World Foodie Guide

The husband and I lunched on fish and chips here last year when we stayed in the pretty village of Bosham, Sussex, the night before Goodwood Revival classic car racing weekend. Bosham is lovely, but being so tiny, the options for dining out are limited to about four places. As we didn’t like the Millstream where we had dinner last year, I booked dinner at the 300 year old Anchor Bleu waterside pub instead.

When the weather is good, it’s hard to get the outdoor seats – the popular ones are on the raised terrace round the back, facing the water (during high tide). Despite the freezing cold, we managed to last one drink before retreating back into the warmth.

I’m not sure what the Anchor Bleu is like on normal days, as I’ve only ever been on the day before Goodwood, when mostly non-English conversations can be heard from international classic car enthusiasts descending upon the surrounding villages around Goodwood. Nevertheless, it’s a cosy pub that serves lunch and dinner.

The system of ordering goes like this. There’s a blackboard listing the lunch dishes, and another the dinner dishes. You order both food and drink at the bar, then the food is brought to your table. If you want to order something else, you have to get up off your chair and walk over to the bar following the server who has just taken your dirty dishes away, tell him what you would like when he is back in position behind the bar, then walk back to your table and wait for it to be brought to you. Somewhat pedantic in my opinion, as the man could just as easily have taken our dessert order while he was clearing our dishes at our table. We even had a tab, so it wasn’t as if we had to even pay for it first. A quirky tradition that non-locals might find hard to grasp…

Anyway, back to the food. Or rather, the extremely long wait for the food. We kept trying to remind ourselves that we were in a country pub, not London, and that we should relax and enjoy ourselves. After waiting nearly an hour, I couldn’t resist enquiring, very politely of course, after our dinner. Miraculously, the man returned from the kitchen about a minute later with two plates. The chef had apparently cooked the husband’s fish with prawns when he had asked for it without them, and so had to start from scratch again. That was understandable, but a word from someone even 30 minutes earlier would have been much appreciated.

My portion of grilled pork steak with onion gravy and mashed potatoes was huge. The pork was a little on the dry side, while the mash could have been creamier and less lumpy, so thank goodness there was plenty of gravy to help wash the food down. But I was hungry and despite my comments, demolished the lot. The husband’s baked cod with mornaise sauce, and a side serving of chips, was properly done, according to him. Dessert of sticky toffee pudding with ice cream was disappointing. It was another large portion, but not moist enough, so that even the sticky toffee sauce didn’t help. The husband’s large portion (yet again) of cheese and biscuits came without the biscuits, as they didn’t have any, but the substitute seeded bread was very fresh.

It’s not the best pub food in the world, but what I can say is that if you’re after large, hearty portions with lots of beer in a lovely country pub, then go and visit the Anchor Bleu. I did like the relaxed atmosphere there, and even though the service was somewhat slow, everyone was very friendly. If I go back to Bosham next year, I’m sure we’ll be visiting the Anchor Bleu again.

10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average

All the England restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide

Contact details:
Anchor Bleu
High Street
Bosham
West Sussex
PO18 8LS
Tel: 01243 573956

Opening: 11.30am – 11pm, (noon-10pm Sunday)

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: British, dining out, England, English, food, pub, restaurant review, restaurants, travel, traveleating