Restaurant reviews: The Mill at Worston, Little Bridgeford, Staffordshire, UK

For a recent birthday, my family and I decided a meal down by the river was in order and our obvious choice was the nearby Mill at Worston, a pub/restaurant. I have fond memories of this place – I had my eighteenth birthday party here many moons ago – but hadn’t visited for a long time, so was looking forward to seeing how it had changed.

Location The Mill at Worston Little Bridgeford Stafford ST18 9QA Telephone: 01785 282710

Little Bridgeford is about two miles from junction 14 of the M6, just off the main road to Eccleshall. Unless you happen to live in the nearby village of Great Bridgeford, transport is necessary – bus routes in this part of the world are not terribly reliable, particularly in the evening. There is plenty of space for car parking.

The atmosphere As its name suggests, The Mill used to be a water mill and it is immediately obvious from the tall building that this is the case.

It is right next to the River Sow and there is plenty of seating outside the building, with seats and benches placed in strategic areas ideal for a view up and down the river. There are plenty of ducks wandering around – we really enjoyed watching some ducklings following their mum.

Inside, the pub and restaurant area are separated by the old water wheel, which is housed behind a glass cabinet. The rooms are quite plain – brick walls and wood, but decorated in bright colours without making it look too modern and out of keeping with the fact that it used to be a working mill. The restaurant area is on two different levels, which gives it a feeling of space, whilst being cosy at the same time.

Opening hours

I was quite surprised to find that they stopped serving food at half past eight on a Sunday, although the bar remains open to the usual time. This is very early by any standards, but is apparently commonplace in this part of the world. There are definitely some advantages to living in London.

Service

We had booked a table in advance, so expected to be shown straight to a table, particularly because the restaurant was far from full. I was rather surprised that no-one was on hand to show us to our table and we had to wait a couple of minutes before a waitress appeared.

She immediately apologised, asked us to wait one moment longer, and disappeared into the kitchen. Another waitress then appeared, apologised again for keeping us waiting and showed us to our table. Both claimed that the restaurant was busy, although I couldn’t see any sign of this. We opted to