A Pint of Cider and a Cheese Sandwich: Bee O’Wulf visits the Lamb Inn, Axbridge

Bee O’Wulf’s weekly mission is to find the best pub, serving the best pint of cider and the best cheese sandwich in the Cheddar Valley. She likes pubs, she’s partial to a drop o’ cider and her favourite sandwiches are of the cheese variety. It sounds easy...

This week Bee tries The Lamb, The Square, Axbridge

For my first trip I venture to the medieval market town of Axbridge to visit The Lamb.

As befits a pub dating from the 15th century The Lamb is all low beams, dark wood furniture, dark carpets, open fires and ancient farming implements (most of which can form the basis of a “what’s it for?” game to pass the time).

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The pub is justly proud of its bottle bar, the likes of which were all the rage in country pubs in the 1970s – but most pubs have had a refit since then and bottle bars are now few and far between, so seeing one is a rare treat.

Because it’s a Butcombe Brewery pub one of the ciders on offer is the Butcombe-owned Long Ashton Cider Co’s Ashton Press. A cider that is pressed in Somerset from a variety of apples it is a slightly sparkling, medium sweet cider it fits the “local” criteria but, although it is not unpleasant and is a slight improvement on a Magners or Strongbow, it is not what I would call a proper cider.

Oh well, let’s see what cheesy delights await me on the menu … shock, horror! The selection of sandwiches include salmon and cream cheese or ham and brie. But neither of those are “cheese sandwiches” in the true sense.

Disaster – my mission has become impossible. But then I notice under the baguettes section that cheese and coleslaw is on offer.

Now, I could cheat and ask if the cheese and coleslaw could be put inside two slices of bread, but that’s not really the idea of the challenge, so I decide to bend the rules and have something on the menu, even if it is a baguette and not a sandwich. There’s a choice of brown or white. But if you’re drinking cider and eating cheese there’s no point bowing towards healthy and so I choose white.

It arrives at the table before I’m even half way through my pint and looks good – the baguette is firm and fresh and the inside is full with the required cheese and coleslaw; to add colour a handful of leaves decorate the plate.

At under a fiver it is reasonably priced, indeed the whole menu seems to offer value for money.

Score: Cider 2.5 out of 5. Cheese sandwich 2.5 out of 5. Ambience 2.5.