Bear Grills bistro

At The Bear Hotel, Market Place, Devizes

(01380) 722444

Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner

Little Bears menu children

Vegetarian options

Parking in Station Road car park nearby

IT is nearly five years since I first reviewed the Bear Grills bistro at The Bear Hotel in Devizes. Then it was newly created and was bringing a different style of dining to the town.

Since then it's more laid back approach to creating high quality British food in a relaxed environment was new to Devizes and quickly caught on.

Now it has more competition and when we visited on a Thursday evening it lacked some of the atmosphere that has previously been discernible. Maybe it was because Terry Wogan had stopped by for breakfast at The Bear that same morning and there had been enough excitement for one day.

The menu has undergone a recent makeover and not, to my mind, entirely for the good.

One disappointment was that the complimentary bread basket and balsamic vinegar dip not longer made an appearance.

But a nice addition are sharing platters as an option for starters that are reasonably priced at between £9 and £11 and are plenty for two. My husband and daughter shared one of Parma ham, sub-blush tomatoes, feta, basil oil and flatbread for £9.50 and were both full of praise.

My son and I both went for a vegetable tart with mozzarella cheese as a starter and again were impressed both with the quantity and the quality.

Not all the main courses though were so successful. My rump of lamb, dauphinoise potato, honey glazed carrot, seasonal greens, rosemary and orange jus for £16.95 was rather bland and I could not taste rosemary or orange in the jus.

My husband liked his cod with mashed potatoes and roasted peppers and my son quickly demolished his pork tenderloin dish. But the burger ordered by my daughter was a bit overcooked and rather dry.

The puddings are reasonably priced at £5.95 and include things such as lemon tarte, meringue and cheesecake but we passed on these.

Service was attentive with manager Lee Fenn helping out with the drink orders.