The weather, until the past week, has been unusually lovely - meaning some folk seem less keen on their Sunday scran.
Luckily for the pub trade I’m a man of habits, so with the sun shining we jumped into the Eatsmobile and set out for a slap-up lunch in Northumberland.
This week She Who Must Be Fed had her heart set on the Beresford Arms, in Whalton. Since our last visit the pub has closed and reopened and the new owners are making a smashing go of things.
Inside is clean, modern and the menu looks great. On a weekday you can chow down on pigeon breast but for us there was only one option. The works.
The Sunday menu is fairly limited but ticks off all the classics. To start, I went for the prawn cocktail (£6.95) while Mrs Eats opted for chicken liver parfait on toast (£5.95). I ordered a pint of Black Sheep to wet my whistle, while Mrs Eats had a glass of white wine.
There was a bit of a wait for the starters to arrive. And as we contemplated the mains it was hard to ignore just how quiet it was. It might not have helped that along with the scorching weather it was a weekend of top quality sport, but it did feel a little bit awkward.
Luckily, shortly after our food arrived, more customers arrived and it was soon a bustling dining room.
The prawn cocktail was good - plenty of prawns but it was dolloped into a wine glass giving it a bit of a retro dinner party feel. The parfait came as a solid slab that was impossible for Mrs Eats to finish - but luckily I was more than happy to step in to offer a helping hand. It was smooth, and incredibly rich but as silly as it sounds tasted too strongly of liver for She Who Must Be Fed.
The mains were a much more impressive affair. I went for the lamb while Mrs Eats went for the pork. There were hefty slabs of meat and we were brought a gravy boat so we could soak our roast to our hearts’ content, two types of potatoes and mounds of vegetables - carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and swede. In fact the portions were so huge it was impossible not to be mesmerised by the mounds of meat.
Mrs Eats also ordered a side of cauliflower cheese which was hearty, homemade and left us - very uncharacteristically - without room for dessert.
It’s been a while since we’ve been to the Beresford but it’s been worth the wait. The food was plentiful and affordable with mains at £10.95 and it’s impossible not to be impressed by the value.
Service was perhaps a little slow but the food came with a smile and when the roast is that good, you just can’t complain.
