Eating Out: The Gold Cup at Nether Silton

It’s right up there with Middle Wallop, Wetwang, Piddletrentide, No Place and, of course, our very own Thornton le Beans, a curiosity which so charmed the travel writer, anglophile and sometime Yorkshireman Bill Bryson that in his seminal Notes from a Small Island about his journey round this singular isle he said he wished to be buried there.

Nether Silton is very close to Over Silton and the A19 near Northallerton, tucked into a fold of the North York Moors. Pretty by name and pretty by nature with its moorland stone houses and, a little surprisingly, a pub.

Surprising only because the village is very small and apart from the neighbouring Silton there’s not a lot round here save for cattle, sheep, pasture and moor.

Despite its isolation the Gold Cup Inn hangs in there. It has been under new management for the last year and as we somehow hadn’t visited in the past we couldn’t say what may have changed with the new regime.

The name is derived from a famous horse race which used to be staged annually at the long-gone Hambleton course at the top of Sutton Bank back in the 1700s. The inn may not be as old as that but it certainly retains a traditional feel.

At some point, it looks as if someone decided they would give it the full contemporary gastro-pub overhaul but then chickened out at the last minute and left it largely as it was.

There’s nothing about the décor to frighten the horses – running in the Gold Cup or elsewhere – but the overall impression is just a little underwhelming.

Arriving for a late-ish Sunday lunch it was rather quiet in the bar and not exactly jumping in the restaurant either but the one front-of-house/bar person and waitress welcomed us warmly enough, served our drinks and showed us to a comfortable table in the restaurant. We could have eaten in the bar if we’d wished.

The Gold Cup in the wonderfully-named Nether Silton

We were a foursome, with Adrian and Bev joining us. Adrian is the Danby Wiske Yorkshire Beer Festival impresario who knows his beer. I mean he really knows his beer in comparison with lightweights like me and he pronounced the Wainwright bitter to be in excellent order. Which was a relief. You don’t want to take an aficionado like him out to lunch somewhere where they serve rubbish beer, do you?

Bev is just as discerning, by the way, but just not about beer.

We ordered two starters, Adrian going for the sauteed mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce and I plumping for the garlic and herb prawns in a garlic tomato sauce. The ladies saved themselves for the main event.

The mushrooms were genius, the sauce being particularly lemony. The prawns were so-so, being not very plump or very garlicky but the sauce had just the right amount of chilli – and more garlic.

The Gold Cup in the wonderfully-named Nether Silton

The mains were a mixed bag. The boys’ topside of beef was nicely pink, fairly tender but lacking in flavour. The girls’ braised lamb shanks were much better, falling off the bone, super tender and, as Sylvia would have it, "very lamby".

It was a similar story with the veg and accompaniments. Firstly, one half roast potato each didn’t really cut it even when taking into account the dauphinoise potatoes which were served as a side.

The green veg were good, the carrots and parsnips were okay but the lumpy swede was spoilt by not having been properly mashed. The cauliflower cheese was overcooked.

The Yorkshire puddings were far from brilliant, mainly because they had been scorched. I can’t remember anything about the gravy other than there was lots of it.

There was a lot of everything really (apart from roast potatoes) and pricing is very competitive. One course is £11.95, two are £14.95 and three courses are £17.95.

Three of us had desserts. Adrian and Bev opted for the hot chocolate fudge cake with either vanilla ice or cream, Bev requesting both (I told you she was a lady of discernment) and expressing deep satisfaction with her plateful. Adrian thought it good too although he had just stuck with ice cream to accompany it (a man of discretion).

The Eton Mess cheesecake I chose had sounded rather exciting but turned out not to be – a slice of vanilla cheesecake with some crushed meringue scattered over it, a couple of halved strawberries and a drizzle of strawberry sauce.

With a bill for four, including drinks, coming to just a smidge over £70 we thought it fair value. These days there are not many places where you can get a serviceable three-course Sunday lunch for £17.95 a head.

The Gold Cup Inn

Lead Lane, Nether Silton, Thirsk YO7 2JZ

Tel: 01609 883416 Web: gold-cup-inn.co.uk

Open for food: Wednesday-Saturday noon-3pm and 5-8.30pm. Sunday noon-3pm

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 7 Service 8 Surroundings 6 Value 8