The Crown at Worthington is a traditional pub with a large extension to the rear. The front of the pub is definitely the most charming (I find the dining room at the back a little soulless), with little nooks and crannies, old mismatched furniture and whitewashed walls.
The Crown at Worthington - with thanks to CityLife.co.uk
We first decided to stop via the bar, which was well stocked with a large selection of local ales on tap, plus the largest array of locally made flavoured pork scratchings and nuts I have ever laid my eyes on.
The lunch menu is quite restrictive, the usual pub classics such as pie and fish and chips - there's nothing that really stands out too much, but for £5 it's a fine list of lunches. If you really want something else there's also an a la carte menu, a pie menu and their famous 'Butcher's Block' menu - a selection of locally reared, 21 day aged meat plus accompaniments.
However we are all aware that there's a recession on and opted for the £5 lunch menu and boringly we all opted for the pie.
If I'd been paying full price for said pie I wouldn't have been that happy. The pasty top was a little thick for puff and seemed slightly stale. The filling had chunks of soft beef with a nice thick sauce, which was fairly tasty, though a little salty for me. The pie came with hand-cut chips and I can see what they were trying to do here - but instead of thick, homemade, beefy chips, these were soggy and let the dish down. All others had mushy peas, except I can't stand them, so the staff were more than obliging and changed my side to a massive grilled tomato (both sides), sprinkled liberally with salt and herbs - a really good accompaniment that they should serve with all the pies.
Having saved a packet on lunch we opted for the pudding - which was almost the same price! Whereas I'd been a little underwhelmed by the bad pastry and lacklustre chips, my pudding was divine. Belgian waffles were served with caramelised bananas and Frederick's banoffee ice cream.
The criminalisation on the banana was crisp and buttery, coupled with the sweet waffle and the creamy ice cream the pudding came together in a banana-ry cacophony in my mouth. No matter what everyone else had for pudding (they all had sticky toffee pudding, which was good, but not a touch on my pudding) I wasn't jealous. Not one bit!
The Crown at Worthington is a great place for good pint and is good value for a cheap and comfortable lunch. There are let downs on the menu, but for £5 I wasn't complaining (though they are following the recent trend for puddings at about £5 each - see previous posts for more on this gripe). If I was dining here in the evening at full price I don't think I would be overly happy, unless they ramp up the care and attention to dishes - maybe I'll pop back to find out later in the year.
Price for one mains and one pudding - £9.95
Food - 5/10
Service - 7/10
Atmosphere - 6/10
Value for money - 8/10
Total - 26/40
The Crown at Worthington, Platt Lane, Worthington, Standish, Wigan WN1 2XF, 08000 686678
http://www.thecrownatworthington.co.uk/
We live locally and have been in a good few times, first off let me say, the beer in here is SUPERB, it's really overpriced for the area, but, it is very good....we've had a few hit and miss meals in here but tonight has prompted me to write a review... the 2 starters came, my mussels were great, flavoursome, and reasonable portion, enjoyed.... however my girlfriends 3 pieces of garlic bread with cheese and tomato, were stone cold....not wanting them microwaved we put this down to a timing error and carried on... the mains arrived... I had ordered Gammon, while she had opted for fish and chips, what a total disaster... The portions would not fill a fly, a TINY handful of chips, and I mean tiny!! an even smaller portion of peas with my gammon, which was TINY! overcooked and that thin it was one step up from bacon. The fish and chips were the same, although the fish was nice, it resembled a minnow rather than cod it was that small, again the same beyond belief minimal portion of chips was issued, along with a small peas and tartare sauce. The chips are handcut and homemade, which normally credit should be given for, however they were lifeless and very greasy, I finished my main in under 4 minutes and was still hungry, and I'm not a glutton or huge eater... it was my girlfriends birthday and she and I were hugely dissapointed, I mentioned the portions to the owner, he apologised as I caught him on the hop, but did exactly nothing to explain why this was. Avoid - if you want a GREAT meal go to the Hop Vine at Burscough Bridge, fantastic food and awesome service, we've been a round 15 times and if anything it just gets better, the Crown - great for beer if you've money to burn, but eat elsewhere...
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