Combermere Arms

Roomy and attractive beamed pub successfully mixing good drinking side with imaginative all-day food; rear and front garden

Since the last edition of the [I]Guide[I] the running this attractively laid out pub has been taken on by the former deputy manager, and it continues its winning ways. The interior combines light and space with a cosy feel. Trademark Brunning & Price furnishings and décor take in their usual eclectic mix of dark wood furniture and rugs on wooden (some old and some new oak) or stone floors, cream walls filled with prints, deep red ceilings, and open fires. Friendly staff extend an equally good welcome to drinkers and diners, with both aspects of the business seeming to do well here. Half a dozen real ales are usually from smaller brewers such as Salopian, Sharps, Thwaites, Weetwood, Wincle and Wychwood. They also stock around 100 whiskies and 17 wines by the glass from an extensive list; a few board games. During summer evenings, they put candles on tables in the pretty, well tended garden.

A well as interesting sandwiches and ploughman's, the daily-changing menu of enjoyable food often gives a contemporary twist to a traditional dish and might include starters such as shropshire blue cheese, pear and walnut tart or tempura squid, ‘light bites' like salt cod, potato and sweet onion baked omelette, and main courses such as sausage and spring onion mash, beer-battered haddock with mushy peas, roast butternut squash, red pepper, dolcelatte and spinach lasagne and their best-selling home-made Weetwood steak and ale pie; puddings such as rhubarb crumble with rhubarb and ginger ice-cream, white chocolate cheesecake, apricot bakewell tart, and local ice-creams; british cheeseboard featuring local smoked cheshire.