If you like your food served up quick, the Stonebridge Inn in Durham takes some beating. I marvelled at the speed Sunday dinners were delivered in the packed pub.
As an example, on the table adjacent to us, a couple ordered their Sunday lunch, the guy went off to the toilet and just as he returned their food arrived.
"That was quick," said his partner, although whether it was a pleasant surprise wasn't quite obvious by her tone. Maybe she thought it too quick, like it had been prepared on a conveyor belt not in a kitchen.
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Or maybe she was really impressed and I'm reading too much into things, something I'm guilty of as a keen people watcher who likes to conjure up stories about them to pass the time.
I liked the Stonebridge Inn on the A690, just down the road from Neville's Cross in a slightly out of the way spot. Yet that didn't affect the amount of diners and all age groups were represented while a fair proportion of them were families out for a Sunday treat.
Service, as I said, was efficient as well as friendly and prices quite reasonable in this day and age. Sunday lunch usually cost £11.45 a head - £9.75 for seniors and £8.50 for kids - although I went for the roast leg of lamb which came with a £3.80 mark up. My partner went for the 'battered cod fillet' - ie fish and chips (£13.75).
I got a mound of well cooked meat on top of which was a nicely sized Yorkshire pudding. It was crisp round the edges, soft where it was supposed to be, and couldn't be better, bathed in a pleasant gravy.
There was plenty of mash, very well prepared roast potatoes - crispy on the outside, soft in the middle - and a generous serving of vegetables accompanying it.
It was good, hearty food, well prepared and plentiful and I had no complaints. Meanwhile my partner's fish and chips was massive. It looked like she had been given two portions of fish, not one.
She managed about a half of it before she gave up the ghost to save space for pudding. She said taste wise it was fine but just a bit daunting and felt a bit guilty about leaving so much.
I just managed to finish mine and also leave space for a pudding of which there was quite a selection including a kids ice cream at £2.50, an 'Old School Pudding' at £4.75, a chocolate brownie at £4.95 and a sticky toffee pudding and Chocolate Honeycomb Charlotte, both for £5.25.
I went for the chocolate brownie and my partner the Chocolate Honeycomb Charlotte, a rich sweet honeycomb with white and and dark chocolate truffle mousse.
My chocolate brownie came with a nice squiggle of chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream and it went down a treat. Sweet, soft and moreish. My partner liked her pudding although after the daunting challenge of the fish and chips, it was just a bit rich and she left a bit of that too.
With our drinks - a pint of John Smiths (£4.05) and a 175ml glass of white wine, a sauvignon blanc, which cost a slightly steep £5.20 - the final bill came to £48.45.
Overall it was a pleasant experience, the food was tasty, plentiful and prompt, the atmosphere friendly and I could see why it was popular with the local community.
Four stars out of five.
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