The Ring O’ Bells Public House in St Issey is located right on the main road that runs through the village, indeed the road sign attached to the pub tells you that it is between Padstow and Wadebridge on the A39.
We had bedded down locally in the village in a nearby AirBnB where our hosts had put this on the list of local recommendations so we already had our sights on this pub as a place to get some evening scoff and possibly the odd pint while we were in the area.
On their website they said that “The Ring O Bells is well known locally for serving really good quality home cooked fayre at ‘pub meal’ price“.
I always like to get a meal at a fair price and I like a pub I can walk to as well.
HOMEMADE SPECIALS MENU
The menu at the Ring O Bells reads like a top ten list of Pub Food Classics.
As well as the Homemade Proper Pies, Cottage Pie, and Fish Pie listed above they also offer all the things you want on a pub menu such as ‘Steaks‘, ‘Gammon Steak‘, ‘Handmade Burger‘, ‘Homemade Beef Lasagne‘, ‘Issey Chilli Con Carne‘, everything you might fancy.
The meal that got away from us on this trip that We would and should have eaten was the ‘Ringers Bangers and Mash‘ which was made with sausages produced locally from meat reared on their own smallholding.
What did we eat though? We went all piestastic while we were there eating both the ‘Ringers Proper Pie‘ and the ‘Cornish Fishermans Pie‘
RINGERS PROPER PIE
The “Ringers“ Proper Pie was described as being “An individual full pastry pie served with fresh vegetables, a choice of real mashed potato or chips and our own rich gravy”
Even though I had already eaten 2 Cornish Pasties earlier in the day while MyFoodHunting my way around St Ives, I still fancied another round of pastry so I ordered myself a pie (it was a long drive back).
I could have been tempted by the one filled with ‘Chicken and Chorizo‘ as I love me some of that spicy sausage, but I stuck with the traditional classic of ‘Steak and Ale‘
Now this was one great homemade pie, the pastry was as promised all the way around the filling, and although it was thick, it was cooked well so that it was still a little flaky. There was lots of tender meat filling the pie and plenty of great beef flavour, plus some sweetness and saltiness from the ale added to the gravy.
I had the homemade pub style chips which were also good with a nice crispy skin and a soft fluffy potato filling. The pie and chips also came with some perfectly cooked broccoli and carrots, with a little bit of cabbage.
I really enjoyed eating this plate of pie and chips, if I had any thoughts to improve I would of liked some more gravy. Did I ask for more gravy? No I didn’t so whose fault was that then, mine 🙂
CORNISH FISH PIE
The Cornish Fish Pie sounded so good when we had looked at the menu, in fact if I had not already had my sights set on getting that Steak and Ale pie I would have ordered this!
‘A mix of locally caught white fish with salmon and smoked haddock poached in our own white wine cream and parsley sauce’ ooh nice! ‘topped with real mashed potato and melted cheese’ sounding even better!
Was it nice though? Oh yes it was deemed to be pretty darn good as well. Loads of fish mixed into that creamy parsley sauce all topped with cheesy mash.
You really could not go wrong ordering this dish. Best of all you could tell the difference with it being homemade, it was pretty much the same recipe that we use at home too so it was all such a lovely familiar taste.
A taste was about all I got though 😦 , but the verdict from the other side of the table was that it was indeed spot on
CURRY NIGHT ON WEDNESDAY
On the first evening when we ate at the Ring o Bells some of the locals in the bar said that we should come in on Curry Night as not only was it great value with two dishes for just £15, but also that the curries at the pub was really good as they were homemade too.
Well what would you do? One takes any recommendation with much seriousness and so we just had to take up that advice. We came back and checked it out.
BOTH CURRIES WE ATE 🙂
Beef Madras 
Chicken Tikka Masala
They had four different Curries on offer, all pretty familiar and popular options. Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Korma, Vegetable Tikka Masala, and Beef Madras. We couldn’t eat all four 🙂 so we ordered a Chicken Tikka Masala and a Beef Madras.
They all came with rice or chips and if you wanted you could add Naan bread, Pappadom, mango chutney or an onion salad. We had rice and added a naan.
CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA
The Chicken Tikka Masala was a really decent effort, there really was a lot and I mean a lot of chicken packed into that curry gravy. The menu online said that this was ‘A medium-hot curry with chunks of roasted marinated chicken in a creamy spiced curry sauce‘
This was really not like your standard tomato based sauce that you often get in an Indian Restaurant and Chain Pub. This seemed much and I mean much better. Lots of gentle spicing, Lots of mouthwatering curry gravy sauce and a lot of curry joy. I love places that do homemade 🙂
BEEF MADRAS
The Beef Madras also came with a very generous portion of beef that was really tender and well cooked. The menu on the table had suggested that this was a hot dish but for my taste it was more medium spiced and to be honest I was quite happy about that.
The online menu description suggested that this was ‘An rich and intense (very hot) beef curry originating in Southern India with a highly spiced chilli sauce’
I would say that the Ring o Bells version does have a great depth of spicing in the sauce and was well cooked to develop a rich sauce full of very clean flavours.
We shared both dishes and both agreed that these were two of the better pub curries that we had eaten for quite a while and for just £15 and absolute bargain. We were not that keen on the rice or the naan but we forgave that as the homemade curries were so good 🙂
The Ring O Bells is located at Churchtown, St Issey, Wadebridge PL27 7QA
So basically as I said on the main road through the village (you cannot really miss it)
The bus stop for the number 11a that runs between the two is right outside. Now that could be handy, but as the last bus leaves Padstow at about 7.30 it’s. not much use to anyone who fancies public transport options from Padstow to the pub but it was pretty good when staying in the village as we just used that bus to get back for opening time 🙂
It is also a bed and breakfast so you could use it as a base if you were in the area. If you do let me know what the breakfast is like!
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