The dog-friendly Bristol pub with a sun terrace and retro food

Next to a tree-lined valley bisected by the River Trym, The Mill House has the look and feel of a remote country pub despite being a short walk from both Clifton Downs and a bus stop with regular city centre-bound buses.

It’s also a pub flanked by three Bristol suburbs - Coombe Dingle, Sea Mills and Stoke Bishop - in one of the city’s leafier areas.

The Mill House is certainly a pub that draws people from a wide catchment area and appeals to a range of drinkers and diners.

A large part of its appeal is the fact it has a decent size car park and also an enclosed front garden and rear sun terrace.

It’s also dog-friendly, which goes down particularly well with those locals walking their pooches in the area’s many green spaces.

A large one-bar pub with a raised area at the back, The Mill House is contemporary inside with chunky wood furniture, carpets and framed beer posters.

It actually has the well-groomed look of a big chain pub, rather than the small neighbourhood boozer it is.

Well-supported by locals, there’s bingo on Tuesday night and a pub quiz on Thursdays.

As well as crisps and nuts, bar snacks include ‘fresh cockles’ for £4 - a rare sight in any pub located so far from the sea.

On the afternoon we visited, there were three real ales on draught - Timothy Taylor Landlord, Black Sheep and Wadworth 6X. Thatchers Gold, Stella Artois, Moretti and John Smith’s were also on tap.

The food menu sticks to traditional pub grub, too, rather trying too hard to be a fancy gastropub. Prices are kind on the wallet, too.

Starters, all priced at £5.95, include prawn cocktail and breaded Brie wedges with cranberry dip - retro dishes that predate even gastropub menus.

Most of the main courses are under £12 and range from ham, egg and chips or chicken curry and rice to veggie chilli and lasagne.

There’s even room for that old favourite ‘Hunters Chicken’ - the sort of retro dish I remember my dad ordering in country pubs in the mid-1970s, along with a pint of Skol or Double Diamond. That’s when he couldn’t see chicken in a basket on the menu.

But then I guess these classic pub meals hold a nostalgic value in an area of Bristol with a lot of retired folk of a certain vintage.

And it’s also perhaps why The Mill House remains such a popular local in one of Bristol’s most desirable areas. It serves well-kept beer and straightforward food - there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

The Mill House, 94 Shirehampton Road, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 2DS.