Shiremoor House Farm, Middle Engine Lane, New York

Jan 24 2010 Sunday Sun

AS regular readers of this fine column will know, something that Mrs Eats and I are passionate about is food.

But what we’re even more passionate about is keeping tabs on what we have previously deemed to be the best eateries around – just to make sure they’re still worthy of our praise.

Sometimes we return to a pub and discover that it’s even better than we remember, while sometimes we head back and are disappointed.

Sadly, it was a case of the latter when we headed back to the Shiremoor House Farm last weekend.

There is no denying that the New York restaurant and pub has a cracking reputation for good food. In fact, four years ago, Mrs Eats and I were waxing lyrical about it to anyone who would listen. With this in mind, we knew it would no doubt be busy, so had tried to book in advance, but were told that they did not take reservations.

Instead, upon arriving, they have what can only be described as an “every man for himself” method of seating – in other words, there is no queuing system in place, forcing diners to just go in and rush to the first table that becomes available – regardless of whether you have just rocked up or have been waiting half an hour.

Thankfully, Mrs Eats was able to make herself look menacing so as to stop anyone even considering jumping ahead of us.

Within a few minutes of waiting we were able to get seated, albeit at a dirty table which needed clearing. The Sunday lunch menu was pretty basic. Beef or chicken dinners at £7.45 each. The only starters available were garlic ciabatta or soup of the day, so we both decided to go straight to mains and save ourselves for dessert instead.