Fancy A Bit Of Zebra Tonight...?

FLANDERS and Swann knew how to pen an catchy ditty or two, but their 1957 homage to the gnu – part of the wildebeest family – failed to mention that it isn’t much cop when barbecued. If you want a tasty hunk of African game when you’re on safari in the dry hot savannah of, er ... Abingdon, go for zebra.

And the place to chow down on bush meat is the Spread Eagle pub. Unless Cotswold Wildlife Park has been offloading a few carcasses, this is one place prepared to buck the trend for locally sourced ingredients.

It does a roaring trade in unusual steaks served on hot volcanic rock at table. And I mean hot, as in 400C.

WHAT DID YOU HAVE THEN?

We thought it best to order the Safari Rock for two, at £32.50 – described as “four fillets of various meats of different textures and flavours, served with fresh pineapple, tomato, stir fried mushrooms and onions plus your choice of potato”.

In fact, we had the option of roasted veg too, which was what I ordered, with mash, while the other half asked for the salad option that was also available, with boiled potatoes.

While we were waiting 10 minutes or so for the meat to be carried to us sizzling, on square slabs of super-heated black rock, I sipped an excellent pint of one of the guest beers, Tom Woods’ Bomber County, and remarked how the service seemed easygoing but efficient, despite the place filling up quickly.

We’d arrived only just in time – at 6.45pm on Saturday, 15 minutes after our booked slot.

Later, when there was a quibble about the bill (the neighbouring table’s drinks had been put on our tab), the mistake was sorted speedily and without any fuss.

There weren’t many seats left in the sun-washed back garden and in the pub (which looked slightly dingy, it has to be said) most tables were occupied by cheery groups tucking into slabs of lean meat.

The food is served until 8pm, so if you’re planning a visit, don’t dawdle.

WHAT WAS THE GRUB LIKE?

At first, a wee bit disappointing. This was because we’d asked for gnu, kangaroo, ostrich and zebra, and the first fillet we tackled was the gnu, as bland as it was tender.

Our selection was one of the several options available to diners who want the volcanic rock treatment.

Thankfully, the Safari deal included pots of sweet chilli, garlic mayo and barbecue relish with which to liven up our wildebeesty fare.

But the kangaroo oozed spicy game flavours, rather like venison, and while the chunk of ostrich wasn’t entirely in-yer-face, it certainly was a pleasant alternative to say, pork, with a salty finish that the other meats lacked.

The star of the show, however, was the zebra – rather like an exotic version of lamb, we thought.

Back in the late 90s there were a few folk who thought this sort of stuff was going to be the food of the future and went off to start ostrich farms and the like, yet it’s still relatively rare to see a spot of exotic meat on the menu.

The rest of the pub grub sounded tasty and creative too – chicken stuffed with black pudding, for example, or pork in Jack Daniels sauce.

SO, FULL MARKS, THEN?

Hold your horses (or zebras). I’ve not finished yet. There wasn’t anything wrong, exactly, with the desserts, but they weren’t great either.

My Lemon Blossom – described as a lemon sorbet on a biscuit base – turned out to be a flavoursome but ordinary serving of cheesecake, drizzled with some syrup and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, while my fiancee wondered if the crispness of the summer fruit in her sundae was because the raspberries had only recently defrosted.

And she was less than complementary about the state of the women’s loos.

VERDICT: Quirky, friendly and affordable. It’s not difficult to see why this place is popular.