The Merrie Harrier is the first pub in the Vale of Glamorgan you
encounter on leaving Cardiff along the Penarth Road Cardiff Bay
There’s a
huge food menu. In fact, there are two menus running at the moment: a standard
Brains’ printed pub menu in conjunction with the pub’s own menu on the blackboards.
The management are in the process of switching over to the latter.
On our
first trip to The Merrie Harrier this year, we went for a 2-for-£10 lunch menu.
I had the curry of the day (actually a choice of half-a-dozen curries of the
day): chicken and coconut with half/half rice and chips. The rice and the chips
were good, thought the poppadom was not the best. The rice was useful to soak
up the curry, which was the opposite of dry. My partner had the lamb rosemary
burger. Good-sized portions.
We returned
in a group on an evening recently, to sample some of the unique dishes on the specials
boards. Typical items include Peppered duck breast, with mushroom risotto cake,
baby spinach and redcurrant jus (£12.95); Seared chicken breast with rice
noodles and cherry tomatoes, shallots, chilli oil and rocket (£9.95); Poached
salmon steak, ratatouille, new potatoes and green salad (£9.95); Smoked salmon
and crab parcels, with toasted crumpets, chilli oil and balsamic reduction
(£12.95).
My Braised
brisket of beef, pineapple salsa, special fried rice and creamy Moroccan sauce
(£9.95), promised more than it delivered. The meat was good, if a little dry.
The rice and the creamy sauce not quite special or distinctive enough, leaving
the tangy pineapple salsa doing all the work. Enjoyable though.
Pork loin
steaks, mustard mash, fine green beans and red wine jus (£9.95) was a more
successful unification of ingredients. The pub favours sauces served in white
gravy boats. In this case, the jus was just the thing to bring the plate to a
satisfactory conclusion.
Tuna steaks
came with asparagus and avocado couscous, creamy pepper sauce and green salad
(£9.95). This was the pick of the mains we ordered, with no-nonsense slabs of
tuna and a successful pepper sauce combination.
There was
also a chicken fajita on our table, which was not sizzling on arrival but was plentiful
and apparently very good. There is a whole blackboard of vegetarian options,
with some novel touches.
It’s an
adventurous menu, which is good to see. The food is very much pub food, rather
than restaurant food, but offers something a little different.
The Merrie
Harrier prides itself on well-kept beers. There’s the usual line of Brains
beers on draught. I had a pint of the Brains IPA (ABV 3.4%) on our first trip,
which has only recently become available on draft, and Brains SA on our return
(no Rev James though).
It might
not look like an archetypal village pub, but there is a lively sense of
community. There’s a dart board, occasional live music, and a pub quiz on
Sundays. Large parties can be catered for because of its size, a local
community club were celebrating when we were there.
An old
photograph inside the pub, taken around the 1960s, shows the building before it
was extended, with just a small traffic roundabout outside. Today, there’s a
complicated series of traffic lights, an ill-conceived bus lane, and guaranteed
tailbacks on at least one of the approaches.
The pub has
a beer patio out back (and a couple of tables out front during the summer),
where smokers can congregate. What a turn-around: it used to be you went outside
for some fresh air from smoke-filled pubs, but nowadays pub gardens are smoky
(doubly so in this case, because of the traffic fumes) and you go inside for
some fresh air!
The Merrie Harrier
(029) 2030
3994
The Vale of
Glamorgan pub tour 2012:
The Pelican in
her Piety:
The Farmers Arms,
St Brides Major
The Bush Inn, St
Hilary
http://www.bushinn-sthilary.com
http://www.bushinn-sthilary.com
Lamb and
Flag, Wick:
Blue
Anchor, East Aberthaw
Six Bells,
Penmark
Blacksmith’s
Arms, Llanmaes
Plough and Harrow , Monknash
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