Bell & Cross

Pub Details

Address
Holy Cross
Holy Cross
Worcestershire
DY9 9QL
Telephone
(01562) 730319
Opening Times
Weekdays
12 - 3, 6 - 11
Sundays
12 - 10.30

Location

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Licensee information

Licensee name
Roger Narbet
Enterprise

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Pub Details | Licensee information | Good Pub Guide Recommended | Good Pub Guide Food | Awards | Good Pub Information |  Rating | Comments

Good Pub Guide Recommended

Super food, staff with a can-do attitude, delightful old interior and pretty garden
Successful as a dining pub yet still extremely welcoming if you're just popping in for a drink, this charmingly well kept place is run with meticulous attention to every detail to ensure that you have a most enjoyable visit. It has an unspoilt early 19th-c layout with five beautifully decorated little rooms and a kitchen opening off a central corridor with a black-and-white tiled floor. Rooms offer a choice of carpet, bare boards, lino or nice old quarry tiles, a variety of mood, from snug and chatty to bright and airy, and individual décor in each: theatrical engravings on red walls, nice sporting prints on pale green walls, and racing and gundog pictures above a black panelled dado. Most of them have coal fires and two have small serving bars, with Enville, Kinver Edge, Wye Valley6 and a guest such as Timothy Taylors Landlord on handpump, around 50 wines (with 14 by the glass), organic soft drinks and a range of coffees; daily papers; background music. A lovely garden has a spacious lawn, and the terrace offers pleasant views.

Good Pub Guide Food

Food is quite a draw here so it's worth booking, especially for the popular Sunday lunch. As well as lunchtime baguettes and panini, delicious dishes from a changing seasonal menu might include piri piri king prawn skewer, chicken liver and port parfait with red onion jam, fish cakes with white wine, prawn and chive sauce, sausage and mash, yellow thai curry with chicken, carrot, corinader, jasmine rice and crackers, battered cod and chips, calves liver with smoked bacon and thyme rissole potatoes, spinach, ricotta and gnocchi with rocket, pomodori and pesto cream, sautéed chicken breast with porcini mushroom sauce, and puddings such as bakewell tart with raspberry mascarpone, orange crème brûlée with brandy snap biscuit and chocolate orange ice-cream and white chocolate and passion fruit profiteroles with popping candy.

Bar food times: 12 - 2 (7 Sun) , 6.30 - 9; not Sun evening

Awards

Good Pub Information

Dogs allowed in: Dogs Bar

Rating

  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
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Rating: 3/5 (660 votes cast)

Reader Comments

Ian Shorthouse

Friday 06 May 2011 3:01:52 pm

The inside of this pub is very small - it's like going for a drink in someone's lounge

sarabelle

Saturday 10 April 2010 11:09:33 am

If this is "The Good Pub Guide's" Pub of the Year then the publication should consider changing it's name. I travelled some way to go for lunch and there is nothing remotely "pubby" about this place. I would say it's more a restaurant with a tiny bar area for a drink. My heart sank at the expensively printed menus indicating that it doesn't change too often and reminiscent of those omnipresent "pubs" next to a Little Chef on every main road and roundabout. There were some daily dishes which I chose and which was nicely cooked and presented but the food and the whole place was formulaic. Absolutely no atmosphere. Staff friendly and welcoming, no complaints there, apart from service being a little too brisk and referred to as "madam" the whole time, but really like being in an "adults only" Enterprise Inn, which is exactly what it was. My local pub has roaring log fires, home-cooked, regularly changing, food, great selection of ales etc and would knock this place into a cocked hat. I would love to know the criteria for winning "Pub of the Year". Is it sponsored by Enterprise Inns?

mads

Thursday 26 November 2009 7:13:04 pm

Having visited many times in the past in the evening, as a couple or in a group, I would agree that you came away feeling that you'd had a special time!
We have recently visited at lunchtime as a party of 4 and as a party of 13 celebrating a 60th wedding anniversary. On both these occasions the food was up to standard but there was a distinct lack of service. There was a lack of attention to detail; we had to ask to order drinks, meals served but with a delay before the vegetables arrived, long delay between courses etc.
We left the 60th apologising to our party as we had recommmended the venue and other than 4 of us, people had travelled from afar. We felt let down.

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