Of course, I love my fiancee very much. This, I believe was demonstrated to its fullest when I booked a vegetarian restaurant for her birthday this year, The Red Lion in Great Bricett. Quite frankly, the thought of being denied a sweet scallop here and a juicy steak there had left me contemplating the logistics of sneaking a lamb cutlet in under my shirt...
I needn't have worried, however, because the menu at this quiet country road pub had plenty to distract a hardened carnivore.

Being a celebration, we started with three starters between two, as it was something of an event for my partner to be able to pick anything from the menu. I had hoped they would include some seafood, but these are no veggie-lite chefs - they're hard line here. Figs filled with goats cheese, wrapped in filo pastry and served with apple and plum chutney were meltingly good, the chutney slightly sharp to cut through the earthy cheese. Mushroom, chestnut & roquefort pate was heavy on the mushroom flavour - not at all a bad thing as it was almost meaty, but was quite crumbly. The accompanying ciabatta 'crispbread' was, in fact, toast - and needed more careful treatment. Roasted pepper houmous with pitta finished our Trojan array of starters, and despite displaying the promised sweet roast pepper, missed the garlic and tahini somewhat. A little chilli would have pepped it up.

Mains continued to be satisfying, if perhaps utilising similar ingredients. Porcini risotto fritters stuffed with gruyere in breadcrumbs were again heartily fungal, but could have benefitted from more seasoning and more gruyere. Fresh tomato sauce was unremarkable. Gruyere (again with this cheese, still not enough), mushroom and leek en-croute with potato gratin was again a hearty main, but lacked seasoning - the flavours were not strong enough to come through and more cheese was needed. The gratin displayed undercooked potatoes, but was passable.

The strange unifying theme throughout all these dishes was an unfeasibly large embellishment of salad leaves (oddly including a raw cabbage leaf), the dreaded iceberg lettuce and large slices of orange with every dish. It seemed to be an apologetic array of vegetarian morsels as if to suggest the dish was not enough - surely some more inventive garnishes, a sprinkle of rocket and flower petals, a blob of pesto, etc. would have been more appropriate, more exciting and less reminiscent of a guinea pig's dinner.

Desserts appeared largely catering supplier-bought. The chocolate brownie with ice cream and white chocolate drops was very pretty - but the dryness of the brownie put paid to the aesthetics quickly. The Strawberry Knickerbocker however was a winner, with plenty of fresh fruit and a tangy raspberry coulis. I would like to have seen more 'home-made' desserts here, but they were a fine end to an essentially satisfactory meal.

In retrospect, I feel I have been a little harsh on The Red Lion - the staff here are very friendly and were enthused to hear that such a dedicated carnivore had overall enjoyed the meal. There is good potential here, should some tweaks be applied - I feel maybe that there is a 'veggie pub grub' ethos here, and that some adventures into seasonal and unusual vegetables would really be quite exciting. And more cheese in the aforementioned dishes would please (but then I would say that...)

A meal for two (including the extra starter) was around £55, including drinks.

A word of warning, however - if you are a carnivore such as me, the sheep in the fields on the way home start to look very delicious...