Viva Lewes Issue #148 January 2019

FOOD REVIEW
Roast at The Rainbow
Carvery in Cooksbridge
Someone tells me that The
Rainbow in Cooksbridge
is under new ownership.
It’s not the first time, of
course. Back in the day
it was a fine country pub
that did great sausage
sandwiches, but it’s been
through many incarnations
in the last few years.
It was even – for a short,
confusing period – run by
Marco Pierre-White.
I also hear there’s a
carvery, which only costs
£8.50 on Wednesdays. It is
Wednesday, so I decide to make the usual offer
to my friend Caroline (she drives, I pay), and
to my wife Rowena (she eats, I pay). They both
say yes. At 11 that morning I ring up to book a
table for three. There’s only one left, it seems.
When we arrive at half one there’s only one
space in the car park, too; we rush through
the drizzle from car door to pub door, into the
welcoming interior, roaring fire and all. Both
dining rooms are full of figures seriously bent
over plates, chomping away.
I get a seat with a view of the hill-ridge behind
Plumpton, which soon disappears, gobbled up
by a dense raincloud. Luckily – eyeing up the
succulent-looking joints of meat waiting in the
glass-fronted carvery unit to my left – I feel
equally hungry.
The starters arrive, and a bottle of Rioja. I
have ‘haggis balls’ (£7.50) and covet Caroline’s
crayfish cocktail (£7.50). Rowena gets wild
boar terrine (£7). For the main course, Rowena
and I have decided to go down the carvery
route, but I’ve never seen Caroline turn down
the possibility of a pie,
and she’s true to form
when ordering her main,
off the ‘a la carte’ options
– beef and stilton, this
time (£12).
This is the deal with the
carvery. They cut you
several slices of meat
(beef, turkey or gammon,
I go for all three) and
a portion of Yorkshire
pudding; you help
yourself to carrots, peas,
roast potatoes, parsnips,
sprouts, red cabbage,
cauliflower cheese, stuffing and gravy. If you still
have room after all that, you can keep going up
for more veg.
So, for once, as Caroline carefully plods
through her pie, I don’t empty my plate embarrassingly
soon. And I’m not disappointed by
the quality, either: the meat is succulent, the
vegetables are crunchy, and – as Rowena points
out – the roast potatoes are done to a turn,
crispy outside and fluffy in the middle. And
she’s a severe judge, when it comes to roast
potatoes.
By the time I’ve finished, they’ve cleared the
veg away (it’s getting on for three o’clock),
but I wouldn’t have had any room for more,
anyway. Pudding, too, is rejected. Over a pot of
filter coffee (there’s no espresso machine) we
agree that it would be the ideal place to bring
hungry teenagers – Caroline has two – for
Sunday lunch.
Alex Leith
Carvery £8.50 Weds; £10.50 Sunday; a la carte
menu daily. revivedinns.co.uk/the-rainbow
73