The Cricketers Westcliff Review!

May 5, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

The Cricketers Westcliff Review

Sometimes waiting for payday can be a drag, particularly when it falls on a Monday. Often that last hellish weekend is not full of fine food and wine, more like beans on toast with a glass of Tizer if you’re lucky! But not for me, I view it as a gourmet challenge, to be as cost effective as possible! The easiest way to get more bang for your buck is a shopping trip around Aldi. If you’ve never been, give it a go they do have some pretty good foodie treats, and the wine to match. £9.99 for a bottle of champers, I rest my case. Well that’s all well and good if you want to stay at home and cook for yourself, and I do love a bit of cooking, so nothing wrong with that idea. But what I find much more of a challenge is to find a restaurant that will not strain your almost empty wallet. I do know of a couple of restaurants that allow you to take your own booze. Now that’s always a good option. We all know how much a few beers and a bottle or two can add to the bill. So if you can take your own (remember the £9.99 Aldi champers folks) it’s a cheap night out. Just to add, even the Boatyard have jumped on the bandwagon on Thursday nights! Yep, the very same fine dining pioneers down in Old Leigh have cottoned on to the idea, so if it’s good enough for them!

All week I had been mulling it over, where do we eat at the weekend? A few days ago, I drove past the Cricketers in Westcliff; they had a large yellow sign at the front saying ‘under new management’. Well this got my interest. You may remember, this pub was given a major refurb a few years ago, and a Thai restaurant strapped on to the side. I can never understand why a good old British boozer wouldn’t serve good old British grub; not Thai! I did visit here a few years ago, and the Thai was good, great with a pint. I love Thai, but it just doesn’t fit in a pub, I really wished they’d change this concept. As time went on, the pub did seem to go down hill slowly, and the Thai’s moved out. Well, according to that large yellow sign a new crowd have taken over both the pub and the restaurant. So I needed to find out more. I found them on twitter, and could not believe what I saw, the food looked great, this got me excited! So immediately I checked their website, and the food menu. It would appear the new management are now on my wavelength, and guess what, it is reasonable, VERY reasonable. It seemed a perfect place to visit the weekend before payday.

So, Lou and I decided to raid our piggy banks and head off, laden down with pockets of change, jingling and a jangling off to the Cricketers. We arrived, and headed straight for the bar, as I suppose you should in a pub! The ale selection wasn’t too bad at all, two standouts really, Mighty Oaks Maldon Gold, and Dark Star Hophead, both very nice. They even have an Interesting German Pilsner, which you don’t often see in pubs on draft. The place wasn’t too busy, so no dramas getting a drink. We sat down in the main bar area on one of the comfy sofas. The pub is split in two, a main traditional pub area and a more formal dining area; you can actually eat in both from the same menu. We decided to sit in the pub area, to peruse the menu. This is when it gets interesting! They have on offer a light bite selection, which just sounded great beer food! Dishes such as Welsh rarebit, homemade Scotch egg and Cricketers potted shrimps on toast! Just imagine sitting at the bar, with a beer, chomping in to one of those, it beats a bag of dry roasted any day! There are also a selection of sandwiches, salads, omelettes, grills and pub classics. We both decided to bypass the sandwiches and salads, which I am sure are very nice, but we were after something a little more substantial. So, straight to the Grill and Pub Classic section. I mentioned earlier the menu appeared to be superb value. I would challenge you to find an 8oz Sirloin Steak and chips anywhere cheaper; at only £7.95 it seemed too good to be true. Other examples of this great value, 3 Sausage and mash £4.95, Homemade Steak and Kidney Pie £5.50, I could go on, but you get the picture.

We decided to sit in the main restaurant area to eat, which was gradually filling up with diners hunting out a bargain! We could have just gone straight for the main courses as they sounded substantial enough for lunch, but I just had to give one starter ago, one which I had my eye on since first reading the menu; the homemade ham hock terrine with piccalilli. For mains, Lou decided on the ham egg and chips. I am a real sucker for a burger, so I just had to try the homemade cheeseburger. Both of these mains totalled less than £10!

The terrine arrived at the table. A large slice, ample for the two of us as a starter! Served on a rustic board, with some toasted baguette and piccalilli it looked the part; it also tasted the part. The waitress did apologise when the terrine came to the table, explaining it had not set correctly to chef’s satisfaction. To be honest, it didn’t matter. When spread on toast with the piccalilli it tasted great. The terrine also contained pistachio nuts. I have never seen this before and initially thought it a little odd, but it added extra texture and crunch, which was a nice touch. Needless to say the terrine hardly touched the sides!

Lou’s ham egg and chips arrived and included two fried eggs that got her seal or approval. I think I mentioned in an earlier review how Lou is very particular when it comes to eggs, they have to be cooked to her very high standard; no egg snot as she delightfully puts it! Well, congratulations cricketers a big thumbs up on this part, no snot in sight! Whilst on the subject of eggs, a few weeks ago we visited a rather swanky restaurant, and ordered a dish, which, amongst other ingredients, included a poached egg cooked for 45 minutes at 64 degrees centigrade. Seriously, what is the point? It tasted no different to a normal poached egg, just with added egg snot; the Cricketer’s egg was actually more enjoyable! Along with the eggs were a couple of nice large slices of ham and not forgetting the chips. My burger was pretty good as well, it was clearly homemade, with a generous amount of proper cheddar, not that garish, yellow, plastic processed junk you find in most high street chains, I will mention no names! The burger also contained some onion rings; this was not advertised but a welcome addition! Also served with a nice portion of chips it wasn’t too bad at all.

Puddings as you would expect are classics, homemade apple pie, syrup sponge pudding and homemade baked jam roll to name just a few. But, as more often than not, we were both full, so alas we had no room to squeeze in any of those homemade treats, but next time! So, we asked for the bill; this is the best bit, and remember this was the weekend before payday £14.45! That’s for two courses; you couldn’t even cook at home for that price.

The Cricketers is a pub! (I like to state the obvious) But it’s a pub just serving up good homemade food. I am not going to say they are pushing the boundaries of gastro pub cuisine because they are not, and neither are they pretending to do so; I would be disappointed if they were serving foams and fancy Jus, leave that to Heston Blumenthal. I am not going to call the food cheap. Cheap is a horrible term and would suggest ‘cheap and nasty’, its far from this, just bloody good value. The best value pub grub often only used to be found at places such as Weatherspoons, and don’t get me wrong, there is a place for the ‘Spoons’ I don’t mind them, but your food would be cooked without the passion and care of a small independent. Give the Cricketers a go, its great value, cooked and served with a personal touch. They are not just pulling food out of the freezer and chucking it straight in the microwave or deep fryer. They are making a lot of the food from scratch, which is more than some restaurants can manage! Top marks Cricketers, I will be back!