The Gamekeeper's Inn, Threshfield

9:26am Friday 1st February 2008

With the growing problems of obesity being daily front-page news, I have to confess that "the fuller figure" (ladies) or the increasing waist-line (gentlemen) is part of the Johnston family lore!

There was the infamous occasion when - upon the conclusion of The Falkland Islands war - I vowed to wear my RAF officer's uniform to a Thanksgiving service.

As I had owned this for over 30 years, since when I was but 19, family watched hilariously as wifely help kneed me into it. All was well until I came to kneel down for the prayers.

The same is true of the family kilt, but - fortunately - a judicious realignment of the side-straps and pleats which accommodate a somewhat enlarged girth, do allow for gracious dining.

So what else would I sport to a Burns Night dinner on the 249th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth - a time when such dinners are common-place in places far distant from Scotland.

We braved gales and rain along the mile-long drive to The Gamekeeper's Inn, set within the Long Ashes Park at Threshfield, and never was a Burns Night dinner better served, more enjoyably savoured and memorably recalled.

A changed name and a new chef don't always bode well, but the set meal was excellent in all but a couple of minor ways - the piped background music surely would have been better if it had been Scottish music and my gaelic coffee might have been hotter.

Traditional Scotch Broth with barley found early approval, as did the haggis - meaty and well-seasoned - accompanied by bashed neeps and tatties, well-supported by a generous dram of whisky.

The roast sirloin of Aberdeen Angus beef came exactly as ordered, with its accompanying whisky and wild mushroom sauce.

Aberdeen Angus can be badly prepared and - annoyingly - poorly carved; this was done to perfection and generously cut.

We chose an £11.95 bottle of a Grauzan described as "a turbo-charged cabernet that drinks more like an expensive claret best reserved for the dinner-table", and so it proved to be.

An excellent clootie dumpling concluded the meal.

The gently-relaxing atmosphere, the excellent fare and the outstanding service made the bill of £39.90 remarkably good value for money: tomato juice at £1 a glass and liqueur coffee at £3.50 were extra.

We were reluctant to move, being relieved to find that the ladies pumping iron in the gym (glimpsed on the way in) had long since gone home.

Happily I would endorse the AA's rosette for good food awarded to The Gamekeeper. Clearly we must return.

Philip Johnston

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