Eating Out: Origin, Northallerton restaurant may well last the pace

The history of our county town is littered with the corpses of failed hospitality ventures and we are not just talking of recent Covid times. For what seems like years now, unless it has been Indian, Chinese, Tex-Mex or Italian. every new enterprise has foundered on Northallerton’s inability to support a vibrant restaurant culture.

We have pondered on that conundrum in this column before. There have been brief flickers of hope, of course. Like the late lamented Casa Rustica – a huge success in a cramped premises in Barkers Arcade but unable to continue when it became Casa Rustica Grande in Friarage Street.

What took its place was bizarrely named Something Else, or was it Somewhere Else? I quite can’t recall but the name smacked of a certain desperation on the part of the owner, a quest for the key that would unlock the secret of Northallerton’s conservative tastes. Almost inevitably, it lasted just a few months and is now the well-liked Chinese Kam Bo House and even that’s not new but a relocation from the other end of the High Street.

The new kid on this less than buoyant restaurant block is just a couple of doors further up Friarage Street in what was the Tithe Bar and Bistro – a casualty, possibly, of the pandemic. It seemed to be there for years and then suddenly it was gone.

Origin opened just before Christmas just as the Omicron variant took off. But the inauspicious timing doesn’t seem to have torpedoed the venture so far. On the third Saturday evening in January, the deadest time of the year for the hospitality sector, and five days after Blue Monday – the saddest day of the year supposedly – it was jumping with lots of happy, happy people. And we were among them.

We had rather expected that having booked very early (6pm) it would be just warming up but we found the downstairs bar area already packed and the upstairs dining bit not exactly packed but still pleasantly busy.

Origin on Friarage Street, Northallerton

The dining concept here is small plates – something most of us are now very familiar with through our Noughties immersion in the world of tapas.

But the Origin menu extends that through its wholehearted embrace of flavours from around the world – and just in case you don’t know your Gochujang sauce from your Dukkah, or your Yuzu Ponzu from your Zhoug (I certainly didn’t) there’s a very handy "Glossary of Terms" included on the menu.

You need to be prepared not to be put off by things you may not have come across before and give them a go and because you will be ordering a number of different dishes, if one proves not be your thing there’s still all the other stuff.

Our waiter suggested that six to seven dishes would be about right for the two of us – so we ordered eight to be on the safe side.

The dishes arrive as and when the kitchen turns them out so it is a bit random. Not surprisingly the cold plates came first with the hot dishes following 15 minutes later.

Seven of them were hits – only one was a miss in as much as it was just a bit meh. The sea bream crudo (£9) with shaved fennel, pickled chilli, sake vinegar and blood orange was rather bland. Perhaps it was too chilled or perhaps it paled into insignificance alongside the bigger and bolder flavours we were tucking into.

Like the selection of cured meats (£12) – venison salami, Iberico ham and sobrasada – which came with a creamy celeriac remoulade, caperberries, balsamic pickled onions, cornichons and big hunks of sourdough bread.

Origin on Friarage Street, Northallerton

Or the wild mushroom arancini (£6) with fillings made of Tunworth cheese, burnt onion puree and served with a Henderson’s relish aioli.

There were some spectacular Tiger Prawns (£9) dressed with lime, garlic and chilli butter accompanied by some beautiful saffron aioli.

Nicely blistered sweet padron peppers (£4) were served with smoked yoghurt and leek ash.

Sylvia’s favourite was the buttermilk fried chicken (£8) with the aforementioned Gochujang sauce – very hot and spicy – and miso kimchi (disgusting, in my view, fermented vegetables).

The minty lamb koftas were on the dry side but the chickpea puree and tahini sauce mitigated that to a degree. The Zhoug green chilli and coriander salsa added some welcome piquancy.

A winter leaf salad (£3) was heavy on the endive but a refreshing option amidst all the spice and heat in many of the dishes we had chosen.

Our eight dishes were more than enough for us but I squeezed in a cracking, crumbly almondy Tarta de Santiago (£6) with caramelised pear and clotted cream.

A Viognier-Chenin blend (£3.65) and a posh Italian fizz Ferghetina (£6.95) from a lengthy but good-looking wine list took our bill to £76.60.

Origin

2 Friarage Street, Northallerton DL6 1DP

Tel: 01609 775900 Web: originsocial.co.uk

Open: Tues 4-11pm, Wed-Thurs noon-11pm, Fri-Sat noon-midnight. Closed Sun and Mon

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 9 Service 8 Surroundings 9 Value 7