It was on a balmy spring evening we meandered our way through country lanes to The Cat Inn in West Hoathly for an anniversary dinner.

Driving into West Hoathly is like driving onto the set of Nanny McPhee; cute little cottages, an imposing church and spooky gothic mansion. Slap bang in the middle of all of this is The Cat Inn. The pub is a 16th-century building with original beams on show inside. The interior is what I expected; all scrubbed tables and floors and inglenook fireplaces.

As we approached, 2 range rovers were trying to park in it's already full and very tiny car park so we parked on the street and walked up. Maybe we approached from the wrong entrance but we walked into a hallway and it wasn't immediately welcoming or obvious where to go…perhaps I was having a moment. I was pleased to see that children under 7 aren't permitted (I'm not anti kids – I have a kid – but I don't want them running around whilst I'm having a grown up meal in a nice place. Saying that, what's the difference between a 7 year old or an 8 year old? Surely it would better to exclude children full stop…?)

On turning into the saloon bar we found our way around the bar to announce our arrival for the reservation. It's popularity is obvious as there were many people seated in the small restaurant area and others hanging around the bar waiting and enjoying a drink.

We were seated immediately by a very young looking boy (but perhaps that's my age) on the tiniest, teeniest table positioned in the corner of the room overlooking the courtyard where a large table of young guys and girls sat smoking and drinking pints which was a bit incongruous.

We had to squeeze between another table for 2 and a large table for 6 to get in. No-one bothered to scooch despite us saying ‘excuse me’. It did strike me that the table for 6 was unnecessarily positioned close and could easily have been moved by 10 inches or so to make our table just that little more accessible and comfortable.

The specials board was… More