I’m a bit old-fashioned and always considered entering a public house before noon to be desperately poor form. You can therefore picture me holding up my collar as I furtively sneaked into The Samuel Hall in Sherwood at precisely 8.30am.
You should know, however, that The Samuel Hall is a JD Wetherspoon job. Not just a pub, then, but an all-day restaurant; even an informal community hub, for my mate Alan, who volunteers at one of the charity shops across the road, tells me his committee meetings are held at the hostelry.
I’m not mad about the beer at Wetherspoon pubs, although it’s hard to be sniffy about any licensed premises that can knock out a pint for as little as £1.89.
The chain is getting other things right, too. Its food is reasonably priced and in choosing names for its outlets it pays due regard to local heritage – something developed on the excellent Wetherspoon website.
How many know, for instance, that the firm’s Joseph Else pub in Old Market Square is named after the sculptor and teacher who created the stone lions that guard the nearby Council House?
And how many know that Samuel Hall was the lace baron who in the early 19th century developed what was then the village of Sherwood on the road from the town of Nottingham to the smaller town of Mansfield?
In the early years of the 20th century Sherwood was the northern terminus of the original city of Nottingham tram network and The Samuel Hall has been created in the northern half of what became a public transport depot. A plaque honours his place in local history.
I was there for breakfast and having taken my place at Table 29 – cheered by the knowledge that I was by no means the first on the premises that morning - I considered my options.
I ruled out the American pancake offerings and the Quorn-lovers’ veggie numbers and instead chose the widowmaker – the Large Breakfast consisting of two sausages, two rashers, two fried eggs, two rounds of toast, three hash browns, a whole mushroom, half a tomato and a hefty dollop of baked beans.
The menu said something about 1,475 kCal and I reasoned that it would be enough to see me through to my elevenses biscuits.
I was alarmed by the speed with which the ensemble was presented and feared I was going to endure one of those hotplate horrorfests that include eggs vulcanised to the point where they could patch a crack in a tractor tyre.
As it happened, my eggs had been freshly cooked, and the plateful was a pretty decent effort.
However I continue to be puzzled over the need to give sausages the deep-fry treatment. A pity, because the bangers were far from the worst you will encounter on the aorta-blocker breakfast circuit and I would have been happy to wait another ten minutes for them to be slowly shallow-fried.
The bacon was not too salty and happily the tomato broke every rule in the British breakfast book: it was red, and it tasted of tomato. The beans were of respectable quality, but they were lukewarm.
The service was friendly and helpful and the coffee was drinkable, notwithstanding the fact that it was dispensed by machine. In fact it was good enough for the free seconds.
At the price, the Wetherspoon breakfast is probably the standard-setter on the high street and I wouldn’t sulk if I had to have another.
By the way, I had no room for biscuits with my elevenses.
The essentials: The Samuel Hall, The Old Bus Depot, Mansfield Road, Sherwood, Nottingham NG5 2JN. 0115 924 6230, jdwetherspoon.com.
I had … Large breakfast with coffee and large orange juice, £8.55
Star rating (out of 10): 7
Plate rating (out of 10): 10. Food served on proper plates, no preposterous slates, baskets, planks, etc.
The Food Sleuth dines unannounced and pays his own bills
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