Northumberland is packed with great country pubs where you can stop for a delicious meal if you fancy a drive out into the sticks on a Sunday afternoon.
With so many great places to choose from, I had a look at some of the top-rated pubs before the weekend, so as not to be turned away without a booking in a remote location. I settled on somewhere that I'd seen selling their fare at Armstrong Bridge Food Market in Jesmond and had got rave reviews from my family and friends, as well as some high praise on the internet.
The Feathers Inn at Hedley on the Hill was Northumbria Dining Pub of the Year in 2021 and was also the winner of Local Restaurant of the Year in the 2019 Good Food Guide North East. Most recently, it took Silver at the North East Tourism Awards in the Pub of the Year award, with the Blackbird in Ponteland taking Gold.
Arriving at the pub promises more, as the front door is bedecked with stickers to remind you that the Feathers has featured in the Michelin Guide on several occasions in recent years. We couldn't spend too much time counting those though, as we'd arrived for the last sitting of the day at 4.30pm, having starved ourselves since breakfast.
There are two doors as you go into the Feathers, we were seated in the dining room on the right, which is adorned with a map of where the produce comes from as well as pictures on the wall of their suppliers (the room on the left is smaller, though people were dining in there too). As I'd driven and my partner was still feeling tender from a heavy Saturday night, we ordered two pints of coke (£4 each), and perused the menu.
It promised three Sunday lunch options and a few other dishes a little more elevated than your standard pub grub. First up was the starters and we picked the vegan mezze to share.
Mezze platter starter at the Feathers Inn in Hedley on the Hill (Daniel Hall/Newcastle Chronicle)
Costing £7.50 or £15 for a sharing dish, the mezze consisted of chickpea hummous, smoky spiced aubergine, black beans with dill, spring herb tabbouleh, fresh flatbread and house pickles. And it was a winner!
Out of the seven options on the board, not one let us down - the humous was my favourite while my partner preferred the smoky spiced aubergine. The tabbouleh was fresh and had little sweet bursts from the pomegranate seeds, while the colourful pickled cabbage tasted a little like a sweet and sour sauce that you probably wouldn't usually find on a Mezze platter but that was fine by us.
The only issue was fitting the massive platter, which was served on a chopping board, onto our table for two!
Service was swift and it wasn't long before our mains followed. I chose the rump of Haydon Bridge beef with a Yorkshire pudding, horseradish and Madeira Gravy which came in at £18, while my partner went for the vegan almond, apple sage and onion no meat loaf.
Both Sunday lunches at the Feathers Inn in Hedley on the Hill (Daniel Hall/Newcastle Chronicle)
My beef was served pink and melted in the mouth, and the Yorkshire pudding was fluffy. My partner was impressed that the vegetarian Sunday roast had been home-made from scratch too, though it was burned on the bottom.
Sides came separately, with bashed swede, parsnips, carrots and greens, 'dripping' roasties, braised red cabbage and Doddington cauliflower cheese. Again, we had an issue with fitting them on the table, but as for the sides themselves, another treat.
The parsnips were fat and juicy, roasties were cooked well and the braised red cabbage was a revelation - all sweet and tangy. If I had to make one complaint, and this would be really looking for something, I'd rather that my meat wasn't draped over the bashed swede.
But that's a completely personal thing, I've never liked swede and no matter how the Feathers served it, that wasn't going to change. Defeated after two courses, my partner turned down a dessert but that wasn't going to stop me, especially when I saw burnt Northumbrian cream (£7.50, with the option of pairing it with a glass of 'Nectar' Gonzalez Byass Pedro Ximenez sherry for another £7, which I did not take), what I hoped would be a local take on a crème brûlée.
Burnt Northumbrian cream at the Feathers Inn in Hedley on the Hill (Daniel Hall/Newcastle Chronicle)
It was exactly what I thought, but bigger. The blowtorched sugar on the top had a delightful crack when you hit it with a spoon, and the cream underneath was smooth and sweet - delicious!
Our overall bill for a starter to share, two mains, two pints of coke and a dessert came to £69.85, which included a gratuity of 10% (that's automatically added to the bill). Probably more than we'd usually pay for a meal out for two, but in this case it proved to be worth what we spent and the 32-mile round trip.
And for those who like to walk off their Sunday lunch or work up an appetite before it, there is a walk you can do to enjoy the stunning views of the Tyne Valley. Try the Hedley on the Hill loop, or if you are really going for it, there's a circular that connects the village with Ebchester and Hamsterley too.
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