The Pavilion, Backworth, North Tyneside

Jul 5 2009 by Zoe Burn, Sunday Sun

She Who Must Be Fed had a New York deli burger, which came complete with melted Swiss cheese and coleslaw. It was a great size too! She also ordered an extra portion of “fat chips” and mayonnaise to go alongside the mains.

The cooking is creative without being overly fussy and the menu is essentially British with some inventive twists – everything being served up in soup bowls.

The restaurant was busy, so the only problem was there seemed to be a 10-minute wait for everything. 10 minutes to get a drink, then another 10 minutes for the starters etc.

The starters didn’t arrive together, cutlery didn’t arrive, and it isn’t such a cheap place to eat. The mains took their time to arrive too once our empty bowls had been removed, and there’s nothing worse than the latecomers at the next table being served their food before you get yours.

Take note! She Who Must Be Fed was NOT impressed.

However, grudges aside, when the food did surface, each dish was piled high. Mine with homemade Yorkshire pudding, some lovely thick slices of roast pork served with thick, rich gravy, and I got a large bowl full of root vegetables.

Both myself and She Who Must Be Fed can be hard to impress at times, but as we tucked in, we realised quickly the essential ingredients of our lunch were faultless.

Not only was it tasty, but we were soon stuffed. On that note, we spared the time to wait further as She Who Must Be Fed still had room for a dessert.

She managed to squeeze in a bowl of Doddingtons vanilla ice cream while I settled for a coffee.

Despite all the glitches and near-misses, this was still nicely presented food, served with a smile in ultra modern surroundings. And when we took a closer look at the dinner menu, we found lots of other things we liked the look of too. So we might venture there again on perhaps a quieter day. She Who Must Be Fed did say I had to mention the toilets which are massive - with Dyson hand driers!

At the end of the meal we complained over the length of time our meals had taken, the waiter made some excuse about the place being stowed out some days, but almost empty on others. Surely that’s to be expected with somewhere fairly new? How long does it take to print a bill? Don’t bother…

:: The restaurant can be found two minutes’ from the Northumberland Metro Station in Hotspur North, Backworth Business Park, Backworth.