Eating Out: A sense of déjà vu at The Carlton Inn

But the feeling of déjà vu never left me during our time there and when we were back home a quick search of the Eating Out archive confirmed that we had indeed dined there before, way back in 2008.

A world away that seems. And it was.

What I had forgotten was the pub in Carlton Husthwaite 14 years ago was called the Carlton Bore. The memories then came flooding back of a peerless Sunday lunch, of the curious name being related to the then chef/patron’s other pub in Rishworth – the Old Bore – and being so excited that I urged you all to make a date in your diaries to pay it a visit immediately.

I hope some of you did but clearly not enough – because it suddenly closed not long afterwards without explanation. Mind you, think of the year of that visit – 2008. Not a great time for businesses generally.

There have new people at the helm in subsequent years and now it is run by a family with strong farming and food connections.

Tancred Farm Shop is well-established at Whixley, near York, by the Hullah family who, among other things, farm pigs and Lincoln Red cattle. Daughter Catherine forms part of the management team at the Carlton Inn.

The meat and much more served in the pub comes from the farm shop at Tancred – the ultimate expression of farm to fork perhaps.

That all sounded mighty promising but on arrival we found the atmosphere in the Carlton Inn rather flat. It was a Saturday night there were very few folk in. The décor, while clearly giving me that sense of déjà vu from the previous visit, seemed tired. Maybe that’s because what was cutting-edge, trendy pub style 14 years ago now looks a bit passé.

Malcolm Warne (Image: Malcolm Warne)

Nothing wrong with it, but it just didn’t feel particularly welcoming and our foursome, ready to party on a Saturday night, felt just a little deflated.

That said, the grub was mostly good. I say grub because it was definitely pub fare as opposed to anything more fancy. While the website mentions a specials board, there was nothing on offer that evening so we chose from the regular menu which featured what are these days described as “pub classics” which loosely translates as “nowt posh”.

Like a good pie. There’s nothing more “pub classic” than a pie and the ones that Sylvia and daughter Laura chose were the stand-out dishes of the evening.

They were proper jobs (£14.95) made with shortcrust pastry rather than those fake "pies" which are just bowls of stewed meat with a puff-pastry lid. The steak and ale in one of them was rich and tender with lots of beef gravy. The other, containing super-savoury chicken, leek and bacon, came with an equally good cream sauce.

Son-in-law Chris’ rib-eye steak (£24.95) – presumably from one of Tancred’s Lincoln Red – was a beaut. Cooked to medium as requested, it was juicy and as well-flavoured as a well-hung piece of cow can be.

My sea bass fillets (£16.95) were perfectly cooked with some sautéed asparagus. The large chunks of strongly-flavoured roasted chorizo rather overwhelmed the delicate fish but that’s a quibble really.

We also had starters – a sweet and well-seasoned tomato soup (£5.50) for Sylvia which came with a little basket of fresh bread, a breaded deep-fried brie wedge (£6.95) with plum and apple chutney plus salad for Laura and some smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill rolls (£7.95) with focaccia bread.

Laura liked her brie but my salmon rolls were a little flavourless (too chilled perhaps?). Chris was keen on his crispy battered king prawns (£7.95) with sweet chilli sauce and salad but I nicked one (brave I thought) and they weren’t a patch on the tempura ones we had at Acklam Hall a couple of weeks back. Mind these prawns were £3 cheaper and there were six of them as opposed to four.

Two desserts – a caramel cheesecake and an apple crumble (both £5.95) – were shared by the four of us and went down well enough. Serviceable rather than spectacular.

Which rather sums up our experience at the Carlton Inn. Bar the good pies and the steak everything was just a bit average.

Service was certainly attentive as they were not rushed off their feet.

The bill was £140 for the four of us. That included almost £30 on booze with Chris and Laura taking a liking to the guest blonde ale that was available. A shame that none of us could remember what it was called afterwards.

The Carlton Inn

Main Street, Carlton Husthwaite, Thirsk YO7 2BW

Tel: 501265 Web: thecarltoninn.co.uk

Open for food: Tuesday to Friday noon-2pm and 5.30-pm, Saturday noon-9pm, Sunday noon-8pm

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