The Bankhouse, Fulneck, Pudsey

A bit of a last minute decision to eat out on Saturday evening led us to the Bankhouse pub in Fulneck, Pudsey. After a long month with payday still a week away, we wanted some cheap and cheerful pub food.

The Bankhouse has a lovely beer garden with views over the Fulneck valley. In the summer, it is a fantastic place for sitting out and enjoying a leisurely pint. In January, however, you definitely need a seat inside so we booked a table for 7.30. (They don’t require reservations but it is a good idea as it gets busy, especially for Sunday lunch).

The pub is a lovely traditional pub and serves a good range of real ales. As we walked in, we had a bit of a wait at the bar as there were quite a few customers in. We let the bar staff know that we had booked and were pointed in the direction of the “restaurant bit” which is a small area to the right as you walk in the main entrance. We weren’t really shown to our table so we just figured out ourselves which one it was.

The menu is typical pub grub. We shared starters of deep fried brie and chicken dippers (we wanted the pate but it was off). For main, I had the lamb shank (one of the specials) which was served with bubble and squeak, leeks and peas. The Bankhouse is not mean with the gravy, thick and delicious and plenty of it! The lamb was tender and fell off the bone.

A had rib eye steak. He said it was okay but realised it was probably a bad move to order steak in a pub – he asked for medium rare but it was served more on the other side of medium. Pubs tend to be good at the scampi and chips and roast dinner-type meals. But a steak is better ordered in a restaurant.

G had the steak and ale pie which was homemade and served with some really good thick chips.

V ordered the salmon and mushroom tagliatelle. It was quite a strange mix – lots of salmon, mushrooms and other stuff, not much tagliatelle. Pasta dishes seem easy to get right but there is actually a fine balance to be created between the pasta and the other ingredients. It is interesting as the dish was more balanced in favour of the more expensive ingredients, whereas the cheaper pasta was a bit on the lean side.

Despite this, I have to say that the Bankhouse does good pub food in a pleasant atmosphere. They have a good selection of ales but sadly the wine leaves a lot to be desired. As regular readers know, I am a Pinot Grigio fan. Sadly, the Pinot at the Bankhouse was the worst I have ever tasted. I would argue it tasted more like a Chardonnay (which I hate) and I couldn’t drink it. An easy thing to rectify – Pinot is not expensive and there are plenty of lovely reasonable brands out there.

The pub had a band on after nine. They were great but too loud for us. With the possibility of conversation at an end, we called it a night.