Maldon Grey’s new menu is going down a treat with pub’s customers

If it’s very good pub grub you’re after, you can’t go wrong with the Maldon Grey in Sudbury, which has just launched its new menu.

Steve Watmough’s transformed the menu of the Cats Lane pub, which he’s had for 15 years.

He’s spent a couple of months revisiting old favourites and coming up with new ideas for the main, desserts and seniors menus.

You’d have to be the fussiest eater in the world to find nothing you like.

“It’s not just the main meals. We’ve added a lot of starters because they were very weak and we’ve added a lot of new desserts, they’re very strong now as well.

“We have a big sharing dessert platter which is something we lost, it’s a good theatre for the family to share a rather than just have one each. It’s a huge chocolate caramel base topped with four scoops of vanilla ice cream covered in cream, marshmellows, smarties and chocolate sauce finished with wafers. If you you look at the kids’ menu, we’ve introduced little novelty cartoon character ice creams.”

The seniors menu - two courses for £4.99, three courses for £5.99 - runs Monday to Friday, noon to 5pm. Meals include chicken and bacon salad to three bean smoky chilli.

“The chicken fajitas on the main menu were something we used to do years ago and they’ve not been on there for a while. They and the vegetarian and beef fajitas come on a sizzling skillet which is quite a feature. They come with mixed peppers, red onions and fajita seasoning stir fried and served with tortilla wraps, cheese, sour cream and salsa.”

The new menu, which has been running a little over a week, has plenty of vegetarian, vegan and gluten free temptations too.

These include creamy Cajun pasta, a panang curry cooked in an aromatic coconut sauce with cauliflower, green beans, mange tout and peppers and the chicken tikka masala cooked in a spice cream sauce and coriander.

The new curry corner is the jewel in the Maldon Grey menu’s crown.

As well as the panang and tikka masala offerings, there’s also the chicken korma, cooked in a mild creamy sauce with coconut, almonds, yoghurt, garlic and ginger.

The beef madras has tender beef cooked with sautéed onions, tomatoes and a blend of hot spices. The king prawn red Thai curry has bamboo shoots, red peppers, kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil. The Thai green chicken curry comes in a medium Thai spiced sauce with lime leaves.

All curries are served with basmati rice, popadoms and mango chutney. Sides include vegetable and lamb samosas, onion bhajis and naan bread.

“We’ve done curry nights before and we’ve had success with that. You go to most pubs and they have a curry and I was interested in putting more than one the menu. I think curry corner is quite a novelty. Add the sides to it... I don’t know of any other high street pub or chain of pubs that offer that.”

When Steve was designing the menu, he wanted to get away from that chicken tikka masala for ever and a day feeling. The more he tasted, the more he added.

“I thought ‘well, they’re all good enough to go on’ so I made a feature of it. If you go to an Indian, that means the party all have to eat Indian. If you’ve got somebody who wants a curry and somebody who doesn’t there’s plenty else at the Maldon Grey to choose from,” he says.

A family friendly pub, with a crazy golf course, playground, bouncy castle and two huge beer gardens; it also shows all Sky and BT sports channels on its big screen.

“We don’t claim to be a top end restaurant, it’s still pub grub; very good pub grub though,” he laughs “and welcoming to everybody.”

The Maldon Grey, in Cats Lane, Sudbury, is open 9am to late. Food is served from noon to 9pm.