Restaurant Review: The Mayfly, Chilbolton, Hampshire

The Mayfly in Chilbotlon, near Stockbridge, Hampshire is a nice country upmarket pub with a traditional menu and plenty of drinks to choose from which can be enjoyed in their riverside garden. The traditional decor and the rural location are ideal for an escape from from the city, especially if you're enjoying a long hike around Stockbridge or Chilbolton. Liam and I had our first date at The Mayfly on a nice summers evening and we had the best time enjoying a couple of wines in the sunshine (and the starlight as we stayed there until it closed!) so we finally decided to go and try the food to see if it's as good as we thought. 

For a starter, Liam and I both had the squid with squid ink pasta from the specials menu - just had to as we both absolutely love seafood! It was served with peas, sun dried tomatoes, samphire and lemon and the portion was just right for a starter. I enjoyed the squid, it was nice and not rubbery - plus I enjoyed that they put all of the squid in including the little tentacles as they're often my favourite part! The sourness of the lemon and sun dried tomatoes gave the dish exactly what it needed which was a touch of sharpness.

For our mains, Liam has the sea bass with pak choi and king prawns from the specials menu and I had the pub burger. The sea bass was melt in your mouth with crispy skin and the prawns were cooked to perfection - so many places overcook prawns and they come out dry, but these were still nice and juicy. My burger was nice, it came well done which is my fault really for not asking if it could be served more to the rare side, but to be honest I'm not quite sure this was the kind of quality meat burger you could have rare. I really enjoyed the vegetable crisps which came with the burger and it was a nice hearty comfort meal.

I think we would come back to The Mayfly for a meal and drinks again, however I have a slight issue with pricing because I feel their prices reflect food which is of great quality, all freshly cooked but I didn't get that feeling from my meal. I'd like to think I can taste the difference between freshly sourced products and something which came out of a freezer. That's not to say the food wasn't good, it was, but I think they should lower their prices to reflect what you're getting. Or, I guess one could argue the prices also reflect the location which is faultless! Whatever the cause is, I'm definitely going to make a trip back to taste the food again and see what my final verdict is.