Noah’s Ark Inn, Lurgashall, West Sussex.

UPDATE: see bottom of post.

Each year around Easter time my husband Geoff and I go on a lovely country walk where we meet no one apart from the farmer in his tractor. I can’t tell you exactly where it is for fear of spoiling it (and if I did I’d have to kill you) but we end up at Lurgashall, West Sussex and eat at the Noah’s Ark Inn.

It’s a bit of a trek, around an hour and a half, that’s without adding the time for taking hundreds of photos of little lambs, calves, birds, fields of oil seed rape, bluebells and beautiful views.

The Noah’s Ark Inn is situated on the edge of Lurgashall’s village/cricket green which has lovely cottages surrounding it. The Church of St. Lawrence is very close to the pub and is small with old and dark yew trees in the churchyard. It’s worth a look and to walk through the churchyard, carry on through to the road, turn right past a very nice cottage and you end up back at the village green.

The Noah’s Ark Inn has two outside seating areas with picnic tables, one at the front and one in the walled garden to keep the children from escaping. Inside is delightful with parquet flooring.

Inside the toilet is a photo of the blacksmiths which was next door to the pub back in 1910. Take a look at Wikipedia’s information on the village and the pub. It’s quite interesting and explains the origin of the pub’s name which goes way back to the 16th century.

The menu has some lovely sounding dishes like belly pork which is a favourite of mine, but we didn’t want anything too heavy or rich as we had to walk back. There were three bar dishes available for lunch time only plus sandwiches, starters and mains and roasts on a Sunday. We chose the home-made burger.

Now I’m not one to order chips, unless the dish comes with it, but these chips were divine! Crispy on the outside and just perfect on the inside. The burger was made from real beef – by that I mean not a load of gristle or rubbish. Although it was a little dry and crumbly. Tasty though and it wouldn’t stop me from having it on another visit. Inside the burger was some cheese, a rasher of bacon and a lovely large field mushroom. I adore mushrooms.

For dessert we chose rhubarb fool served with a handmade stick of ginger shortbread. This was delicious! Topped with flaked almonds the fool was wonderfully creamy with large chunks of rhubarb.

We also chose the brownie which was quite a large portion luckily as we were sharing both desserts. The brownie was gooey in the middle and crisp on top as a brownie should be, with small chunks of chocolate hidden inside. This was served with espresso ice cream.

I had a nice glass of Chardonnay and Geoff enjoyed a pint of Cornish beer. Geoff remarked that there weren’t as many beers as they used to have on offer.

The staff were pleasant and friendly and asked us how our meal was as we were eating it – which always happens when you are in the middle of a mouthful of course and all you can do is stick your thumb up and nod your head. Why is that? We finished the meal off with an espresso, to wake us up and give us energy for the walk back to the car.

Definitely a lovely place to visit either whilst walking, cycling or just arriving by car. There’s also a winery around the corner! Alas, we didn’t have the time to visit but looking at their website I see that Lurgashall Winery has a tearoom. So I must return!

Only disappointment was that we had come on a Thursday and the little shop at the rear of the pub called The Bottom Stable which has all kinds of lovely items was closed. Last year I had bought a lovely scarf with bunnies on and was hoping to pick something up for my birthday which is coming up very soon.

This is a walk we always look forward to and I’m sure it won’t be a whole year until we visit the pub again, at least, I hope not. In fact, I think I shall make sure that I cycle there soon.

Living life, loving cake

A x

UPDATE: 26/04/2017

We went on our annual walk from Petworth to Lurgashall again at Easter. We had booked our table at the Noah’s Ark as per usual. I had the most awesome belly pork whilst Geoff had an enormous piece of fish, which was fish-shaped. For dessert we each had a lovely rhubarb brioche & butter pudding with custard.
The service and food is still very good and definitely worth a visit.

The vineyard doesn’t appear to have a tearoom, however last year we were on a walk in the same area and had several tastings of their wine which were all very nice indeed, sweet fruity wines, not Cabernet Sauvignon etc., obviously. They’re very much into gin there too.

The Bottom Stable never seems to be open whenever we visit now. This year our walk was on a Saturday so I’ve no idea why.

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