Eat at the Castle
Recommendation added: 28/05/2007 16:40
By: katygriff (YSUK rating +504)katygriff has been thanked 4 times for this contribution
"I went down to Portsmouth for a wedding and on the Saturday we had six hours to go until we had to be there and after the four hour drive down there we were starving. I was always on the lookout for places to see and eat and when I saw a tourist sign for Rowland's castle I thought we may as well go. I thought there would be a castle but it turns out it is just a little village name. While we were there though we spotted a really sweet little pub called the castle inn and we thought we might as well get some food while we there and it was quite a pleasant experience.
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What is the Castle Inn?
It is a small pub which has quite a traditional feel about it and is nice because it is set back from any main roads and is in this sweet little village that is well sign posted and for good reason as this inn is absolutely gorgeous.
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Where is it?
1 Finchdean Road
Rowland's Castle
Hampshire
PO9 6DA.
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Location:
I think location is great for this inn as it is in a very picturesque area with lots of greenery around and the area is well sign posted so they do get a lot of visitors. We were speaking to the girl who was serving behind the bar and she said that they are always busy between 12 and 2 in the afternoon and then in the evening from about 6. From inside the inn you get nice views of outside which is basically just nice and green and outside you are right in the countryside which is fantastic.
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Parking:
The parking area is not huge and is set just behind the Inn. I think you can get about twenty cars in there though which I suppose would fill the Inn so it's not that bad. There are no defined spaces and I think that is why it appears to be really small as it depends how people park to how many cars you can get in there.
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Outside Appearance:
From outside on the road it seems like a very nice traditional Inn. When you get around the back the car park is quite sweet and there are lots of outside eating areas which offer you very nice views but because it was raining when we were there nobody could really eat outside.
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Inside Appearance:
The bar is quite central to the whole room and then there are two areas. As you walk in through the back entrance you are straight into the restaurant which has a very nice look to it with bright wooden furniture and nice decorations on the wall and a real coal fire in the centre of the room. There is a blackboard up so you can see all of the food on offer and they have a selection of about twenty courses.
If you walk to the top of the restaurant there is another door which leads you to the bar area which is basically where you go to drink only and not eat. It did look quite nice in there and was very busy but as we were starving we stayed in the restaurant area. I should note that I think it is a non smoking place as you couldn't see or smell cigarette smoke at all which was lovely.
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Drinks:
It is quite a big bar so there are lots of drinks on offer and they even had my Apple and mango J20 that I can never seem to get from anywhere for some reason. The drinks are priced as standard so £3 for my J20 and £1.50 for my fiancés lemonade.
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Food:
The selection was great and I was surprised to see that there was a good selection of vegetarian dishes as not many places seem to have loads but this inn seemed to make sure that everybody was catered for. All main meals were priced at £5 – 9 so very reasonable and I couldn't actually see any starters on offer.
When the food arrived they were quite big servings so you were definitely full by the time you had finished. I had a vegetable chilli which was delicious and Dave had a really nice cod and chips which although you would expect it to be quite greasy it was actually not which was unexpected so very nice. Everything on the plates were nicely set out so they take care over presentation here.
The puddings were all at £4 each and although we didn't try any we saw somebody have one and it looked lovely. They only had choices of about 5 but hey were all nice choices like toffee and apple crumble and chocolate fudge cake.
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Verdict:
I actually think the Castle Inn is very nice and I am so glad that we found this place as it was a nice atmosphere and served good and delicious food and that was just what we needed. I think the prices are right they have a good way of doing things with people just interested in drinking separated from the eating area and I think they managed to make sure that if I am ever in this area again I would revisit.
In conclusion I am going to give this inn top marks as I think it was really nice and did a good job at making sure people feel comfortable there. I know places like this in little villages that do treat locals differently to people visiting but here although it was filled with local people it was different as you felt ok there. I would recommend if you are in this area.
Thanks for reading.
Xxx"
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