East Devon Pubs

From the ashes

I went to the relaunched Blue Ball in Sidford on monday for the Herald's self funded Christmas meal. This is the pub that regular readers and those who know what goes on in Sidmouth, will be aware burnt to the ground around two years ago. Well now, and probably for a good few months, it's back in business and is again serving up good quality food and an interesting selection of drinks. It being a Christmas dinner, our menu revolved around turkey so we were not really able to sample all the food the Ball's kitchen produces, but what we did have was good. It was also plentiful. Unusually, my roast turkey came with stuffing as well as a yorkshire pudding, which I had thought was generally reserved for beef roasts. The three course Christmas meal was £19(I think) and the two course option was £14, which seems reasonable. Wioth a round of drinks for seven coming in at around £18, it was an affordable evening out as well. The atmospehere is good, the original Blue Ball having been recreated much as it was. It is now slightly lighter inside which, while it might make illicit liasons harder, it does make group get-togethers easier. This is a good pub with good pub-quality food. One friend described his meal as slightly bland, and clearly it was not five star restaurant food, but it was certainly a good meal in good company making for a good start to the Christmas season. Is your work place having a Christmas meal out at a pub in East Devon? Let me know where you're going and what you think by emailing peter.leriche@archant.co.uk