The Stag's Head, Maidwell

I met Paul and others at the Stag's Head in Maidwell this evening for an ice-breaker evening for members of the new and as-yet unnamed band (hereinafter referred to as 'Way Out Gents' for in-joke reasons), and thought I'd get things going in this 'ere blog with a basic review of the place.

Maidwell is a small village in rural Northamptonshire on the A508 (which runs between Market Harborough and Northampton), just off junction 2 of the A14. It's out of the way, but not too far- it took us about 20 minutes to get there from Kettering, the nearest large town.

The pub is easy to find on the main road and has good parking facilities, with its own car park to the side and some off-road parking available in front of the pub. There is apparently a beer garden, but we sat inside. The staff were friendly and polite, but did seem a little bit scared of us. I'm not sure why!

Drinks prices seem about average, with my 3-drink round (two bottles of Bulmers and a diet Pepsi) costing a bit more than £8. On our side of the bar the only on-tap ale was Black Sheep, a nice beer, but possibly not providing much choice for those with a taste for real ales. It's possible that the other side of the bar had more on offer, but I didn't get the chance to test this theory due to the nature of our visit.

We tried the food too. Prices lie comfortably between the extra cheap 'gastropub' end of the scale and more expensive top-end pub restaurant prices: my chicken curry was priced at £10.75 and Emma's Haddock and chips came in at £8.75. Altogether, 5 main meals and 4 desserts came to £75 exactly, which averaged at £15 each. All of the dishes we had were well presented and acceptably portioned, although comment was made that the provision of chips was a little on the stingy side. Current menus are available in the Food & Beverages section of the Stag's Head's website.

It was a nice evening out, and the venue fitted the purpose well. I'll probably end up over there again at some point, and I'm not disappointed by that prospect.

For more information visit their website at http://www.stagshead-maidwell.co.uk