After a brief closure, following the departure of the previous owners, The Golden Mile Country Inn, has reopened its doors. The opening revealed a completely transformed public house and restaurant with rooms.
New owners Liz and Mathew have clearly injected some serious investment in terms of time and money into the pub. Gone is the old decor, the unloved front bar, traditional front room restaurant and shoddy patio area.
Instead there is a cosy bar area with comfy contrasting chairs, an open and airy restaurant with stunning views from its wide bay windows and a spacious outside seating area. There is also a lovely childrens play area. Have a look at our other post –pubs with play areas – for a list of other pubs in the Vale which also have outdoor play areas. Importantly, The Golden Mile Country Inn is also now a Free House, leaving the owners to put their own stamp on everything.
But, would the food live up to the promise of the decor?
Since its opening we have visited many times, both for a quick drink, to sample both its lunch and evening menus and to test its Sunday lunch offering, all of which, I’m pleased to say have been very good.
The menu itself is a mix of traditional pub grub, think fish and chips and curry of the day, to the more upmarket offerings of pork belly with jus and mussels in cider and bacon.
On our last visit, we went for an evening meal, just the five of us (two adults and three kiddies). The choice of starters was good, with a good selection of fish, vegetarian and meat dishes.
I opted for the Gower mussels with bacon in a cider sauce, served in its own mussel pot with accompanying chunks of bread for dipping. This was very good and the cider a nice alternative from the usual wine. The bacon also being a welcome addition.
My husband opted for the Chorizo iberico hash with poached hen’s egg and pepper mayonnaise. This came served with cubes of mini potatoes rather than grated, which was a nice change. The flavours of the dish worked well together and the dish did not disappoint.
For mains, I tucked into the Duo of pork, which was both pressed belly pork and pork tenderloin. This was served with carrots, a black pudding crumb, parmentier potatoes and a pork jus. Whilst very tasty, the portion was very generous, it was nothing short of a mound of food, and for me slightly overwhelming. I tucked in but eventually had to give in to a full belly, despite it being very tasty with tender pork and a rich jus.
My husband sampled the steak, served with a pepper sauce, chunky chips and vine tomatoes. The steak was cooked rare as ordered and the whole dish was well received.
The children between them sampled the spaghetti Bolognese and the sausages and chips. They lapped up the dishes without a word between them. When finished they pronounced them very tasty. The sausages in particular were of very good quality.
With such generous portions there was no room for dessert, we had to turn away from the temptations of the fried donut sundae and sticky toffee pudding, with the promise of trying a main and dessert instead next time.
The kids of course had the ice-cream – after all there’s always room for ice-cream.
The service on this visit was very good and they made a fuss of the children too. During all our visits we have found the service friendly, both from the welcoming owners and the helpful waiting staff. There were initially some teething problems with slow service when they first opened, but these seem to have been completely ironed out.
The Golden Mile has been so popular since it has opened that it now offers three sittings for Sunday lunch and has many tables occupied on even a typically quiet weekday evening.
It is so nice to see the new owners making a success of the restaurant, may it long continue, as selfishly for us we now have a great new family friendly local restaurant right on our doorstop.
Additional Information:
Family Friendly Rating: *****
Ambience: ****
Food: ****
Overall: ****
High Chairs – Yes
Baby Changing – Yes
Childrens Menu – Yes
Dog friendly: No
Tel: 01656 654 884
Address: The Golden Mile, Corntown, Vale of Glamorgan, CF35 5BA
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 12 – 11 p.m, Sunday 12 – 10.30 p.m.
Website: www.thegoldenmile.co.uk
