I ENJOY living in central Southampton but when the weekend comes around I normally like to escape the car fumes and congestion for a few hours at least.

With the New Forest just ten minutes up the road (depending on the roadworks), it's the perfect destination for a Sunday lunch and stroll.

With nowhere in particular in mind to go, we headed up the A35 Lyndhurst Road to Ashurst and decided to stop off at the imaginatively titled The New Forest.

Inside there are two separate sections - a large conservatory restaurant popular with families and a bar area complete with comfy sofas.

The pub offers a carvery, something that you don't seem to find in many pubs nowadays.

We arrived quite late for a Sunday lunch, probably at about 2.45pm, and it was clear that the staff were playing catch-up.

There were a number of tables free but they either had a reserved sign on them or had uncleared plates from the previous diners.

We eventually attracted the attention of a waitress to clean one for us and proceeded to the bar to order our meals.

The carvery costs £8.95 for an adult and £4.50 for children, alternatively you can chose from their extensive Sunday menu.

We were given a ticket and then queued up ready for the chef to carve the meat. There was pork or beef to choose from but we plumped for a bit of both and were given generous portions of each.

We were then free to pile our plates as high as we wanted with vegetables including cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, roast potatoes and lashings of gravy, apple and horseradish sauces.

We returned to our table but I had to track down another waitress to ask for some knives and forks.

We both enjoyed our meals in the busy, but relaxed pub, which was full of families and young couples.

The size of the conservatory means that you don't feel like you're sitting on top of the nearby tables as you sometimes do.

The decor is similar to many pubs with clay pots, old books, New Forest prints and china plates adorning every available shelf and wall space.

There's a play area and garden which backs directly on to one of the Forest's campsites - making it extremely popular during the summer with hungry tourists.

By the time we left a lot more of the tables had been cleaned so maybe we just picked a bad time to arrive.

We may have opted for a 'help yourself' lunch but in my opinion, a pleasant meal could have been made far more enjoyable if the service had been better.

The New Forest is on the Lyndhurst Road in Ashurst. Information: 023 8029 2721.