The Maynard, Main Road, Nether Padley, Grindleford
THREE things cross my mind whenever I think of the Maynard Arms Hotel at Grindleford.
The first is that it isn't called that any more, just The Maynard, in that irritating way these days of changing the names of everything.
The second is that once I had an absolutely super Sunday lunch there, waxed lyrical about it in print and got the biggest batch of angry letters and phone calls I've ever received after a review.
The staff couldn't cope with the rush and tipped gravy down people's shirt fronts. One man rang to complain the kitchen couldn't cook his beef properly "and they had to do it again for me at the side of the table."
I explained that they had cooked the meat pink, as befits Britain's noble culinary heritage (the French call us rosbifs because we once ate it bloody) but had cooked it on for him, presumably to overdoneness, in a chafing dish.
The third is that the dining room (a bit dark in the decor department) has one of the best chews with a view in the area. You look through the picture windows down the lawn, past the fountain and over Derbyshire's rolling hills and moors.
Actually, from where we're sitting we can't actually see that much. The restaurant is full of big parties and we're up on a little dais overlooking them all.
But if I twist round I can see a big mural which shows how the view towards Hathersage would look if the trees weren't there.
I'm having roast beef because it's Sunday lunch but don't get asked how
I'd like it cooked.
Any chance of pink I ask one of the two front of house men who are so alike they could be twins. "I'll ask the kitchen," he says.
The Maynard now has two AA rosettes - the guide is so inconsistent with one rosette that it only starts to mean something on two - which is down to head chef Ben Hickinson who has worked his way up in the kitchen.
Now Sunday lunch is a relaxed kind of day with relaxed menus - you really don't want arty-farty food on a Sunday - and is often the day head chefs slope off, leaving their sous in charge. Not Ben. He's cooking.
With some, I get the feeling that they don't regard Sunday lunch as proper cooking but it gives the more thoughtful a chance to show their mettle.
It's a tenner for a main and a fiver each for starters and desserts which is pretty reasonable.
You can have soup, smoked salmon and prawn tian, sweetcorn fitters with hazelnut and shallots or, as we do, confit of duck and a Wensleydale parfait.
The cheese has been crumbled with, I should imagine, some creme fraiche, herbed up, pressed into a cylinder and presented with a walnut and apple chutney - simple flavours, done simply.
My duck leg is tender although the skin could be crisper and to be honest it doesn't have a great deal of taste so the starring role is left to the salad, shredded beetroot flavoured with cumin.
The mains offer a couple of roasts, including beef, salmon, chicken and a couple of veggie dishes, which is one more non-carnivores usually get to chose from: a leek tart and an aubergine stack.
I love my beef. It's rib and if the waiter asked about pinkness (always difficult but it can be done) the kitchen said no. I'm not that bothered because this meat has been sourced and cooked well.
A single slice has been cut thickly, tastes ultra-beefy and is as tender as a baby's bum, not the gristly, stringy meat you often encounter with this cut.
It sat on some very decent roast potatoes, was escorted by a crisp Yorkshire pudding and came with a first class gravy. Now I am a gravy man and this was so full of the meat's essences it almost jellied. If I'd been in less formal surroundings I would have called for more and a hunk of bread to soak it up.
My wife's breast of chicken was as chickeny as the rib was beefy, this time on mash with pancetta and a mushroom cream sauce.
Sweets are good, if my proper baked custard tart and my wife's properly wobbly whiskey and honey panna cotta were anything to go by. "Irish whiskey is it, with an 'e'?" we asked. There needed to be just a little bit more of it in the pudding to tell.
After my meal I went for stroll around the lawn to admire the view.
With food, coffee and wine it cost 55.30. And it still says Maynard Arms Hotel on the card receipt.
THE MAYNARD
- Main Road, Nether Padley, Grindleford, S32 2HE. Tel: 01433 630 321.
- Open lunch and dinner (also bar meals). Credit cards. Wines by the glass. Disabled toilets. Large car park.
- Sunday lunch rating (out of five): ****
Sunday lunch rating. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
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