TO offer someone a carvery is responsibility. And many restaurants and eateries across the UK mess it up.
You’re serving up meats - that should be quality - along with a range of vegetables - all needed to be cooked just right - as well as gravy, the mystery that is Yorkshire pudding, and roast potatoes!
Roast potatoes… We could write a whole article just on roasties. Fluffy, soft, tender, crisp, crunchy – anything but undercooked and soggy!
The Golden Lion, one of Penarth’s finest pubs, is putting its reputation for fine beers on the line by offering up a new carvery every Sunday.
The John Bassett establishment on Glebe Street is a staple on CAMRA’s good ale guide (Campaign for Real Ales). Now, the pub’s saying as well as quenching your thirst, it's going to feed you too, and it does! In what has to be one of the cutest most civilised carvery’s I’ve ever been to.
Normally a carvery means long queues in front of huge countertops jammed with ugly tin containers of ever-refilled mounds of potatoes, carrots, parsnips and peas.
At the Golden Lion, they are doing it differently, with a touch of class.
The meat – beef and pork - Yorkshires and delicious stuffing balls are beautifully presented at the end of the bar behind a squeaky clean clear screen. You can have your choice of either, or all (we chose the latter).
Then you go to a table where, in sleek ceramic black pots, you’ll find what can only be described as the biggest carrots and parsnips in south Wales. There are also peas and broccoli.
Then, behind the table, elegantly presented, are a number of dishes with all the classic sauces – mint, horseradish, and apple sauce!
Watch the video below as we pour the gravy on the carvery!
And of course, there’s a huge jug of delicious gravy to bring it all together, but what about the roast potatoes?
They were big (like everything with the quaint carvery) and delicious!
You can satisfyingly munch your way through this feast for a very reasonable £9.99 – plus, you’ll be sitting in the cradle of good thoughts knowing the pint you’re washing down your food with is CAMRA accredited.
The Golden Lion began the new carvery with a trial run on October 8.
We went to the first public opening of the carvery on October 15.
The carvery runs every Sunday from 1pm to 6pm, with booking essential.
Our verdict: Get on the blower, call landlord Mr Harper and go to the quaintest yet hugely satisfying new carvery at the Golden Lion.
The Golden Lion is located at 69, Glebe Street, Penarth.
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