The Crown at Great Horwood is a nice village pub with a small dining area with about 4 tables. The menu is fairly small, but quite varied with some additional menu items in the evening and a reasonable selection of wines.
The food is quite good, but seems a little overpriced for the quality of food on offer, although the portion sizes are quite good. There was a group of us and we tried a selection of starters, all were around £4.50 each: Black Pudding stack with pancetta was nice, but there was an over abundance of onion relish; mushrooms with port and cream, quite tasty but served with half a bought-in Ciabatta bread which seemed an odd match; a huge portion of fairly ordinary pate served with a large pile of white toasty loaf.
Mains ranged from around £8-15 each. Coq au vin was quite nice and good value at £8.25, but seemed to have been over cooked and perhaps bought-in; chicken with Brie and Pancetta for £11.95 was perhaps the best of the bunch, but was served with a few over cooked and very oily new potatoes; the £15 rib eye steaks did not appear to be rib eye and was ordered medium rare and arrived medium to well.
On the up side the food wasn't bad, just below expectations. The service was rather slow all round, but the staff were friendly and helpful. The place gets busy so you should book in advance: so on this basis I'd try the place again, but I'd probably try the simpler dishes and see how they turn out. The pub is in the middle of the village, but has a reasonable amount of off-road parking. read more