The Fat Badger Harrogate Review
The Fat Badger
Harrogate
Reviewed by Sean Dodson
You have to be careful when a hotel opens up what it claims to be a pub. Too often the end result is nothing like a real pub and you are left with something that’s either too forced and formal or too full of the soulness identikit styling so beloved of corporate chains. Thankfully there’s nothing stuffy or sterile about the Fat Badger, save tor the taxidermied badgers that adorn this handsome and well-appointed establishment in the centre of Harrogate. Formerly the bar of the adjoining White Hart Hotel, once a Georgian manor house, the Badger is can lay claim to being a pub in its own right, filled with an eclectic collection of badger paintings, leather armchairs and some generous booths. Like any good pub there's really decent collection of real ales on tap.
We visited for Sunday lunch, two-year old daughter in tow, and dined in the sunlit terrace that runs down the side of the pub. To prove it is a pub, you must order your food at the bar, but the staff are attentive and helpful and numerous. We were served swiftly throughout even though pub and terrace were packed.
We opted for starters of prawn cocktail (£5.95) and a cannelloni of ricotta and spinach (£4.95) both generous and well-presented but not too filling as to spoil the mains. This being Sunday we opted for traditional roasts. Roast rib-eye of locally-sourced beef (£10.95) was a little on the heavy side perhaps, although the roast potatoes were fluffy and Yorkshire pudding was volumous. The Nidderdale leg of lamb was something else, it shone like the early spring sunshine; the sharp mint sauce in particular felt as seasonal as the daffodil and the vegetables were crisp and juicy as the bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio (£16.95) that all contrived to consign winter to a past memory. Meanwhile our two-year old was distracted from her sticker album by and excellent penne Bolognese (children’s menu two courses for £5.95) which arrived very quickly indeed. A blessing in such situations.
The deserts finished the meal on a high note. Sticky toffee pudding and vanilla ice cream (£4.00) went down well but the bread and butter pudding with cinnamon ice cream (£4.00) was truly excellent, juicy and ripe with fruit and a light as a good crème caramel. But it was our daughter who had the best of it all. A delightful Knickerbocker glory, transformed with chocolate mousse and fruits of the forest. For a pub, the food is of a very high standard indeed. Nothing stuffy about the Fat Badger, accept the three of us who were in one word: stuffed.
For more information or to book visit: thefatbadger.co.uk