The Sutton Arms, Elton

The Sutton Arms in Elton, unlike a lot of other places, can mean different things to different people.

Some choose it for its formal restaurant dining on an evening, whilst others will nip in for lunch or an early bird special.

When we visited The Sutton, we specifically wanted to test the early bird menu. Get your food order in before six and you can have two meals for £7. Too good to be true? We thought that, so in our team went.

There is no need to worry about parking as there is a large car park which copes well, even at the busiest of times. Walking into the building you are greeted with an old style British Pub layout. A narrow corridor, leads you through to the main bar area, with restaurant  seating out the back. Once in the main bar you will be met by a warm welcome from the staff who are always on hand to serve or answer those queries from the more, shall we say “precise” customer.

To describe the main menu as “extensive” would be an understatement. There literally are hundreds of dishes available whether meat, pasta, fish or game take your fancy. Lite bites, healthy or more exotic eating also feature in the menu categories. If you can order a day in advance, there is even a staggering 200oz, yes you did read that correctly, two hundred ounce Rump Steak.

To supply such a wide range of food, you may expect certain compromises on quality. Put all such thoughts out of your head. There are no compromises at The Sutton. Fresh food is prepared and delivered amazingly quickly to your table.

Moving on to the early bird special menu, naturally enough the choices are somewhat more limited, however all the normal pub food choices are there as well as some special to the house. As it was a Friday, our team ordered seafood based dishes, served with salad and jumbo chips.  The food was piping hot on delivery. The fish was a good texture, moist but not overly so. The jumbo chips were crisp on the outside, yet light and fluffy inside. Pretty much perfect. The salad featured the usual suspects of lettuce, onion, radish, tomato and cucumber. I am a fan of tartare sauce and this was present in a small expresso style coffe cup on the plate. Ideal for dunking chips into. Someone had clearly thought this through. Portion size was enough to be filling without overwhelming or leaving a hole. Two main courses for £7, you couldn’t be robbed.

The staff were friendly and attentive without being intrusive whilst the music was a suitable style and volume to break any silence that occurred, but still allowed for quiet intimate conversation.

Overall a very enjoyable meal after a day at the office, accompanied by reasonably priced drinks.

The Sutton Arms is one place that will quickly be added to your list of regular eateries and next time we visit, we’ll report back on the full restaurant experience.

The only change I would suggest is the provision of free Wi-Fi to customers. In this digitally connected age, being in an area with poor mobile reception, Wi-Fi could prove a boost to custom.