Darren from the MKFM team was invited down to The Dukes to try their Sunday menu, here is his full review...
On Sunday, we drove to the lovely village of Heath and Reach, to have lunch at The Dukes. If you haven’t been to Heath and Reach, it’s less than 10 minutes from the McDonalds at Little Brickhill.
When we arrived, it was great to see that they had their own car park, so we didn’t have to park on the main road or walk from another street.
The Dukes is a small quaint pub/restaurant with a lovely log burner in the middle of the pub. It was good to see what looked like many locals in the bar area before we walked through to the dining area.
We were immediately greeted and served drinks at the bar before being seated and presented with wine and the Sunday lunch menu.
The Sunday menu heavily focuses on roasts with 3 courses at £23.95, 2 courses at £19.95 and if you just fancy the roast, it’s £16.95.
We started with a prawn cocktail and the Soup of the day which was mushroom with truffle oil.
The prawn cocktail was nice and fresh with three extra prawns complete with shells and heads which I quickly whipped off and popped in my mouth.
The soup was thick and full of flavour, which also came with a generous portion of warm crusty bread and proper butter.
For the main course, we both chose the roast beef, which was beautifully presented and stacked with a Yorkshire pudding on the top and plenty of gravy. The beef was thick and tender with no fat present at all. The brisket was perfectly cooked and some of the best we’ve had. There was also the choice of pork and chicken.
The best thing about The Dukes’ roast is that it comes with cauliflower cheese as a standard. We have been to many places where this is an extra charge for this and not only that, but it was also delicious too.
In addition, there was also smashed swede, roasted carrots and parsnips, and freshly steamed broccoli.
Also, if the roast potatoes are your favourite, these were some of the best that we’ve tasted. Hand cut and roasted in a delicious meaty-flavoured oil.
If there are four or more dining, the vegetables are served separately which gives that real homely feel and is great if you aren’t a fan of some of the veggies. You can pick and choose as it gets passed around.
If you aren’t a meat eater, then there is also the choice of Scottish salmon or the vegan roast of the day.
When it came to the dessert, we decided on The Dukes’ Crumble of the day which was pear crumble and the hot chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. It’s the first time we have ever had a pear crumble, so we were not sure when we ordered it - but it was so good, and you could tell it was homemade.
What made a real change was that all the food tasted as if it had just been made for us. Everything was tasty and hot with everything appearing that it had been made by hand. There was no sign of frozen machine-cut carrots anywhere.
The service was exactly as you would expect for a family-run independent business, nothing short of wonderful!
The Dukes is a lovely place to go for a Sunday lunch if you want to take a trip just outside of Milton Keynes and it’s reasonably priced for 3 courses at £23.95. Even the biggest eaters will leave with a full belly.
The Dukes also offers bed and breakfast and private functions too.
PS – The following day it must have been an illusion, but we could still smell and taste the delicious roast dinner that we had, and we will be returning!
