9:11am Thursday 22nd July 2010
By Stephanie Tye
CONSIDERING my boyfriend wasn’t particularly keen on going out for dinner on Monday night, he certainly had a big enough smile on his face when we left The Pig on the Hill.
And seeing as how his steak had been perfectly cooked and he finished off the meal with the biggest slice of chocolate fudge cake you have ever seen it’s not surprising.
For those who aren’t familar with Old Town’s latest pub, it’s the new name of the former Pipers Arms (or Hobgoblin or The Fountain...it depends how far your knowledge of Swindon dates back).
It was fairly quiet in the pub when our party of four arrived and so we found no problems in finding a table and quickly set about perusing the menu.
As we were in The Pig on the Hill, and judging by the menu, sausages are set to be their speciality, I opted for pig bangers which were served with mash (£6.95). There was a choice of three sausages to pick from – Aberdeen Angus, pork with granny apple or Cumberland – which was what I ordered.
My fellow diners ordered the 10oz rib-eye steak with vegetables instead of salad (£10.95) and a side order of onion rings (£1.95), a mixed grill (£12.95) and pan fried salmon fillet (£6.95).
Other choices on the menu include homemade burger, parsnip, sweet potato and red onion bake and warm chicken Caesar salad (all £6.95).
If you have little ones in your party the pub has a ‘piglets’ menu for them but if they see something on the main menu they like then just ask and it should be possible to make up a piglet serving.
Anyone who has ordered a steak in a pub knows that it is a tense time as you wait to see if the chef has cooked it to your specification – and ours (one medium-rare and one well-done) came out cooked to perfection.
Both meals were generous with a mountain of chips, mushroom and tomato on both.
The pan fried salmon, which was served with a hearty helping of new potatoes and salad, went down well too.
In all honesty I was a little disappointed with my pig bangers compared with the other dishes being tucked into at our table. The sausages were slightly overcooked for my taste (but you could tell they were good quality sausages) and I prefer my mash to be thicker than it was. The gravy it was served with was very tasty and was the perfect amount.
Two of us decided we still had room for pudding and ordered a warm chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream and a syrup sponge – which was was originally going to be a strawberry shortcake but they’d sold out (both £3.75). Generous portions again and the cake was a big hit.
Our total bill (which included a round of three alcoholic drinks and one soft drink) came to £57.15.
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