On Saturday 25th October my Mum and I went for a blustery walk around Pugney’s before heading to The Pledwick on Barnsley Road for lunch.

The car park is certainly on the large side and is shared by the cricket club but this size makes sense when you see they have a whole section set up for special events outside and then a fairly large interior of a bar/pub and then the restaurant area as well. We went early, out of cricket season, so we had ample choices of parking and then we headed inside.

It was a calming atmosphere and the interior was done in a way that made it really warm and inviting to get cozy and relax in. I particularly enjoyed the large bulbs over the stairs the lead you down to the toilets and a wall of hanging fairy-style lights that served as a nice warm glow contrast against the dark wood and earth tones.

The staff were also incredibly friendly and you could tell they had attention to detail with the careful placing of cutlery, napkins and wine glasses on all of the tables. This really confirmed its place as a gastro pub rather than a pub that serves food.

After pondering their delightful range of options on their menu for a while I went for the 10oz rib-eye that came with a large mushroom, a super chunky half tomato, onion rings, chunky chips, some salad and the most incredible garlic butter sauce.

I asked for the steak to be rare, I always say rare and worst that happens is it comes back medium rare, but this came out to perfection. This, and my Mum’s cajun chicken burger, took a little while to come out but honestly it took the “getting cooked from scratch fresh” sort of time and that’s something I’m perfectly okay with.

The garlic butter sauce was loaded with herb and garlic pieces and certainly packed a punch. I could have gone for a peppercorn sauce as well which I’m sure would have been amazing. I dipped some of my mushroom, which in itself was incredibly well seasoned, and some of the chips into it. I did put the odd bit of my steak in but the steak was high quality, not chewy and delightfully tender so it didn’t really need the extra moisture just sometimes a bit of extra flavour.

For me the only thing that was a bit of a let down was the tomato. I was impressed by the size of the half tomato but it was lacking a little in flavour. It isn’t UK tomato season so it wasn’t a fresh full of flavour one and it was lacking a little in seasoning; I got some pepper from the table and added it to it and it improved it a small amount.

Steak is never the cheapest thing on the menu but this plate came in at £28 and for the quality, the service and it being cooked to perfection I really cannot complain. Mum’s cajun chicken burger was loaded with flavour and came with a decent size piece of chicken at the £17 price point too.

And we couldn’t resist; We went for dessert too! I went for the chocolate brownie, chocolate ice cream with caramel and chocolate sauce and my Mum went for the cheesecake of the day which was a New York style cheesecake with vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce. Both of these were £7 each.

The chocolate brownie was rich, moist and absolutely sumptuous. If my waistline would allow it I would devour these on a regular basis. There was a real obvious taste of chocolate throughout and each element enhanced it. Something like this could easily become dense but the brownie itself, whilst squishy, was not claggy or heavy to eat and made for a perfect way to finish the meal.

For drinks we only went for standard soft drinks but they did have some great looking cocktails at £9 and mocktails for £5. Both of these prices and the variety they had seemed fantastic and I appreciate that the mocktails wouldn’t be much more than a £4 large lemonade was at it really encourages people to be able to participate in fun drinks without having their non-alcoholic bank balance whimper.

Overall, this was a really delightful meal out and I’d certainly consider going back in the future. If you’re looking for a meal out or perhaps a place to host an occasion The Pledwick at Newmillerdam is certainly a spot you should consider.