the apple and plum crumble which was served with local Huntley's ice cream and double cream. Mr Lancashire Food ordered the ice cream sundae, when it arrived he was taken back to his childhood, this was a proper sundae, three flavours of ice cream, whipped cream, toffee sauce and all topped off with a billowing marshmellowly meringue.Both £5.95 a portion.

What a great experience we had and good value too for the quality of food we received, I would whole heartily recommend a visit.