Memories of the 1970s
5:31pm Thursday 12th January 2012 in Eating Out
Memories of the 1970s
EAT AT: The Crown at Stratton, Ermin Street, Stratton St Margaret, Swindon SN3 4NL Tel: 01793 827530 www.thecrownatstratton.co.uk
THE Crown has been a fixture on Swindon’s food map for as long as I can remember.
Growing up, our family would eat out once a year – always on Mother’s Day – and it was invariably The Crown we chose for our much-anticipated prawn cocktail, gammon steak and knickerbocker glory.
So I was interested to see how the place had changed in the ... ahem... 25 years since I last raised a glass of Liebfraumilch to my mother at the former Berni Inn.
And the answer is, not an awful lot.
I remember a cosy restaurant with lots of nooks and crannies. Similar, if not the same, little hidey holes still exist and we settled ourselves into one to escape the football showing on TV.
I remember a grand, arched entrance, which helped to heighten the excitement of our annual outing, and that’s still exactly the same, if my memory serves me well.
Above all, I remember a mouth-watering menu of mostly grilled food; not only the oh-so-fancy gammon steak with its ring of pineapple, but rump steaks and sirloins and even the mighty mixed grill, which only my father was man enough to tackle.
That too, I am pleased to say, is still on the menu today, and true to tradition, dad – in this case, my husband – decided to take it on.
We waited patiently, and then not-so-patiently, for our food and were on the verge of sending out a search party after 45 minutes when it arrived, the huge 20oz meat feast sizzling on the plate.
Included were a sizeable rump steak, a pork chop, a chicken breast, a sausage and some black pudding, not to mention a fried egg, chips, peas and onion rings, all for £11.95. It looked as insurmountable to me today as it did all those years ago, but the man of the house just beamed and wolfed down the lot.
In the absence of gammon steak, I chose a chicken and leek pie (£7.95), with mash and vegetables. The pie looked huge, but when I lifted the flaky lid, the filling only came halfway up the dish. Personally, I was fine with that, as it was rich and very tasty, but others with larger appetites might have been disappointed.
Our son stuck with his tried and tested favourite and had the Crown burger (£8.95), which came piled high and swamped in chips.
In our eagerness, we’d also ordered cheesy garlic bread (£3.95) to come alongside our meals, but we really didn’t need it at all. A giant, greasy portion, it went largely uneaten, but we tasted enough to know it was very, very garlicky.
The Crown at Stratton has been feeding hungry travellers since 1868 – even before my time – and the food is still worth travelling for.
I wonder if they are taking bookings for Mother’s Day?
– MICHELLE TOMPKINS
