The Bay Horse, 1 Northside, Hutton Rudby (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

The Bay Horse, 1 Northside, Hutton Rudby

12:21pm Friday 22nd January 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

Brilliance and mediocrity combined.

REGULAR followers of this column may have noticed we haven’t strayed far of late. The expedition to Hurworth (all of three miles) was followed by falling into an establishment just 10 yards away from our usual walking route from home to office.

With almost constant exhortations to travel only when necessary over the last few weeks of snow and ice, it seemed rash to venture far in search of food. And it would have been mightily embarrassing to be hauled out of snowdrift by the intrepid Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team and lambasted in my own paper. Headlines along the line of “Foolish editor condemned by stretched emergency services” have sprung to mind.

On Thursday of last week, as the thaw began to set in, we set off for Hutton Rudby, to the Bay Horse, following a recommendation received before Christmas from an estate agent acquaintance who reckons he knows something about food as well as bricks and mortar.

Our recollection of the Bay Horse from a lunchtime visit some years ago was of a very traditional village boozer offering rather average pub food. Solid, respectable, if unexciting was the abiding memory.

It changed hands just over a year ago and while nothing much appears to have changed outside and in, the menu is certainly different.

Matthew and Catherine Brown are the new owners, Matthew having previously worked in the kitchens of the late lamented Chadwicks and the Hide Bar in Yarm We had booked a table for two and on arrival were asked if we had booked in the restaurant. We thought we had, but were told the restaurant was closed and would we mind taking a table in the bar?

As the bar looked cosy and reasonably busy, we accepted the offer and were handed two menus, one of which had a cover which was literally falling apart. We could understand why they wanted to keep these covers because they contained lot of information about the Bay Horse (300 years old), the village (actually two communities – Hutton and Rudby) and the obligatory rather predictable guff about sourcing locally, including the interesting statement that their cheeses come “from Wensleydale and Hawes”.

Disintegrating menus aside, the choice was ten starters and ten main courses which covered most culinary bases, the only notable absentees being steak and game.

Sylvia chose roast parsnip soup to start which she described as being spectacularly good – slightly sweet, slightly spicy and so plentiful she would have been full if she had finished it. It came with some brown bread, but the packet butter, of course, got the thumbs down, not least as it had to be asked for.

My risotto of wild mushroom, spring onion with sautéed spinach and parmesan (£5.95) was probably excellent when first made, but it had been reheated and it was far too dry and stodgy. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect a small pub kitchen to cook risotto from scratch to order, but they have to find a better way of reviving it than whatever method they are using.

For her main course, Sylvia had chosen one of the two pies on the menu. The chunky beef and ale pie with shortcrust pastry, goose fat roast potatoes and buttered vegetables (£10.95) was a beautiful winter-warmer of a dish. The beef was wonderfully tender and richly flavoursome; the pastry was light and buttery.

The goose fat potatoes hadn’t been parboiled enough and were a little on the hard side and the buttered vegetables were a mixed bag; lovely crunchy Savoy cabbage, but soggy baby carrots.

My breadcrumbed fried lemon sole served with salsa verdi, a rocket and parmesan salad and a mini fish stew (£15.95) was a real tour de force. The two sizeable fillets of sole might not have been freshest pieces of fish I’ve eaten (and that may have been down to the weather), but it was perfectly cooked and the mini fish stew was like a separate dish of large prawns and a slab of sea bass in a superb pea and mint broth. The rocket and parmesan were the perfect counterpoint for both the sole and the stew.

Neither of us could manage a dessert, but for the record the dessert menu features sticky toffee pudding, creme brulee and a pear frangipane tart among others.

Including a large glass of house pinot grigio and a small house merlot, the bill was £46. If the work in the kitchen was a little more consistent, and they managed to provide a cruet set which wasn’t rock solid from damp, we would be more than happy to enthuse unreservedly.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)