I am not really one to pass much comment on your everyday establishments in the world of the pub chain but on occasion I do find myself frequenting one of their members and every so often I find that they manage to surprise me. Last week was such a day when I found myself over near to Crewe and needing some sustenance to get me through the rest of the day. We found ourselves at the Duke of Gloucester a pub from the JWLees group.

They had a pretty good menu selection, tagged on the top with the note “Great British Pub Food …. Honest and Freshly Prepared”. There were quite a few items that I fancied from “The Main Event” section on the menu, in particular the ‘Pan Roasted chicken breast with a Mediterranean chorizo and 5 bean casserole‘ for £8.50 was tempting as was the ‘Slow Roasted Pork Belly with Bubble and Squeak and Red Wine Gravy” for £8.95

In the end though I was curious to check out “The Healthy Fry up? Grilled Chicken Breast, Black Pudding and Free Range Fried Egg” from the salad and sandwiches section of the menu.

I really did not know quite what to expect and when it came it really wasn’t what I was anticipating but it turned out to be quite an excellent choice. Essentially you had a big bowl of green salad filled with bits and pieces that they describe as a ‘dressed mixed leaf with red onion, tomato and cucumber’. All I can say is that their certainly was a lot of it.

The salad was topped with a decently grilled chicken breast covered in a slice of crispy bacon, a large circular slice of black pudding and a perfectly cooked sunny side up fried egg. I suppose to be picky in terms of the healthy part of the Fry-up, the egg could have been poached, but then I suppose it wouldn’t be a fry-up, so lets just move on from that thought. The bacon was a little hidden extra, and the black pudding was pretty good for a pub.

I thought it was quite a clever idea combining salad with a variation on an all day breakfast, and it was also good value as well (if you like a lot of salad). You could get the dish in two sizes, a smaller plate for £5.50 or a larger plate for £9.50.

I enjoyed it, but I cannot tell a lie that I was secretly or rather openly jealous of my two dining companions one of whom had the ‘beer battered cod and chips, with mushy peas and tartar sauce’, the other had the Pie of the Day lunch special which was a Pheasant and Leek effort. Both looks pretty appetizing and all I had was salad. Thank the lord for the bacon and the egg.

The Duke of Gloucester is on University Way in Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 5NW. You can follow them through Twitter and on Facebook to see what they are up to.