The Buck Inn

The Gen

The Buck Inn sits long and low and charmingly crooked on the bank of the river Yare. An assortment of oddly pitched roofs and leaded windows makes for a curious looking place with more than its fair share of character.

We arrived on a warm and pleasant summer evening. With the grass bank rolling gently towards the shimmering water there aren’t many nicer places to be.

Atmosphere

Cosily ensconced in the bay window seat we can begin to take in our surroundings. The rooms are long and narrow, white walls, black wooden beams and a floor of large stone tiles throughout. The old fashioned pub vibe gives yet more character through the period features which also include an external gents across the courtyard from the pub. OLD. SKOOL.

Being a waterfront pub in the depths of the summer holidays the bar was a mix of different accents as locals and holidaymakers all moored up for the night at the bar and mingled over a pint and a good meal. Everything so far suggested the food would be simple but tasty pub grub, we were very much mistaken.

Starter

It’s a small menu but only deals in big flavours. My starter was an enticing wedge of pork belly, a blackened crisp crackling giving way to layers of soft glistening fat and tender pork. Sat in an unusual chorizo cream the spicy meat and the peppery nasturtium leaves all packed a punch. With this we had grilled asparagus in a rich cream with quails eggs offering little explosions of flavour.

The Main Event

A choice of Buck Burgers and a range of pub classics are on offer but even the simple dishes are made interesting and all go for those big tastes. An old fall back for vegetarians, the risotto, is often no more than a slightly sloppy and tasteless choice. Not so here as a mix of flavours and textures create a lovely dish. Rich and flavourful with the addition of truffle oil and a poached egg a selection of vegetable crisps provide much needed variety in texture. I had a supreme of chicken stuffed with artichokes and wrapped in bacon. Chicken Supremes are often served with a sauce which helps to hide any toughness but the meat here was perfectly soft and tender. It was therefore served without a sauce but with rice and spicy chorizo. All of the dishes were beautifully presented and really distinguished themselves from the usual pub grub we might have been expecting before we arrived. As each one was placed on the table I was faced with a dilemma – admire the handiwork or tear into it.

Pud

The Buck also doesn’t fall into the trap many pubs do of piling high mountains of food on your plate. The portion sizes are generous but leave space enough for dessert!

The flourless chocolate torte was insanely rich, dense and sticky and felt deeply indulgent. Served with salted caramel ice cream and sprinkled with hazelnut crumbs the contrast in textures helped to avoid the torte becoming too sickly. In fact it was just the right level of sickly!

With it we had a banoffee cookie crust - almost a banoffee cheesecake with a biscuit base and layers of sticky toffee and banana. This was sickly and, in the best traditions of desserts, required very little chewing! It came with pistachio ice cream which felt an odd accompaniment but was still a fun and tasty pudding.

Conclusion

The Buck is a beautiful building in a lovely location. On the Yarmouth road it could easily be somewhere you go past and not to. I was expecting simple pub food and was very pleasantly surprised by the menu and the execution and presentation of the dishes. All of it too was for a very reasonable price. If you’d like to get out of the city centre why not give the Buck Inn a try?

Venue – 7.5

Fodder – 8

Value – 8.5

Overall – 8