We had a rather soggy trip out to Castleton recently to meet some friends, and I had a good meal in The George Inn. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of it, so we’ll have to make do with one I took of the outside in the rain.

This is a really traditional, cozy pub in the Peak District, that has a reasonable gluten free offer, a good understanding of cross contamination and a separate fryer for gluten free chips – hurray!

They have quite a few items marked as GF or GF option on the menu and were happy to talk through the options. Starters included olives, soup, belly pork and nachos. For mains they offer fish pie, veggie shepherd’s pie, salads, gluten free pizzas, sharing nachos, gammon steak and others. Also a Sunday lunch option, but without some of the trimmings, of course.

I chose the vegetarian shepherd’s pie, which was made with lentils and mixed veg, topped with a goats’ cheese mashed potato. Sometimes pub veggie meals can be a bit hit and miss, but I loved this and am going to try it at home. The goats’ cheese gave it an interesting depth of flavour which is sometimes missing in veggie versions of meat dishes.

We ordered a side of sweet potato fries because the fryer had been turned on especially for me. Would have been rude not to!

The non-GFs in the family enjoyed the bangers and mash ‘your way’, with a choice of six different sausages, five flavours of mash and five sauces. This, we have already replicated at home on a smaller scale for friends, as it was such a good idea!

I’m sure they had some pudding options on the blackboard as well, but we ventured out in the deluge to one of the traditional sweet shops for a treat to take with us up to a Peak Cavern tour.

The George
Castle St, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WG