Food review: Farmers Home, Durley

The beef roast at the Farmers Home in Durley

Take a child to a pub in the winter and you are a feckless alcoholic. Take a child to a pub in the summer and you are enjoying the best of British traditions, and exposing them to their birthright.

The Dish Detective was – *checks number of daylight hours* – waving the flag of St George and being a diligent parent when they Googled “Hampshire pubs with beer gardens and food now or I may go properly crazy and move to Afghanistan just to show them” and wasn’t at the end of their tether, no way ma’am or sirrah. Yep, we just wanted to partake in a lovely leisurely Sunday afternoon.

In fact, when we did Google this we realised that the top results weren’t that handy and so we had to go off-piste. To the road less travelled. But thank god the road less travelled had a playground.

And that’s how we ended up in Durley. To the DD, Durley was mainly a point of interest for the excellent strawberries from the area each year. In all honesty – and no offence Durlieans/Durleyites/Durlizens – we’d had no need to come your way before.

And we were pleasantly surprised when we came to the Farmers Home. Being countryside, and therefore, to the DD’s limited brain, posh, we were expecting astronomical prices and a children’s menu made of focaccia and hummus. Imagine our surprise when we found a proper pub; a local, but one you don’t get in trouble for going to, and with plenty of space for an impromptu Sunday lunch.

It was Sunday, which in these godless days equates to burger and roast dinner (or at least it does in the Dish Detective’s heathen book). The Farmers Home scored well on the roast dinner. It was £16 for two courses, and the DD’s companion was pleased – the roast was good, filling and not fancy but came with everything it should and didn’t make anyone feel they should have stayed at home and cooked it themselves (the absolute worst feeling when eating out, for all concerned).

The DD went to the specials board and chose a barbecue pulled pork burger, with chips and salad (£13.95). The DD was less impressed; it was fine, but not fourteen quid fine and we’d have wanted a bit more attention paid for that money. On the plus side, the pulled pork itself was great – it felt like it had been cooked for a decent length of time as you’d hope.

The children had sausages or chicken nuggets with chips and peas (£6.50) and were happy with them. They were also happy that the kitchen has dairy-free ice cream as one has an allergy (worth mentioning as the staff were pleasingly attentive to this, so points on for this). The children had enjoyed the playground – it’s quite dated but they don’t care as they don’t remember the 80s and if they are happy then so am I - and overall they agreed with us; this isn’t the best pub you’ll go to but you’ll wish you lived closer to it.