Christmas With All the Trimmings at The Baskerville

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No-one likes to mention Christmas too early but if you’re looking to book a Christmas party, lunch or family get together, you know you shouldn’t leave it too late or as Joseph said, “they’ll be no space left at the inn!”

The Baskerville pub in Shiplake likes to ready for the Christmas season nice and early and we were delighted to be invited, along with a group of other local media and foodie influencers to try out their Christmas menu last week with all the trimmings including crackers and Christmas music to get everyone into the spirit.

Our host Kevin who has been landlord at the pub for 8 years, gave us all a very warm welcome and offered us a glass of the Henley Fairmile Vineyard white sparkling wine.  The table was beautifully decorated (we loved the napkins folded into Christmas trees) and the pub has a lovely warm and cosy feel to it.

The Christmas menu has a great choice for each course and something for everyone including of course traditional turkey and Christmas pudding and has some very good vegetarian options too.

We started with the smoked parsnip and apple soup which was lovely and smooth with a perfectly balanced sweet and savoury flavour and was served with local Lawlor’s crusty bread.  For mains we chose the braised blade of beef which was beautifully cooked, melted in the mouth, had the richest of flavour and came with a delicious bubble and squeak and a forestiere sauce.  The mains were accompanied too with seasonal vegetables including of course sprouts and perfectly crisp and yummy roast potatoes.   To finish, we chose the unusual but sublime profiteroles which had the chocolate ganache on the inside and a salted caramel sauce on top.

The menu is priced at 2 courses for £32 or 3 courses for £38.  Click here to see the full menu

Need a room for the night too?  The Baskerville has four lovely rooms to book including a family room and they take dogs too.

The pub has been awarded a number of awards over the last few years including an AA Rosette and an Open Table Diner’s Choice Award last year which on this experience showed that they are very worthy winners of.  The Baskerville pride themselves on first class service and the use of locally sourced ingredients.  Embarrassed to say that this was our first visit to the pub but it won’t be our last and hope to return soon.