11 months ago
The Castle’s back with its beer garden for the summer. Hunker down with a pint from Beavertown and, for the love of what’s good, get a burger.
The Castle’s beer garden is stuff of legends in the South West beer garden scene. Now that it is back open for summer, the place is sure to get packed out. They’ve got their benches out in the sunshine if you are looking to improve your summer glow, or the iconic garden huts (they call them ‘mini-castles’, which we really enjoy) which you can book out if you’re looking for a place for a larger, more intimate group gathering.
It’s not just the atmosphere that gets people flocking to The Castle. They’ve got their Burger Shack menu back on the scene and back pumping out food to keep you full whilst you enjoy the sun. Burger Shack is the Young’s Pub resident beer garden menu. They serve the pub chain up and down the country but they are extremely different to a lot of other ‘pub grub’ burgers we’ve ever had before. These burgers focus on using the very best quality ingredients, responsibly sourced meat and the flavours are really, really impressive. With that in mind, and with the temptation of that beer garden, we merrily headed down for an afternoon in the sunshine at The Castle.
An Aperol spritz and spicy margarita spritz were the drinks of choice for the day. Dare we say it, but a spritz might win for us over a classic pint and burger combo. Both light and refreshing making them perfect partner to a deliciously greasy meal. We especially liked the spicy margarita, the sharpness tequila with spicy jalapeño will wake you up in no time.
To eat we got two burgers; the classic plant burger and the hot chick burger. The classic plant was lovely; it came with vegan cheese and some zingy pink onions to cut through the creaminess. The plant patty itself was really tasty too and was even better smothered in the tangy burger sauce. The hot chic burger was their take on a Nashville hot chicken sandwich and was totally delicious. The sweet buffalo sauce, the spice from the batter and the juicy chicken all in a brioche bun was a treat. It’s messy, squidgy burger eating at its best. Roll up your sleeves and get a napkin ready to catch the drips.
We also got the loaded curly fries which came with ox cheek, plum ketchup, sour cream, jalapeños and a touch of nostalgia were a great sharer for a table… if you can manage to let anyone else touch them. They were extremely addictive. It was the frickles (AKA fried pickles) that we really enjoyed- crunchy on the outside and hot, soft and zingy inside? Sign us up. Pro tip: get the blue cheese dip to dunk them in and you can thank us later.
You’ve got to get down to The Castle this summer. Go for the beer garden, stay for the burgers, enjoy the frickles and roll out at kicking out time. That’s English summer at its finest.
