Marlborough Tavern

The Marlborough Tavern is on the edge of Victoria Park in Bath, and is the only pub in the city listed in the Michelin guide. It is one of a trio of pubs in a small, independent group, and has been operating for two decades. The head chef was a gentleman called Jack Scarterfield, and the menu offered typical pub food such as a burger and a steak, as well as some less familiar dishes.

The wine list had 64 labels and ranged in price from £19.90 to £79, with a median price of £29 and an average markup to retail price of 2.9 times. There was a reasonable selection of countries listed, and even some dessert wines, but vintages were omitted. Sample references were Melodias Malbec Traphiche at £23.5 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £6, La Mascota Malbec at £30 compared to its retail price of £11, and Chateau Viramiere St-Emillion at £45 for a wine that will set you back £22 in the high street. For those with the means there was Gevrey-Chambertin La Gibryotte Famille Dugat at £75 compared to its retail price of £55, and Puligny Montrachet Domaine Jean Louis Chavy at £75 for a wine whose current market value is about £42, depending on the vintage.

I started with smoked mackerel and horseradish pate, which came with pickled fennel and a few slices of cucumber and radish, along with slices of sourdough toast. The pate had quite good mackerel flavour and just enough bite from the horseradish, and the vinegar from the pickled fennel provided some balance to the richness of the pate. Unfortunately, the toast, which is surely not the most challenging thing to produce, was cold and under toasted, for which I will deduct a mark (12/20).

Wild mushroom and Roquefort arancini came with tender stem broccoli, toasted pine nuts and roasted celeriac purée. The broccoli was lightly cooked and the celeriac purée had pleasant flavour and texture. The arancini themselves had quite a crisp coating and good flavour of the mushrooms and cheese (13/20). Haddock and chips was also enjoyable, the fish cooked well and the batter being unusually well made, light and crisp. This came with decent mushy peas and crisp chips (13/20).

Some local cheeses (Somerset Brie, Bath Blue, Cheddar) were generous in portion and in reasonable condition, served with apple and pear chutney, celery, grapes and crackers. I tried the special of the day, a rhubarb and custard tart, which had excellent pastry, rhubarb that was not too sharp and custard that tasted nicely of vanilla. My only negative comment on this was that there was a lot of crumble relative to the filling, and its texture was perhaps too fine, more dust than crumble in parts. However, the other aspects of the tart were quite classy, and I would have scored higher except for the crumble (13/20).

The manageress that we encountered, Chloe, was friendly and seemed very switched on. The bill came to £72 a head, but that included a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape at £55, so you could eat for less. Overall, despite one or two slips, the Marlborough Tavern provided an pleasant meal with a friendly welcome.