I FELT there were a couple of things missing when I turned up with my guest for a meal at the Dog at Baughton, near Uptonupon- Severn.

The country pub and restaurant was fairly devoid of atmosphere and although I had booked a table there was little in the way of greeting from the barmaid/waitress, so we helped ourselves to menus and began to peruse the vast array of dishes.

The Dog does have a massive menu – a page of starters, two pages of main courses and a specials board.

There are plenty of vegetarian dishes, as well as fish, meat, pasta and a curry to tempt the hungry guest.

And for those with a less hearty appetite, many of the main courses can be ordered as a small portion. This is a sensible option – as we were to discover later.

I selected the goats’ cheese, rosemary and cherry tomato tartlet with balsamic dressing (£4.95) from the specials board to start. This was an excellent choice and very good indeed – packed with flavour and a promising start to the meal. It was presented on a bed of spinach leaves which would have been better cooked or substituted with a few crispy lettuce leaves.

My guest opted for deep fried whitebait (£4.95). It was a massive portion and piping hot with an individual pot of tartare sauce but accompanied by a bit of limp salad garnish on the side.

Selecting the main courses proved to be trickier than we expected. A number of the dishes boasted a chef’s secret ingredient or the chef’s special touch. The chef’s pie of the day, alarmingly described on the menu as “infamous”, was steak and ale. I decided to give it a go only to find there was just half a pie (a small portion no doubt) remaining. My guest wanted the pork steak with Herefordshire cider – but that was “off”.

His second choice was the lamb dish – and that also was “off”. In fact, the waitress had quite a list of dishes that were off the menu. Obviously they’re very popular.

We eventually ordered a sirloin steak with onion rings, mushroom, tomato and handcut chips and salad (£11.95) and wholetail breaded scampi with chips and salad (£8.95). The cheaper main course was half price because of a special deal.

My steak had a good flavour and was quite tender, although I could have done without the slightly greasy onion rings. The scampi was pretty much what anyone would expect, although once again it was a very generous portion. Our salad, allegedly pre-dressed, was so subtly done that neither my guest nor I could detect it, and the chips could have easily fed three ravenous adults. The chips were particularly good.

For pud I had the exotically named calypso parfait (£4.35) which turned out to be a rather tasteless frozen dessert and my guest had the lemon mousse ((£4.35) presented in a champagne glass. It was the better choice.

You certainly get good portions at the Dog, the dining room is pleasant enough and the service improved once we were seated at our table but there doesn’t seem much point in having a huge menu if many of the dishes aren’t available.

HOW IT RATED

The Dog at Baughton, Earls Croome, near Upton-upon-Severn.

Telephone: 01684 594340

Food *** Value for money *** Ambience ** Service ***