Eating out review of the Three Horseshoes in Barnard Castle

In 2023, I finally got round to it.

As the hotel in Galgate dates back to 1691, 10 years is neither here nor there in the great scheme of things, and plenty of other people had already beaten me to it. On a shockingly sodden Saturday night, it was crammed: a packed bar full of drinking parties made up of all ages – the compactness of Barney seems to bring people together in a way that doesn’t happen in larger towns – and a restaurant at the rear with every table taken.

The Three Horseshoes in Galgate on a wet Saturday July night

There is an extra terrace area out the back, which according to a Facebook post delivers “a feel of the Med to Barney”, but it was so wet that even the young vapers didn’t dare go outside, standing just inside the open back door with their sweet scented clouds blowing like mist on the wind.

We were placed on a table just inside the bar, overspill from the restaurant. It was a friendly but loud atmosphere and not the place for a quiet, intimate evening.

But as my daughter, Genevieve, and her grandma were with me, that wasn’t really an issue.

Although I was a decade late, we were presented with a new menu which featured several staples – Whitby scampi (£13.95), fish and chips (£16.95), steak and ale pie (£16.95) – but also some touches of imagination.  For instance, I was tempted by the honey and mustard glazed ham shank, with fried egg and hash browns (£18.95), which sounded like a posh all-day breakfast, or the prosciutto wrapped pork tenderloin (£21.95), which sounded great.

Vegetarians, though, might be disappointed that only two of the 17 main courses were for them although there were four fish dishes.

We shared two starters: a duck spring roll and a crispy skin belly pork taco (both £8.50).

The taco (above) presented a problem in that all the tasty stuff was layered on top of a circular taco which refused to be cut by a knife. It needed vigorous sawing or hand tearing, but then all the tasty stuff tumbled off.

However, once I’d divvied it up, it was fabulous. The pork was hot and tender, and topped with little chunks of chilled tomato and pineapple plus some wonderfully explosive leaves of micro coriander. The contrasts – hot and cold, sweet and meat, a touch of heat and a blast of herb – worked superbly well.

The spring roll (above) was a spring roll, packed with meat, served with a rich hoisin sauce and a mountain of spring onion. Perfectly nice but not a touch on the taco.

Genevieve, for her main course, had chosen the crispy buttermilk chicken burger (above) (£14.95), which was crumbed chicken breast in a bun, with plenty of greenery, a good alioli and some nice chips. She enjoyed it.

Grandma went for the pan seared salmon (above) (£18.95), which came on a bed of crushed – not mashed – new potatoes in a lemon caper sauce. The salmon was nicely done, and she too enjoyed her dish but the buttery sauce did become a bit oily.

I’d chosen the belly pork and prawn hanging kebab (£18.95), largely because I had no idea what might turn up.

It was a skewer (above) of three lumps of pork interspersed by two large king prawns that came suspended above the plate as if it were a man hanging by the neck on a gibbet. I quickly cut it down…

The prawns were nice, juicy and gentle, but the pork was monstrously good. In the first episode of chef Tom Kerridge’s new BBC1 programme, The Hidden World of Hospitality, last week we saw some top end menu developers humming and haaing about whether they dared serve pork because no matter the quality of the meat and the cooking, it can tend towards blandness.

Not at The Three Horseshoes. This pork was powerful, big and meaty, juicy and salty. I loved it. I even loved the thin crackling on top which complimented the sponginess of the belly with its crispiness – a crispiness which did not threaten to destroy my dentistry.

The kebab came with a nice pot of Asian glaze, a good side of chips and a small pile of salad leaves – the only downside to the dish was that there was not enough greenery to accompany every last bit of meat.

I was the only one greedy enough to have a dessert (all £6.95). There were the usual favourites, like a brownie, a cheesecake, the ubiquitous STP and a CFT (cornflake tart), but the two that caught my eye were the rhubarb and custard panna cotta, which came with poached rhubarb, flapjack crumble and rhubarb sauce, and the rhubarb and ginger cake, which came with a summer berries granita, a ginger biscuit base and a rhubarb and chocolate mousse.

My schooldays were marred by being served rhubarb that had been stewed for days in dishwater and yet still managed to maintain its steely stalky sinews that sliced the tongue, so I generally steer clear of the stuff along with that rancid frogspawn, tapioca.

Here, though, were some interesting flavour combinations and after a ridiculous bout of indecision, I plumped for the cake (below).

Only it wasn’t a cake, certainly not in a birthday sort of a way. It was more of a cheesecake, with a slice of mousse sitting on top of the ginger biscuit base. Only there wasn’t any ginger in the base.

But there was some very fragrant rhubarb in the mousse, which somehow drifted above the chocolate like the perfume of rose. Frozen red berries and a strong rhubarb syrup – no steely stalks, thankfully – added a tartness to a dish that was as intriguing as it was enjoyable.

Our bill for three came to £99. We were served by a small army of attentive waitresses, and as an especially shrill lady didn’t stay long enough at the noisy bar to make a lasting impression, I will remember a couple of great courses that were definitely well worth a very long wait of, say, 10 years.

THE DETAILS

The Three Horseshoes Hotel,
Galgate, Barnard Castle, DL12 8EQ

Website: three-horse-shoes.co.uk

Tel: 01833-631777

THE RATINGS

Surroundings: 6
Service: 8
Food quality: 9
Value for money: 8