Having a decent local boozer is not to be underestimated. We’re not exaggerating when we say it can improve the quality of your life and potentially bump up the price of your house. If you’re lucky enough to have a gem like The Plough on your doorstep, you’re winning.

We popped in for lunch and found much more than pub grub and a pint. With a mixed crowd including solo diners working on laptops, yummy mummies with bairns in buggies and groups of mates tucking in, it was a lively affair despite being an average Wednesday.

ECLECTIC MIX

The menu’s equally mixed. Classic pub dishes like burgers, pizza, sandwiches and fish and chips feature alongside poke bowls, sweet potato quinoa with harissa flatbread and wild mushroom tagliatelle with truffle. It reads like an identity crisis, but we reckon the menu is just reflective of the local crowd. We thought we’d sample the traditional and the more inventive dishes so we ordered a pizza and a poke bowl.

The chicken teriyaki version of the poke bowl was a triumph with sweet chunks of mango, creamy avocado, crunchy radish, sushi rice, succulent teriyaki chicken along with the usual edamame and seaweed. It was a zingy colourful bowl full of goodness packed with flavour and texture.

ALL ABOUT THE BASE

Then for a fiery chilli and nduja pork pizza. Fresh red chilli and punchy nduja pork punctuated the oozing cheese while the charred blistered crust was perfection. We highly recommend dunking the crust into the Japanese mayo that came with the poke bowl.

There are two-for-one deals on certain dishes on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which put the price of lunch on a par with a substandard coffee shop chain and we know where we’d rather be. Support local and all that jazz not out of charity but because it’s blooming good.