The Bears Paw -An experience for Real Cheshire housewives #Review
Stephen Wundke
26th October 2018
I read a story the other day about a Bear that was found in North Africa during the second world war by Polish troops. They took it in, taught it to drink and smoke and carry huge armaments and it even caught a thief once as well. They registered it as a soldier so it could get rations and then be transported up through Italy as they fought the Germans. It was an amazing story, unexpected and its going to be made in to an animated film. Now I dont think they will make a film about the Bears Paw at Warmingham but it was equally surprising when we visited recently.
The first and most obvious point to notice was what a wonderful part of Cheshire this is, sort of between Winsford and Nantwich, rural Cheshire at its best. The village of Warmingham is picture postcard stuff and the Bears Paw sits proudly in the middle of the village. From the front it looks a grand building and at the back a lovely big car park. The pub now has rooms with it as well and quite an entrance from the rear that lets you know you have arrived somewhere that people really care. The second and less obvious part, until you get inside, is just how big this pub is and how fabulous it looks. Yet again it is a interior design triumph. I hope my pictures capture some of the feeling of space, warmth and love that this place emanates. But there was more.
We walked in with our two dogs, who were as welcomed as we were and immediately felt at home. Our table was over by the fire, which was lit and had two settees either side of it. Our table was just behind those and afforded us a great view of the place. Three members of staff had interacted with us by the time we were seated, one of whom bought a bowl of water for the dogs and another two large dog biscuits – that was before we had seen a menu. We were impressed and relaxed, just the way diners should be, the music just the right level, customers talking and happy and three cheery members of staff who clearly love what they do.
The menu is large, just like it’s sister venue the Fishpool but for me this has better choices. More appealing and slightly more advanced. It just appealed to us more. We were spoilt for choice and as we both love lots of different flavours and lots of little tastes we chose the Sharing plates. They do three different sharing platters, each one £17.50, so we decided that rather than have a starter and main each we would have two sharing plates and do exactly that.
When they arrived we knew we had ordered what our eyes loved but our stomachs would struggle with. They were appropriately large. The fish platter came with quality Smoked Salmon in thick slices, hot goujons of haddock in panko breadcrumbs, the best peppered smoked mackerel either of us have tasted, juciy roll mop herrings and some salmon and smoked haddock fishcakes that were soft and just like the Fishpool they had nice large pieces of the fish within the potato mix, all for just £16.95. The Meat platter was equally as big and features a lovely sage, onion and pork scotch egg, mixed flavours of chipolatas, a soft chicken liver parfait, crispy sweet chilli beef and both platters had large slices of white and brown bloomer with olives and relishes. Both were a feast. It really was a lovely way to enjoy so many flavours. We certainly couldn’t finish it all but we had no hesitation in asking for a doggy bag, after all they love their dogs and off we went with our food parcels to enjoy later with a glass of wine.
We greatly enjoyed our visit to the Bears Paw. Despite the fact that we know the very high standards of the Nelson Group this was a lovely surprise and worth the drive to re-discover another pretty part of Cheshire. We wont leave it so long next time. On leaving our eye was drawn to a very special Sunday night, dinner bed and breakfast deal so we started searching to see available dates for another little treat. Seems the ideal way to end a weekend, dont you think??
Ratings:
Service 10/10 Ambience and Setting 9/10 Food 8/10 Value for Money 8/10 Total Score: 35/40
The Bear’s Paw
School Lane, Warmingham, Sandbach, Sandbach, CW11 3QN
Located in the heart of Cheshire, in the picturesque village of Warmingham, the privately owned Bear’s Paw is a delightful 19th century character inn.
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