The Pheasant at Keyston; 30 Mar 09

For collectors of meaningless trivia: if you want to find a restaurant midway between Histon and Market Harborough go to Keyston. Keystonis just oof the A14 west of Huntingdon and it strikes me as a rather affluent village. The blue bins mark it out as being in Huntingdonshire and it boasts a fine church, a manor house and a fine restaurant at the Pheasant.

The Pheasant used to be part of the Huntsbridge group which also owned the Three Horseshoes in Madingley (another of my favorites) and is now reduced to the Bridge hotel in Huntingdon. It was sold to the current owners, both of whom have impressive experience, in 2007. Today was my first visit. It won’t be my last.

I met a business colleague and we really didn’t eat enough to justify a ‘review and the place was hardly busy so we didn’t see the staff performing under anything like stress but you know how it is when you go to a place and just get a ‘good feeling’. I will go back and give it a good work-out.

You might call the Pheasant a gastropub but my guess is the owners would say that it’s more than that. However it is still a pub, and a village one at that, and it boasts the wooden kitchen style tables and stone floors characteristic of gastropubs. Whatever you call it, it has the right look and feel.

It was quiet but nonetheless it was good to be served promptly and efficiently. We both had moules, maybe we should have avoided these on a Monday but they were fine. I took the Belgian option ie with chips, Jerry stuck to bread. He had a pint brave man that he is; I could not, it just sends me to sleep at mid-day, and stuck to water. And I forgot to give the place the tap water test.

The staff seem to be largely European, as of course were the diners but you know what I mean, so I felt that we would be on firm ground asking for an espresso. No problem. Mission accomplished: back to Market Harborough and Histon respectively.