Our final night in the United Kingdom brought us to a place that we discovered through Will's cousin last year, the Bay Horse in Hurworth, Darlington. a mere 20 minute drive through the countryside from our hotel here in the North.
We had such an amazing meal with our family last year that we had to return with our UK best friends for our last night. Not only was our meal magnificent but we were ten times more impressed than last year.
As in the USA Father's Day is celebrated on the same Sunday in the United Kingdom and we thought the place would be jammed when we arrived at 7 p.m. but it was virtually deserted and by the time we left at 10 o'clock there was nary a soul in the restaurant.
The service was beyond excellent and Luke who was running the show absolutely made it the most wonderful evening.
Everyone had cocktails, but I chose to order a fabulous bottle of Saint Audin Villages from Sylvan Langoureau 2021 that was creamy and Rich and everything you could want in a white wine.
Bread arrived and we were more than hooked with a vegetarian sultana walnut bread and brioche with chorizo and caramelized onion, not to mention the butter... did I say the soft local butter?
Sam was thrilled that they had a complete vegetarian menu and he started off with a burnt onion risotto and then chose a Nut Wellington for his main course. Just from looking at these dishes a lot of love went into the preparation and the presentation so be sure to check out the photos on Facebook. He also loved the Aspall cider, which was a name open to many jokes.
Other started included Roasted King Scallops with braised chorizo, Jersey Royals(new potatoes, and not a sports team!!)wild garlic mayonnaise and crispy puffed rice. The rest of us had the amazing Whitby white crab with a decadent smoked salmon and lime mousse with English mustard mayonnaise, new season beetroot, a crispy quail egg, brown crab puree and beetroot powder. This dish was even more gorgeous than it sounds.
There were so many wonderful main courses it was difficult to decide. Since it was a Sunday there was the traditional Roast Sirloin of Grand Reserve beef with Yorkshire pudding vegetables roast potatoes and red wine jus. The Yorkshire puddings were roughly the size of a baby's head and the entire dish was so impressive not to mention the massive array of vegetables and potatoes that came to the table... again check out the Facebook photos.
Two of us had the Roasted sirloin of new season Lamb with marinated feta cheese, tapenade, a salted confit of lamb shoulder with air dried cherry tomatoes, pesto puree and baby aubergine that was simply out of this world. Creamed Peas with bacon were the best peas ever as were all the other veggies!!
There were many wines to consider when we moved to a red but I could not resist ordering a Côtes du Rhône 2019 Guigal in a Magnum format that was gone before we left the restaurant. I was worried that the wine would be too young but it was truly amazing again thanks to Luke's suggestion.
Desserts were just as good as everything else from a sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce, milk ice cream, caramelized banana, hazelnut granola and apricot gel to a Pineapple tart with Italian torched meringue, lime curd, roasted pineapple, mango and lime sorbet with mango salsa.
My peanut butter and chocolate crunch bar with blackcurrent sorbet with mini donuts and toasted marshmallows as well as salted chocolate caramel and chocolate powder with simply out of this world. No cheese tonight! They even had a special birthday dessert and rendition of Happy Birthday for Steve as his special day is today! So glad we could celebrate with him.
This was a truly memorable and wonderful meal that had us all very impressed with a small little restaurant basically in the middle of nowhere!!
See you again next year in the UK.
