The Mill pub and restaurant, Cambridge. Mod Satis

9th December 2015
We visit Cambridge to see friends, and this usually means lunch out. As it is nearing the Xmas season, which seems to get earlier each year, and also seems to be an exercise in how much time and money can be spent in enforced bonhommie with people who you normally would not want to waste time telling them to push off. So pub lunch it was, but of course pub lunch may not mean a sandwich or ploughman's any more, as it may mean attempted gastro-pub with pretentiously named pies and breads.
In my opinion, The Mill, http://www.themillpubcambridge.com/ , is about half way there and still remembers when Cambridge pubs meant drinking by the river. Typically I would hope for a steak and kidney pie, but the nearest I could come was a game, juniper and sorrel pie. Close, but not close enough.
You have to order at the bar and give a table number, and the fact that we did not do it all together completely threw them. Whether the first one to order hit a gap in the process before culinary hell broke out is not possible to say, but the first person had finished before the rest were served. A gastro pub ought to be on top of that sort of thing, but they might have thought it was a single diner sharing a table. That is the price you pay for ordering at the bar rather than someone taking your order, and they still expect service to be paid.
The pie was actually pretty good with lots of meat, not drowned out by the juniper and sorrel. It was hot, scoring a 9 on the scale. Unfortunately the vegetable accompaniment only scored a 7.9 and the mash an 8. There was a jug of gravy. Given that gravy is on the menu as a side order as well for £2 it was a bit pathetic being limpid and insipid. The food was fine in general but was a little insipid, but that might be what is wanted locally. Pub food is down to earth and has a blue collar taste. This was very genteel white collar

The pie as it arrives: a bit of an economical pie

Looks potentially and pleasingly home made.

What you get inside the pie: unexpectedly full

The gravy just leaked away.

The place with a passing cyclist

A single course meal for two including a drink came to £35. I guess the days of people eating out in the pub every day are gone at this sort of price, unless this is your main meal of the day.