The Maids Head in Mildenhall receives a visit from SuffolkNews' Secret Drinker

Welcome back to a fresh series of pub reviews by SuffolkNews’ own Secret Drinker, who will make their way round the county’s watering holes and give you their honest opinion.

What is the best song to belt out when in the pub with your companions?

Although there are quite a few different options, it’s not every day you hear the voice of an angel beautifully singing Def Leppard’s pop rock hit, Pour Some Sugar On Me.

Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for that day as it wasn’t quite the case for me when I heard something that vaguely resembled the sound of a wailing pigeon in The Maids Head in Mildenhall.

Despite this, the disco night music played over the course of the evening was pretty good with a lot of old bangers and it was the biggest positive of the evening in my eyes.

However, I did still find myself a little confused when High School Musical’s ‘We’re All In This Together’ was somehow followed by Shaggy’s ‘Boombastic’.

Even though it was a bold move by the DJ, I actually admired the decision as I simply never saw it coming.

The music may have been the biggest positive but it also brought the biggest negative in that it was simply too loud and in my opinion, you go to a pub to talk to your companions and catch up, and as a result, this loses a couple of marks in my review as we struggled to have a conversation.

Anyway, enough about the music as I’ve somehow managed to get a fair way into my review without mentioning the thing that can make you either laugh or cry, or even a combination of both. Yes, it’s alcohol. We Brits love a drink - maybe a bit too much to be honest.

My two drinks of the night were a Guinness, followed by an Aspall. I chose a beer and a cider in the hopes of gaining a nice balance (not physically) and both drinks thankfully met my expectations.

With the Guinness, the bartender knew what he was doing and filled 3/4 of the glass, before letting it settle and then resumed the pint a minute or two later. For an okay price of £4.20, it was a solid beer, with a decent creamy head and it certainly wasn’t watery or thin so I can’t complain.

Moving onto my Aspall which I enjoyed slightly more, it was crisp and not too sweet or sickly. At a price of £4.00 I was pretty happy with it.

There was perhaps a lack of variety when it came to the lager on offer but more annoyingly they didn’t do any hot food. This maybe isn’t surprising but when you're in the mood for some chips, it’s not an easy feeling to ignore.

When it came to the atmosphere of the pub, I estimated around 50 people in attendance, either chatting or having a boogie which is certainly a big positive - although some of the moves were pretty bad and I’m not talking Michael Jackson.

Narrowing in on the finer details now, there was an arcade machine, a TV showing BBC News and a nice clock on the wall - which all helped to bring an extra something to the pub which although may seem rather unimportant, I really did appreciate them.

On a whole, the furniture was decent and the toilets were clean and seemed well looked after which is always encouraging.

At the back of the pub, there’s a sizeable number of spots to leave your car and even a nice park with slides and swings which makes the pub an attractive proposition during the day especially in the summer.

Unfortunately, it was extremely dark so I decided I’d leave a go on the slide for another day - I do want to make it clear this is a joke…ish.

As a football fan, I was delighted to see that they show ‘The Beautiful Game’ in the building - with the Premier League and European competitions available on BT Sport. Even if the team I support toy with my emotions like a psychopathic puppet master.

Rounding off my review, I was impressed with the two members of staff I briefly interacted with, who were both professional and polite. I find even just a smile as they pass you your pint can go a long way.

That’s if you're not too busy already gazing adorably at your pint already of course.

The scores out of five:

Decor: Was generally impressed, the strobe lights from the DJ set helped to add some colour and the building itself was clean, tidy and not remotely boring. 4/5

Drink: No reason to complain here. I was satisfied with both of my drinks that were served well. 3/5

Price: Again, in today’s environment, for a local pub that likely had a hard time surviving the pandemic, I’m cool with the prices I paid that were around the general UK average. 3/5

Atmosphere: The music combined with the many people that were either in or outside the pub helped contribute to a great atmosphere. It’s a pub that has regular music nights too with either live music, karaoke’s or disco’s. Having the music too loud does mean it drops a point though. 4/5

Staff: As mentioned, I liked both members of staff and would be more than happy to order a drink from them again. 3/5