The Manor House, Whittington, Kinver - food review

Luckily, it was a quick no-fuss dinner after yet another gruelling nine to five day with no sporting event looming.

And what's not to love about being waited on hand and foot with no washing up? Yay.

The Manor House of Whittington is on the way home from work and a perfect pit stop. It screams olde worlde country pub even though it's slap bang on the A449 but once you're inside you could easily be a million miles away from the world of work and traffic jams.

The building dates back to 1310 and is full of beautiful low beams and quirky character. There are lots of nooks and crannies ideal for escaping the stresses and strains of life. Out the back there's a beautiful garden area with a huge firepit and twinkling fairylights in the trees, which, in summer, would be a splendid setting for soaking up the sunshine and enjoying some long drinks.

The super friendly staff were charm and cheer personified from the moment we set foot in the door and began by offering us a table in the formal restaurant or the more laid back bar area.

We ditched the bells and whistles and chose to relax next to an, ummmmm, smouldering log fire.

And here's a funny thing. One minute there were wisps of smoke emitting from the fresh wood, but then a bearded member of staff knelt beside it blowing gently on the embers and voila, roaring flames licked up the chimney. Him man. Very Neanderthal. The perfect atmosphere in one simple breath.

So we perused the menu sat in comfortable wing-backed chairs next to a fire as the sun was setting on a cool slightly chilly spring day.

Drinks were needed, swiftly ordered and served: a refreshing G and T and the daily after work deal – two bottles of beer for the price of one. Sol was the alcohol of choice. There are of course all the usual bevvies, wine, spirits and cocktails too.

The menu has loads on it with charcoal oven steaks and wood fired pizzas being specialities, along with several veggie options and a good mix of pub grub some of which is a little out of the ordinary.

Dishes such as quinoa and grilled halloumi salad, roasted curried cauliflower, red mullet and mussel fish stew and a duo of duck, stood out.

I was in a dining dilemma unable to decide between a pizza, pasta or fish. My dinnermate was, meanwhile, busy contemplating a steak. Decisions, decisions.

We decided to forsake the usual conventional starters and instead settled upon a few of our favourite things. . . garlic dough balls and garlic pizza bread.

The balls came first, a decent size: think golf. Very buttery with chunky pieces of garlic, light and airy and demolished pretty quickly. Soon after the paper thin garlic pizza bread arrived. It was delightfully crispy and garlicky but one or the other of the dishes probably would have sufficed. Hindsight and all that. There was A LOT of bread going on and potent garlic, enough to keep any vampires at arm's length at least.

Once we'd devoured all that dough the mains arrived.

In the end I'd decided on the wild mushroom linguine with sautéed spinach, black truffle and wild rocket, while he fancied the spicy chilli chicken pizza with red onion, garlic, chilli, sweet piquanté peppers, but substituting the goat's cheese with mozzarella. Carbtastic!

I love a bit of linguine and this wasn't too filling despite the bread-heavy starters. It tasted a little salty but as someone who doesn't really eat much of the white stuff it may be that my palate's just not used to it. The spinach had a good crunch to it retaining the sharp flavour which can be lost by overcooking. There were a few sorts of mushrooms in the dish – not being a funghi expert I couldn't accurately identify which ones they were, apologies for the ignorance – but all had deliciously earthy flavours.

The sauce was oily but light, the linguine cooked perfectly not al dente but not too soggy either. A delight of a dish.

The pizza was hot stuff. It had a bit of a spicy kick to it as, after one mouthful, he grabbed the bottle of Sol to swig and douse the chilli heat igniting in his mouth. I managed to swipe a morsel too and it was pretty fiery. The tomato and peppers were sweet and succulent, the mozzarella a creamy and cooling contrast to the sharp spice.

Thankfully the base was a crispy sourdough and not too heavy after the earlier bread overload.

You can even watch your pizza being made in the wood fired oven if you wish too.

The side of skinny fries – oh my goodness, more carbs, had we learnt nothing? – were nice and crispy like a topnotch takeaway style chip.

We were way too stuffed for dessert although there were several tempting dishes. I liked the look of the exotic sounding coconut parfait with pineapple salsa, lime curd and coconut meringue but also a bit of everything sounded good with the dessert sharer; mini chocolate brownies, mini sticky toffee puddings and berry pavlova. Naughty.

The bill was a reasonable £54 with a few drinks downed as well as all that food. The staff were exceptional which really made the meal much more enjoyable.

And, I'm pretty sure consuming so many tasty carbs – especially him with the beer and pizza – if we had been running a marathon we would have easily crossed the finishing line together after all.