The historic village pub, previously known as The Victory, reopened as The Partridge at the end of 2019 and despite the pandemic set about becoming a proper community pub.
Extended and renovated it is newly decorated with a bright fresh feel, and a programme of quiz nights, breakfast and supper clubs and Sunday roast takeaways.
We arrived on a chilly evening so it was lovely to be shown to a table in the main bar beside a cosy fire.
A glance at the menu revealed The Partridge is several cuts above pub grub. Its starters and light bites menu (a nice idea for lunch, or people with smaller appetites) included truffled mushroom arancini with almond pesto and a goats cheese, hazelnut and spinach salad.
A till issue at the end of our meal was swiftly dealt with – showing the team able to manage queries well.
The Partridge is an Elgoods pub, looking towards the historic Wisbech brewery just across the river into Cambridgeshire. My husband went for a local Elgood’s beer while I hopped over another nearby county border to Suffolk for my Aspall cider to accompany a shared plate of crispy whitebait.
I continued the fish theme with a seafood platter. More whitebait plus king prawns, scampi and calamari served with lemon mayonnaise and toast. It was prettily presented and tasted deliciously fresh.
My husband chose venison – the haunch wrapped in streaky bacon and served with potato rosti, red cabbage puree, spiced quince and kale. As I mentioned, it is not run-of-the-mill pub grub. The venison was meltingly tender and, again, the presentation was good, with rich colours adding to rich flavours.
It is almost a duty that if we see potato rosti on a menu, one of us will go it. I first had it in a revolving restaurant at the top of a Swiss mountain which had starred alongside James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
It was so good I tried to recreate it (the rosti, not the mountain or James Bond) at home. I might as well have tried inviting James round.
The Partridge’s rosti was very much better than mine.
For dessert, my husband was tempted by a cheeseboard which added his absolute favourite Welsh cheddar to some local offerings. In search of a light pudding among the sticky toffee, chocolate blondie and crumble, I enjoyed a scoop of coconut ice cream.
thepartridgenorfolk.co.uk
