THE popularity of Sunday lunch is undimmed – even in the middle of challenging economic times.
A recent Saturday afternoon was spent ringing round places for a table for two the following day, so it was hardly a last-minute booking.
After calling six establishments – a mix of pubs and hotels – and being told there was nothing available, I alighted on Grinkle Park Hotel which thankfully had a table at a civilised time.
I say civilised because I’m not a fan of eating Sunday ‘lunch’ at five or six o’clock which many restaurants offer these days. That’s not some outmoded sense of tradition, it’s from bitter experience of eating food that’s being hanging around for five or six hours from when service first started.
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Happily, the Grinkle Park – which is just a couple of miles off the moor road from Teesside to Whitby – could accommodate us at 1.30pm. After a 40-minute drive from home we turned into the long drive flanked by a huge number of rhododendrons – a famous feature at the right time of year – to the ‘big house’.
The hotel is quite a stately pile. Built by Teesside industrialist Sir Charles Palmer in the 19th century, it is one of the renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse’s more restrained examples of Gothic Revival. He’s the guy who designed the Natural History Museum, Darlington Town Clock and covered market, Backhouse’s (Barclays) Bank on Darlington High Row and Rockliffe Hall.
In comparison with all of those, Grinkle Park is a bit bargain-basement property, but in its landscaped garden setting it is impressive nonetheless, despite being a hotel since the 1940s and having had bits added to Waterhouse’s original design.
Inside, it is comfortable country house style – all muted earth tones of cream and mushroom – that’s just a little dog-eared in places. The hotel is part of the Classic Lodges group which also owns Solberge Hall Hotel near Northallerton. There are similarities in style.
The staff are friendly if a bit lacking in the charm and finesse the surroundings would seem to promise. For example, and apologies if this sounds unbearably pompous, it would have been nice if the waitress – when taking us to our table in the dining room from the lounge where we were enjoying a pre-prandial snifter – had offered to carry our drinks, or at least take our top coats, saving us from juggling the two (or three when including Sylvia’s handbag).
The Sunday lunch offer is three courses for £24.95 and two for £19.95. An under 12 child’s meal is £12.95.
Our starters were good – a perfectly serviceable roast tomato soup with a dribble of herb oil and some rather more exciting slices of smoked duck breast, poached pear with crispy chicken skin and a pomegranate dressing. The duck was lightly smoked and tender, but would have been even better if it hadn't been served so chilled.
Our main course roasts were sort of okay, but with one rather important exception. Good crispy roasties, large but slightly leaden Yorkshire puddings, and a good selection of well-cooked vegetables included parsnip, carrot, samphire and red cabbage.
My generous slices of roast pork came with some lovely crunchy crackling, but that’s where things went wrong.
Sylvia had topside of beef and while both roasts were tender and served with a good gravy, we concluded that they were utterly and completely devoid of any flavour. There was nothing wrong with the way the joints had been cooked, we suspect, rather that Classic Lodges need to find a new butcher.
Excitement had been mounting since Sylvia had spotted on the dessert menu Arctic Roll – the 1980s supermarket favourite – invented by a Czech immigrant Dr Ernest Velden in Eastbourne in 1968 and mass-produced by Birds Eye for 20 years until it fell out of favour.
It was a slice of culinary nostalgia which failed to live up to expectations. Served with a little crushed meringue and some artfully applied mango gel, it looked pretty on the plate. But there was a reason why Birds Eye stopped producing it in the 1990s and why the food author Nigel Slater once described it as frozen carpet – that’s exactly what it is.
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My malt and pale ale treacle slice, served with white chocolate parfait, seemed like a good idea too. I did expect it to be rich and heavy but this was also somewhat stodgy and the parfait only provided light relief. The mango gel (chef clearly enjoys making swirly patterns on plates) was well to the fore again.
Our bill with a couple of glasses of wine, a G&T and sparkling mineral water came to £80 including ten per cent service charge added automatically.
Not quite the luxury country house hotel experience we hoped for, but if you visit at the right time of year the rhododendrons will be spectacular.
Grinkle Park Hotel, Grinkle Lane, Easington TS13 4UB
Tel: 01287 640515
Web: www.classiclodges.co.uk/grinkle-park
Sunday lunch served: noon-1.45pm
Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 6. Service 5. Surroundings 8. Value 7.
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