Elephant & Castle

Rochdale isn’t the place to be, that’s why my good friend hailing from there always come to visit me in Manchester, thankfully.
But the Elephant And Castle is an exception in local village Bamford. Having been invited to the other side by S, we were introduced to this local delight. Meals for a fiver, great one. Options included a Chinese inspired sizzling beef, curry amongst the usual pub grub. On Sundays there’s a £9.95 deal for the traditional dinner and sweet. Great value and great tasting home made food.
Marking it off as great was the open fire. The Elephant and Castle is all you’d expect from a village local, friendly and warm. Rochdale isn’t that bad S.

The Elephant and Castle is a popular pub in Rochdale, it serves a range of wines, spirits, lager and real ales and is popular for a nighttime drink.
However I would not recommend eating here. I had lunch here last weekend and wish I had gone with my gut feeling and gone elsewhere. When we entered most of the tables were filthy, we managed to find a clean one in the corner and picked up the menu’s that looked like they had been in use for 10+ years, they are battered and ripped giving a bad first impression. It is at this point that I mentioned maybe we should eat somewhere else but we were in there and seated so we decided to give it a go.
I ordered soup and a tuna sandwich and my boyfriend ordered pâté and chicken and chips. All meals were disgusting, my soup was reheated tinned soup by the taste of it, it was very watery and far too peppery and i’m not sure how it’s possible to get a tuna sandwich wrong but the tuna was dry and the bread was slightly stale. The chips were greasy, soggy and tastless.
We sent our food back to the kitchen barely touched despite being very hungry, yet noone asked us why.
I would return to the Elephant and Castle but only at the evening for a drink, I won’t eat in there again, if the chef can’t manage to get a sandwich right I don’t hold out much hope for the rest of the menu.

The Elephant and Castle is a traditional looking pub with a small outside seating area and car park.
The pub is a popular watering hole, but lunch times and early evening are very busy as they serve good value, very tasty food. There is a black board with specials on top of a good selection of dishes on the main menu. If you are hungry try the Elephant Burger, not the healthiest thing on the menu but very tasty.
This is a busy friendly place with good service and good food: highly recommended.