Sir John Cockle, on Sutton Road, is probably a regular choice of boozer for people who live nearby, but the pub also serves up value lunches, dinners and light bites throughout the week.

When going for a pub lunch you are never expecting to be wowed by the menu, but you do hope for quality food, good beer and comfortable surroundings –– a scale Sir John Cockle scores two out of three on.

As a pub to enjoy a pint in, it is a welcoming, family-friendly environment with a choice of real ales. But unfortunately the food is not the best to be found at a pub in the area.

The staple of pub food is the beef burger and at £4.95 I thought I wouldn't be able to go far wrong so I opted for that, while my friend chose the traditional fish and chips with a chocolate brownie dessert off the bargain set menu for just £3.95.

The prices left us with plenty of spare change in our pocket, making for a good start to our lunch, but if you are pushed on a one-hour lunch break I wouldn't count on getting back to the office in time as our meal took quite a while to arrive.

When it did come I was faced with a rather sparse salad beside a burger which was very dry, while my friend described his fish and chips as 'less like a pub lunch and more like a school dinner'.

Polite

Despite the lack of quality with the food it is hard to fault a pub like the Sir John Cockle, which is a pleasant spot to sit and have a drink with friends or meet up for a quiet birthday celebrations like the people on the table next to ours had done.

The staff were polite and when there was a slight error with our order they were quick to apologise and to bring the dish as soon as they possibly could.

The Sir John Cockle isn't a winner on the food front, but I would definitely go back for a pint and recommend it to anyone to drop in as I'm sure you would