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Olde Worlde Character
 Handily placed just over a mile from the M62 (Junction 30), the Three Horseshoes at Oulton is an old coaching inn surrounded by a profusion of pots and baskets of colourful plants and flowers.
They enthusiastically support the Yorkshire in Bloom competition. Inside, the low ceilings and oak beams add to the warm, convivial atmosphere, and even in midweek when we went, the majority of tables were already taken.
Food ordering is done at the bar and you can pick your own table, from a twosome to a family six or eight. The menu is 7 pages long,?but which includes a wine list. There is also a subsidiary Wednesday night fish menu and also the provision of hot rock grills.
Choosing from this impressive menu took a little time, but we eventually settled on starters of home-made pate and pan-fried garlic mushrooms. Both were served very quickly,my wife's pate was eminently smooth with a broad hint of brandy, while my mushrooms were hot enveloped in atasty sauce, not overdone with the garlic. Both portions precluded how much was to come.
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The inn has kept its olde worlde character well. Horse brasses and brass plates and muskets adorn the walls?making it easy to imagine 16th or 17th Century people enjoying the snug warmth of the place. Originally, the inn was smaller, but at some time in the past an extension into what was the courtyard has meant more tables can be accomodated.
Our main courses, fillet steak for Maria and a Liverpool Grill for myself, were served on plates literally half the size of the table, and they were full. Both dishes had chips, peas, mushrooms, onion rings and salad around generous portions of a well done fillet steak, and a medium rare sirloin with breast of chicken. The whole ensembles were delicious and very filling. We heard a neighbouring table ask for a 'doggy bag' and indeed we had to do the same. Even washing down the meal with one of the independent hand-pulled ales on draft at the bar could not make sufficient room for a dessert, tantalisingly scrumptious though they looked, and in equally generous amounts. The service is friendly and efficient, and if you want great value for your money, good food and plenty of it, try the Three Horseshoes.
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