The Moat House Pub, Acton Trussell

The Moathouse Pub

We all know that pub food is, well, just pub food. It's all about stale burgers, chicken in a basket and unpleasant curry.

Well, that's not the case at The Moathouse Pub in Acton Trussell. In fact, nothing could be further for the truth. In fact, if the Eating Out in Stafford Blog had an annual award for Best Pub Food in Stafford, then it would be won by this pub's interesting menu, full of well planned and well executed delicious food.

Yours truly enjoyed the Macaroni, which was served in a rich and deep cheese sauce, with broccoli, asparagus and, best of all, a crispy coated poached duck's egg. Now, don't get me wrong, macaroni would never be top of my favourite food lists under normal circumstances, in fact I considered having a sandwich instead, but in this case it was brilliant.

The duck's egg was an explosion of taste and texture. The egg white was tasty and perfectly complimented the coating and the egg yolk was simply phenomenal.

Mrs Eating Out in Stafford had a conservatively chosen but pleasantly delivered burger, which was served in a muffin bun with home-made coleslaw. Spare a moment's thought for the thrice cooked, hand cut chips, which were awesome. Cooked properly throughout unlike so many places (you know who you are) they were nothing short of the next stage in chip evolution.

Finally, our two children opted for the mini-sausages and creamy mash from the children's menu, which was probably the best put together kid's meal I've ever seen in a pub. Served with a selection of vegetables the whole thing was brilliantly and attractively arranged on the plate. Take note other pubs - this is how children's food should be done.

Overall it was nothing short of excellent - well done to The Lewis Partnership.

La Dolce Vita, Stone

La Dolce Vita. Neither this nor that.

I believe that, in order to be really good, a restaurant, pub or cafe just needs to know what it wants to be. If you want to be a caff (I use the spelling advisedly), then stick a load of caff food on your menu and serve everything with builder's tea. If you want to be a sophisticated Mediterranean, then your menu should feature lots of sophisticated Mediterranean food.

The trouble with Stone's La Dolce Vita is that it isn't quite sure what it wants to be. I visited on a Bank Holiday Monday with my wife, her grandmother and our two children. Me and the littlies chose from the a la carte menu, while my wife and her Nan opted for the set menu, which was a very cheap £7.99 for two courses.

However, whilst cheap, the set menu was made up of mostly school dinner style options; stew and dumplings, omelette and chips and sausage and mash. More caff than Mediterranean, if I'm being critical.

Furthermore, my choice from the a la carte menu; a hard-to-screw-up Quattro Formaggi, was uninspired. The base tasted suspiciously like it might have been from a packet. It had the tell tale two layer, doughy texture that you get in the supermarket packets of pre-rolled bases.

The cheese was a little bit too generous, again suggesting that the chef has grown used to pleasing a very traditional palate, and the choice of cheeses wasn't exciting.

That said, my two year old daughter proclaimed her identical pizza, 'very, very nice'. So even if you can't please all of the people, you can please some of them!

Mrs Eating Out in Stafford's sausage and mash was okay but swimming in gravy. Her Gran's conservatively chosen omelette wouldn't have been out of place in a builder's caff but was very, very generously portioned. In fact I'd say huge.

I forewent dessert but Mrs EOIS had the apple crumble and regretted it. Again served swimming, this time in something resembling school dinner custard, the crumble was doughy and rushed and the apple neither cooked nor crisp. The less said the better.

La Dolce Vita is a long way from expensive; our meal came to fifty pounds or so for five. In all honesty, I would have preferred to have paid more for a better meal.

But, just as a restaurant needs to know what it wants to be, you have to know what you want as a punter. Next time I feel like an uncomplicated omelette and chips for a reasonable price, I will head over to La Dolce Vita. But if I'm looking for Mediterranean, I'll stay away. There's nothing wrong with uncomplicated English food, but this restaurant could be so much more.

The Littleton Arms - Penkridge, Staffordshire

I don't know about you, but I hate that thing people do when they put a little bit of their meal onto a fork and thrust it into your face, exclaiming that you, 'simply must try this!'

If I had wanted to try it, I would have chosen it in the first place. Or I would have asked the waiter if he could interrupt my enjoyment of the delicately balanced dish I actually ordered by running from the kitchen with a steaming forkfull of another meal and thrusting it into my face. Or maybe, he could have simply thrown it at me while passing, perhaps from another guest's plate? Or perhaps just encouraged me to pick it from the floor as a scrap?

Any of these options would be just as out of context and annoying as being forced to try someone else's meal for a grumpy and obsessive miserablist such as I. 

Despite all that, I found myself trying to force share my own meal with my partner last time we visited The Littleton Arms; a little wonder, hidden away in Penkridge Town Square, near Stafford.

I visited on a Sunday and enjoyed the set price menu - as did my companions; Mrs Eating Out In Stafford and our two children, aged one and two.

I had a genuinely exquisite Wild Mushroom Gnochi as a main course followed by a chocolate and orange bread and butter pudding.

It was the former, with its piquant sauce and deliciously textured body that I dangled in front of Mrs EOiS as she attempted to enjoy her roast pork, which I'm informed was also excellent.

Happily, she isn't such a belligerent old git as I am and she happily tried it and declared it excellent.

Before the meal, we were presented  with a perfectly acceptable selection of breads, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A restaurateur who can go to his grave, content that he has taken the edge of his customer's hunger with any combination of bread, butter, olives, oil and garlic can do so a happy man in my opinion. Particularly if he did so, as in this case, without additional charge.

While we consumed said delicasies, the littlies entertained themselves with the children's menu, which has a suitably distracting word search and dot-to-dot on the reverse. And here lies my only criticism; if you give kids something to draw on, you have to give them pencils or crayons. Luckily I'm married to child care expert who is never without such items, otherwise there could have been big trouble in Littleton.   

After the menu, our two small people both had fish fingers and chips and even Jamie Oliver would have been proud of the home battered mini cod slices and hand cut chips they were presented with.

Both followed this with ice cream, while Mrs EOiS had an impressive looking chocolate and cherry Eaton mess for dessert. I was quite jealous. 

The Littleton Arms is well worth a visit and I'm led to believe it performs equally as impressively as a hotel.  

The Sunday Set Price menu is a great value £15 for two courses or £18 for three. Forced-sharing of food is optional. 

The Wolseley Arms, Wolseley Bridge, Stafford

Review to follow

The Yard, Stafford

Review to follow

Pizza Express, Market Square, Stafford

Review to follow