Pub with 'stunning' beer garden and burgers 'locals love' for under a tenner

"Every morning I sit out in our beer garden with a brew, the view is amazing"

This week’s pub is located a hair’s breadth from the Ribble Valley border, run by a veteran manager while offering a beer garden with ‘spectacular’ views.

Jake Allen comes from a foodie background and has been running Great Harwood’s Game Cock Inn for a few months now - aiming to leave his mark on the pub’s menu.

Can you introduce yourselves?

My name is Jake Allen and I run the Game Cock Inn in Great Harwood and I’m James Wildman-Archer and I’m the chef.

The pub is available to get to via bus (Image: NQ Staff)

How’s running the pub going, Jake?

It’s been good so far, I’m just trying to get standards up at the moment. Compared to when I first came in, it’s a hell of a lot better. I'm from a chef background so for me if you’re working at a pub you’ve got to have a passion for food, I wanted to bring in staff who reflected that ethos.

If a customer has issues, they're right and you’ve got to deal with it, no matter whether you agree or not. But it’s going a lot better now, food is looking really well presented and it’s cooked really well. Every customer coming through the door could be a critic and you’ve got to treat them like that.

Have you made any other changes?

A big thing for me is getting our food looking the best it can, people eat with their eyes first, so if it looks generic and boring people will be put off. I came in here first off and everything was on circle plates, little changes like bringing in rectangular ones for burgers just make a big difference.

The view from the 'picturesque' beer garden (Image: NQ Staff)

What makes the food special, James?

We’re a bit of both, we do the gastropub-style food and your pub grub. Everything is home-cooked fresh, which you don’t get at a lot of carveries.

I’ve only been here a few weeks, and seeing all this fresh food is just amazing so I’m really happy here. I’ve got some new ideas for dishes like Yorkshire pudding wraps. We are a bit limited on the menu because of costings, but we do try our best and customers are pleased.

The 'Black Rose burger' (Image: NQ Staff)

What’s the most popular dish?

Definitely one of our burgers, the regulars absolutely love them, probably the favourite is our ‘Black Rose Burger’. It’s £9.95 and really tender, it’s just lovely and you can tell people like it because they always order it.

You can get some sides with it which is a popular option, especially onion rings and chicken tenders.

James and his freshly-made carvery (Image: NQ Staff)

What pints are on draft?

Coors

Madri

Cruzcampo

Aspalls Cider

Caffreys

Guinness

What makes the pub stand out, Jake?

The location! It’s beautiful out there in our beer garden, especially on a morning. Every day when I come in I sit outside with a brew, the sheep come right up to the wall, it’s just picturesque.  We’ve got a wedding booked in for next year as well, which we’ve started doing, so that will look great out there

What are the biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge ironically is the location! We’re not in a town centre where people walk past every day. We’re out here and it’s not really a busy road, so we need more people to know about us.

We do have a great group of regulars that come in from a nearby estate though which is really good. We’re quite popular with walkers as well, as the area is obviously really popular for that.

The Game Cock Inn is on Whalley Road, Great Harwood and is open every day 11.30am to 9pm.

It’s under the Black Rose pubs chain.