Family friendly and where everybody knows your name

Turns out it was double figures as my wife and our friendly waitress Laura shared a mutual friend, and she clocked us as soon as we’d arrived at our table.

In this world of online recommendations and word of mouth what better seal of approval than seeing a sea of people you know in the restaurant?

The Castle has had a fairly recent refurb, the decor and furnishing is all fresh with new features on the walls.

They’ve got new menus since the last time we visited and Laura recommended the fish trio to start. Jennifer took the prawn cocktail and Tom, working from the kids menu, took garlic bread.

The prawn cocktail was huge and Jennifer looked like she’d lucked out in the starters. The fish trio had come recommended and while a lot smaller, was very tasty with fish ‘n’ chip croquette, smoked haddock and cheese fishcake and a cod and crab bite, the latter of which was by far the best.

Ten-year-old Tom’s garlic bread and cucumber strips didn’t last long.

Next up was the mains and there was no question over the portion sizes here.

Both our meals came from the limited edition menu, and it was easy to see why Jennifer’s choice of a Beef rib wellington is used on the restaurant’s promotional material online and on the menu. It looked great and tasted the same way too. The meat - moist and on the bone - in the pastry fell apart on the plate and her green veg on the side was the perfect complement.

I had the Beef stack - fillet steak topped with brie served on a bed of creamed spinach, with sliced potatoes.

The meat looked like the chef had drawn exactly what a rare steak should be inside with one of the kids’ meal crayons. Perfect shading and layers of pink inside.

Sometimes you just want to go where everybody knows your name. Beefeater at the Castle, I’m glad we came.