Manchester bloggers are a lovely lot on the whole, and we’re enjoying regular blog post swaps – so we each get to write to a new audience and learn a bit about each other.
For October it’s the turn of Jen, who wanted to mention a favourite place of mine outside the city, Huntley’s, which is also home to Barrica Wines – one of my favourite wine shops!
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Hi, I’m Jen and I blog over at English Rose from Manchester, about life, food, fashion and beauty. Today I’m guest posting here on Gin Fuelled Bluestocking, and I thought I’d share my experiences of a lovely restaurant in the middle of nowhere, here in the North West!
Huntleys Country Stores is based in Samlesbury and features a farm store selling local fresh produce and deli food, some small outlet boutiques selling wine, trinkets, antiques and clothing, and an award-winning restaurant. It’s a bit out the way so it’s not the kind of place you’d stumble across, but I’ve now eaten in the restaurant there twice so I decided to share my thoughts.
The restaurant is lovely and spacious over two floors, with bare stone walls and columns, wooden beams, huge windows overlooking vast fields and big wooden tables. There are also cosy corners with sofas, which would be great if you were stopping by for coffee and a cake. The ambience is really nice thanks to the peaceful surroundings and all of that indoor space, and there’s a live pianist playing during busier periods, which adds to the pleasant atmosphere.
The breakfast menu has lots of choice, but I went for their special offer – a small cooked breakfast with a hot drink for £4.95. Despite being their small breakfast I found it quite substantial, and I definitely wouldn’t need the bigger option! It included dry cured bacon, sausage, tomato, fried egg, mushrooms, beans, black pudding and toast and was all completely delicious! I even enjoyed the black pudding which I wouldn’t normally fancy, and the bread used for the toast in particular was amazing!
The lunch menu is great because it has plenty of clearly marked gluten-free and vegetarian options, which made choosing easy for the friend I was dining with who is a coeliac. She went for the gluten-free variant of the burger, which meant that it came without the bread but with a second burger as a replacement – which I thought was a great trade off!
I chose the breaded corned beef hash cake off the starter menu and added a side order of chips. The hash cake was delicious and warming, served with a poached egg and homemade brown sauce, and the chips were thick cut and hearty! They really do serve good homely farmhouse food here. Everything was very tasty and it’s fair to say that I did not leave there hungry!
Overall it’s a great place to stop by for a catch up with friends. The service is great but there’s no urgency here, so you can really take your time and have a nice relaxed meal before maybe popping into the farm stores to pick up some unusual food products. Personally I’ll be stopping by again, if only to put together some Christmas food hampers from the farm store for gifts! And did I mention, they also have an ice cream counter(?!)