Eat My Words: We try Newarkers’ most recommended Christmas Dinner, at Greene King pub The Lord Ted

Earlier this month, in the Advertiser weekly voxpop, we asked for recommendations for the best Christmas dinner in town — and now we’ve tried it out.

The Lord Ted, on Farndon Road, was a popular choice among those we spoke with in the town centre, and now having tried it ourselves we can definitely see why.

Myself (Eloise Gilmore) and my colleague Fionn Burrows visited on Saturday (December 21) for the full festive feast — and what a feast it was.

A sentiment I’m sure many will agree with in their own families, I will staunchly say my grandmother’s Christmas dinner is the best hands down. I’ve never really eaten one at a pub before so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

I was somewhat concerned it would be reminiscent of Christmas school dinners, not awful but hardly worthy of any kind of celebration.

It was also my first time at The Lord Ted, and upon walking in I was pleased to find it immediately felt warm, relaxed and a very comfortable and cosy place to spend a good chunk of my afternoon.

Now, onto the food.

Having seen the supposed size of the meals based on the nutritional information when pre-ordering we opted to share a starter of brie wedges (my choice — I cannot resist a good bit of brie) which were served with a spicy cranberry dip.

Now, given these were marketed as a one-person portion I was amazed at the size of what came. Five huge hunks of breaded cheese! It was plenty to share.

I very much enjoyed these, but I would definitely class them as standard chain pub fare as they felt very manufactured and warmed up rather than created from scratch. I wouldn’t say this takes away from them though as they were delicious, and The Lord Ted is indeed a Greene King chain pub so what else can you expect.

Fionn was less enamoured by these and felt they lacked flavour.

Once they were devoured we did have a bit of a wait — as Fionn had ordered the vegetarian carvery which comes with a cooked-to-order pie so we had to wait for it to be ready.

As a meat eater I had opted for the regular carvery, with turkey as my meat of choice.

The Lord Ted surely beat any allegations of dry turkey, it was possibly the most tender, juicy and tasty slices of turkey I’d ever eaten.

Of course both my turkey and Fionn’s pie were swiftly accompanied on the plates with mountains of accompaniments — mash, roasties (both regular and with beef dripping for me), a huge Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, cauliflower cheese, broccoli, red cabbage, carrots, lashings of onion gravy, and a scoop of cranberry sauce.

All of these were perfectly cooked, piping hot, and absolutely delicious, and I was pleased to see fresh batches of them all frequently being presented at the servery.

Fionn was similarly impressed, and as a vegetarian has come across his fair share of disappointing carveries. However, he said the cheese and potato pie on offer was a very nice alternative to meat.

Additionally, he found the vegetables were well-cooked, not to mushy nor too hard, and the stuffing and cauliflower cheese were well seasoned.

We both agreed the gravy was a winner, a perfect, thick consistency — without being lumpy — and with actual slices of onion for texture.

After these plates were clean (or as clean as we could get them after the mammoth portions) there was again a wait for our puddings, although if we had really been bothered we could probably have flagged a staff member over and had them sooner.

As it was, we were instead kept entertained by the matchstick games which came out of the Christmas crackers on the table — a nice touch for festive bookings.

Fionn’s pudding — traditional Christmas pudding with custard — went down a treat and he described it as being quite nostalgic.

Mine — a Baileys and white chocolate fondue served with a warm Christmas tree brownie, fresh strawberries and vanilla flavour ice cream — was a little rich for my taste, especially after such a large main, but it was well presented and I did enjoy what I could manage of it. The strawberries especially were a nice touch.

Overall it was a very pleasant few hours spent eating a huge amount of food — and it did not break the bank! Clearly those we interviewed know what they’re on about when it comes to a good Christmas dinner.

Out of five:

Food: The portions were generous, well cooked, fresh and tasty, especially the carvery. The starter was tasty but typical chain pub fare, and I found my dessert nice but nothing particularly special. ****

Drink: We opted for fairly simple drinks in light of the huge meal we were eating, with two Diet Cokes for me — which came in their branded glasses with ice and citrus — and a J2O spritz for Fionn. Drinks service was prompt and they could be ordered straight from the table via the Greene King app which was convenient. *****

Decor: While not a masterpiece in interior design The Lord Ted had comfortable decor and felt quite homely. It was relaxed, clean — including the toilets — and overall a nice place to spend an afternoon. The tables were not too close together, and were large enough to comfortably fit all the food and drinks. ****

Staff: We had fairly minimal interaction with staff, but those who we did speak with were all polite and welcoming, especially when we were first greeted and shown to the table. Service was somewhat slow, but probably could have been sped up if we had really wanted to flag someone down. ***

Price: I was amazed when we got the bill, by how affordable the food seemed. The main bill came to £34.98. An additional £10.70 had been spent on drinks via the app, and a £10 deposit had been required on booking for the festive menu, for a total of £55.68. This was for a two course meal, three course meal, and three drinks, which I feel is quite a decent price, especially for the amount of food. *****

Have you had a great meal? Share your own Eat My Words reviews or tell us where to try by emailing: news@newarkadvertiser.co.uk