When a leaflet dropped through our letterbox offering a thirty percent discount at Merrie Gardens Farm, Lake, how could we resist?

Mindful of the special offer deal, we ordered the second most expensive dish on the menu: 10oz ribeye steak.

The meat was better than expected, with depth of flavour, and juice to soak into the accompanying chunky chips, which were so good that the others in our party – fobbed off with the inferior 'fries' – begged for chip donations like greedy scavenging seagulls.

The sweetcure gammon steaks with pineapple was a bargain at only £13.79, and that's before the generous voucher discount.

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We upgraded this meal to sweet potato fries, an option we would recommend.

Those standard skinny fries really are dry as dust and about as interesting.

To read more Matt and Cat reviews, you can visit the pair's website here.

The chargrilled gammon was plentiful and adorned with not only a seared pineapple ring but also a fresh free-range fried egg.

Enjoyable and satisfying, this was a true pub grub classic, even to the extent of the garden peas having a slightly bluish hue to them. 

(Image: Matt and Cat) Dessert was a salted caramel sundae, which was served with Biscoff crumb - a single Lotus biscuit broken in half - plus intriguing-sounding miso caramel sauce.

This on-trend style of sauce was a new one for us, and to be honest, you can probably keep it.

Miso is good, caramel is good, but somehow the combination wasn't.

(Image: Matt and Cat) Marston's must have been left with a huge vat of the stuff because three out of the four caramel-based puddings featured miso caramel.

The sundae was otherwise pleasant enough, but the miso was an unusual and unbeneficial deviation from the conventional on the Merrie Gardens menu.

It is fair to say Merrie Gardens has vastly improved from our last visit, when we failed to even get served.

(Image: Matt and Cat) This time service was good, food and beer pleasant, and even the standard menu prices are about what you'd expect for a comparable family pub.

But wait – we didn't pay standard prices.

No, like everyone else in the pub, we got a huge 30 per cent off which made this an outstanding deal.

This offer expires in December 2024, so pick up a voucher or download one, and your hungry family can enjoy a Merrie Gardens meal at prices cheaper than the nearby KFC.

(Image: Matt and Cat) (Image: Matt and Cat)