Tag: ploughman’s lunch

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Disappointing Ploughman’s Lunch

Having had a nice Ploughman’s Lunch at Killerton House when I visited there back in February, on a recent visit to Stourhead, I decided I would have it again.

What I got was a little different to what I had before.

This plate had two chunks of cheese, one cheddar, and one stilton. There was some sliced apple chunks, two slice of pork pie, red onion chutney, two pickled onions, a pickled gherkin, and a rather limp salad. There was no bread and no coleslaw.

The cheese and pork pie was nice, but the salad did not look very fresh. It was the start of the lunch time, which made me think, was it yesterday’s salad. The pork pie was very good and better than the sausage roll I had at Killerton.

I didn’t question the missing bread, as I thought maybe this one didn’t have bread. However when I left the cafe I saw a photo of the lunch on the wall and it had bread. I would have complained, but the place was packed and there were long queues, and I thought, what would they do. Same reason why I didn’t complain about the salad.

I probably would order this again though, I think the issues were a one off.

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Ploughman’s Lunch at Killerton House

Killerton House

My usual go to when eating at a National Trust property cafe is a cheese scone, or soup, or even both. On a recent visit to Killerton House in Devon, in the Killerton Kitchen Cafe they had a range of lunch items, including one I hadn’t seen before, which was a Ploughman’s Lunch.

I did like the sound of that, and I thought for £11 was good value for money for somewhere like a National Trust cafe.

I ordered my ploughman’s and took a seat. They had a buzzer system, which I have seen before, but rather than go and collect my food when it buzzes, they use the system to bring the food to your table. Yes, you could use wooden spoons, but this means you don’t need to wait around or hope no one nicks your table when you collect your food.

This was a large plate of food, and let’s get the initial disappointment out of the way which was the three pieces of celery. Not that for some people this isn’t an issue, I have never been a fan of celery, raw or cooked. I guess for most aficionados of the ploughman’s lunch (or even cheese and biscuits) celery is seen as a natural accompaniment. For me, no it isn’t. Well that’s leave that and see what else was on the plate.

There were two chunks of cheese, one cheddar, and one stilton. There was some sliced apple chunks, some sliced sausage roll (guess that was standing in for the pork pie), coleslaw, a few lost leaves of salad, red onion chutney, two pickled onions, and a pickled gherkin. Alongside was some bread and butter.

Ploughman’s Lunch

Overall I was pleased with the plate of food, well obviously not pleased with the celery, but the rest of it was looking good.

Both pieces of cheese were delicious, this was a lovely piece of mature cheddar and I also enjoyed the stilton. If you don’t like stilton then this isn’t going to be the best ploughman’s lunch for you.

The sausage roll was a good stand in for a pork pie and was full of meaty flavour. I liked the pickles and the fresh apple as well.

I probably could have done with some more bread, but that (and the celery) is my only criticism.

This was a nice plate of food and it made for a delicious lunch.