IT SEEMS like these days more and more pubs in small towns and villages across the UK are reinventing themselves as gastropubs.

While this is by no means a bad thing, it does mean that a pub will have to go above and beyond to make that journey a little bit further out worth it.

Fortunately for the Sun Inn in Welshampton, the trip is worth it.

I often pass by the Sun Inn on my way to work, but I had never visited before, so I was looking forward to seeing what was on offer.

The pub operates on an order at the bar system, which suited me down to the ground, as it removes that awkward waiting for a waiter or waitress to see your desperate attempts at eye contact scenario that is so common.

The pub say they serve food until 9.30pm and my companion and I visited around 8pm, on a Tuesday.

Fortunately we had no issue finding a table to sit at as the pub was quiet, but I imagine if you visited during more sociable hours – that is to say not 8pm on a Tuesday – it would be a lot busier.

I ordered the pie of the day, foolishly failing to enquire what it actually was, but fortunately it was steak and ale, which was just to my liking.

My companion meanwhile ordered the smoked salmon supreme.

The menu said to allow around a 20 minute wait for the pie, which was no issue, but I imagine if the restaurant was in full swing, the wait would not be noticeable anyway.

When the pie did arrive it was a sight to behold. I'm still not entirely unconvinced it was a meal for two that I ordered for myself by mistake.

I had not eaten much in the day, which I felt would give me an advantage in tackling the pastry covered behemoth. How wrong I was.

As a man whose eyes are chronically bigger than his stomach – especially when hungry – I thought the pie would be no problem, but around half way through I quickly realised I was in trouble.

I have yet to mention that this meal came with chips that could be carved out and used as canoes if the need arrived and enough peas to feed a small army.

I am typically one of those weirdos that will only one item of my meal at a time, but I knew that if I focused all my attention on the pie, the chips and the peas would not even be touched.

So I soldiered on with my meal, that I knew I had no chance of finishing. Normally if I don't finish my meal I know it's not the end of the world – I've had my fill, I need no more.

But in this case I was sad that I clear my plate. I can only imagine the eye rolling that went on in the kitchen's eyes, when I turned up and ordered the most gargantuan meal on the menu, only to be unable to finish.

So to all the chefs at the Sun Inn, I apologise.

My companion had no such trouble with the salmon on the other hand.

In what she claimed as "the best meal she's ever had" the salmon dish disappeared before I had even moved onto the chips, in what can only be considered a rounding success for the pot washers.

For both of these meals, and the two glasses of cola we ordered, the bill came to around £35, which was perhaps a bit pricier than I would have liked, but on reflection a fair price for the sheer volume and quality of the food.

I was also able to pay for the food at the bar as well, meaning that I could leave at my leisure, and not at the behest of a member of staff, which is always a positive for me personally.