Traditional pub grub

The UK has a long tradition of serving food in drinking establishments. But it is only in the last few decades that many pubs have embraced the economic need serve food. As drinking habits switch from customers having a few down at the local to having a few at home instead, pubs have had to generate extra income from preparing and serving food.

Standards vary enormously. If possible try to find a pub which sources local produce and prepares it freshly on their own premises. That should give you the best chance of getting a nutritious meal as well as a filling one. See our top Pub Grub meal below.

Which meals are usually the healthiest?

Start the meal with a soup like cream of vegetable soup or, better still, a vegetable or chicken broth if one is available.
For the main event the traditional “meat and two veg” options are often the best choice. Casseroles and stews also can be a healthy option.

Have your food served with a baked potato and a salad rather than chips. If there is very little fat already in your meal then adding a small knob of butter to the baked potato will slow down the metabolising of its carbohydrate, keeping you feeling fuller for longer. Dress the salad with a little vinaigrette for flavour.

Bangers and mash with onion gravy is one of those feel-good foods which everyone, young and old, enjoy. If the bangers are high quality locally butchered sausages, as opposed to the mass produced ones made from leftover pork paste and cereal, and the mash has not been cooked to pulp then this can be a reasonable option. The gravy can be full of fat and salt, so go easy on it.

The old fashioned puddings offer quite a challenge when it comes to recommending the healthy option. None of the most popular can really be given this title so it might be best to skip them altogether or choose something less traditional like a fruit salad or a hot chocolate.

Which meals are best avoided?

It’s wise to avoid anything which has been deep fried or which has more pastry than filling. This includes breaded mushrooms, scampi, battered fish, chicken wings and just about all of the various pies.
A pint contains almost 200 calories...add another 60 or 70 calories for stronger brews

Of course this also applies to the chips! Most have been deep fried twice, once to blanch them and then again to finish them off quickly before serving. If you absolutely must have chips then home-made oven cooked, chunky chips will be the least bad.

Our traditional desserts such as steamed treacle sponge with custard, bread and butter pudding or sticky toffee pudding and ice cream all carry a health warning. High in saturated fats and calories these should be avoided completely or reserved for very rare occasions only. If you can’t resist their appeal then do yourself a deal; one small treacle pud with custard (at a massive 530 kcals) must be balanced by 90 minutes of swimming breaststroke or a 2 hour brisk walk. Your choice...

What about the side dishes?

Generally speaking Pub Grub is served in larger than normal portion sizes. And trimmings tend to be included in most dishes. So the need for a side serving of deep fried onion rings should rarely come up.

If you think the portion sizes will not be enough for you and your group try ordering extra portions of the daily vegetables.
Beer is used to wash down pub grub. A pint or two halves of bitter contains just less than 200 calories. Lagers tend to be a little higher for normal strength. Many of the bottled lagers have higher alcohol content and, since alcohol racks up 7 calories per gram (second only to fat), you may add another 60 or 70 calories per pint for the stronger brews.

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What is the per100g top Pub Grub meal?

Start your meal with a hot vegetable broth. This will get your digestive juices flowing and prepare you for the main meal. But don’t add any salt – there is nearly always plenty included already.

Order sirloin or fillet steak with vegetables and baked potato. Make sure the steak is not over cooked – burnt food, like the edges of a very well done steak, contains lots of damaging free radicals. A smear of mustard can be added to additional flavour if needed.
One of the more recent smooth flow draught bitters will help wash this down.

For dessert opt for a fresh fruit salad full of crunchy apple slices, orange segments, grapes and chunks of fresh pineapple. Don’t settle for tinned fruit in syrup and there’s no need for a dollop of ice cream, which would only mess up the juices.

Estimated nutritional information based on typical serving sizes of similar products:

	Total	Starter	Main	Drinks	Dessert
Energy (kcal)	1050	111	675	182	82
Protein (g)	64.4	4.5	56.9	1.6	1.4
Carbohydrates (g)	101.4	16.1	54.9	12.0	18.4
incl. sugars (g)	41.1	4.5	6.2	12.0	18.4
Fat (g)	21.5	4.2	16.9	0.0	0.0
incl. saturates (g)	4.7	0.6	4.1	0.0	0.0
Fibre (g)	13.2	2.7	7.3	0.0	3.2
Salt (g)	2.4	2.4	Trace	0.0	Trace

At over 1,000 calories this is a large meal. Cooking the same at home would allow you to have a smaller steak (the example above estimates a 200g or 7oz serving) which would reduce calories and saturated fat.

Of course, it would be possible to swap out the two glasses of beer for something else. Choosing two fresh orange juices instead would allow you to add an extra portion of vegetables and still save around 60 calories.