Last weekend we decided to visit the Crown Inn at Hestonville, sorry I mean Bray. We went with a sense of trepidation and curiosity, as the Crown has been one of our favourite pubs over the last 20 years. A beautiful, old fashioned Engish country pub dating back to the 17th century, with roaring fires, steak and ale pie and friendly bar staff. The menu in the little restaurant hadn’t varied once over those twenty years and filet steak “Zrazzy Nelson” and their moules frites were always a delight. BUT time marches on and things progress. I do have to agree with the locals that it was a shame that it wasn’t taken over by someone new, but we decided to investigate anyway.
Certainly, Heston hasn’t changed any of the decor, I was very pleased to see the original black and white photos still on the wall (the one of the young man in uniform and his dog is my favourite) and the ambience felt exactly the same. None of the original staff appear to have been retained, but the people who helped us were very friendly and efficient and handled what was clearly a busy, fully booked Saturday evening very professionally and with a sense of humour. What has changed however, is that everyone seemed to be there to eat; there were very few casual drinkers who had just dropped in for a pint. Whilst it worked to our advantage on that particualr night, they do now allow you to book tables in the bar, which is not a policy I favour. This meant we did see quite a few hapless souls being turfed off table after table as they despertaely tried to find somewhere to sit. So really, it is essential to ring in advance ( 01628 621936).
The menu was simple, but good and not a hint of sardine ice cream, but basic pub food. We chose the potted duck to start and it was tasty and delicious, a little like a lovely, rich rillette. When it arrived I thought it looked small, but in fact the size was about right.
One of the main reasons we had come, was that we had been told that they were serving Hetson’s perfect burger (Remember him trying to create this on telly? check it out on youtube). However we were soon told that it was not in fact that recipe, but just his version of an ordinary pub burger. This was disappointing .
It was however a perfectly okay burger and everyone agreed that it was nice but not amazing. Surprisingly, they did not ask us how we would like the burger cooked, and this was a problem for Josh who likes his meat incinerated as it was served quite rare in the middle. To be fair, the rest of us loved it cooked this way.
Josh also requested some jalapenos, which they did not have, but after all, it was an English pub and not a Mexican restaurant, so that was no big suprise. The French fries were nice, thin and crispy .
I had the steak with a bone marrow sauce, which is delicious and rich and cooked to perfection. For dessert we had the banana Eton mess, lemon curd pudding and sticky toffee pudding. I don’t have photos of this unfortunately, but Louise did say it was the nicest sticky toffee pudding she had ever had and my taste of the banana Eton Mess was sublime.
We ended up paying about £35 per head including tip, which is more than enough for a pub meal, but the food was very good and we would go back. It is a shame that it’s not really the sort of place I’d just drop in for a gin and tonic, maybe in the summer when you can sit in the garden I might try it. I do respect the fact that they are trying to keep it a simple pub and as I say, the staff were charming and luckily, there wasn’t even a hint of snail porridge.
The Bombay Boys 
sweet