The Court Inn, Court Lane, Durham

Mar 21 2010 by Eddy Eats, Sunday Sun

Character: 5
Quality: 5
Service: 4
Value: 4

Rating: 18/20

Telephone: 0191 384 7350
Food served: 11am till 10.20pm
Drinks: Pint of lager £3, pint of bitter £3, gin and tonic £3, large glass of house wine £3, fresh orange juice £2.

MRS Eats and I enjoy a trip to the Cathedral city of Durham.

Wandering its cobbled streets and taking in the beauty of the riverside is always a pleasure. Of course, we also enjoy working up an appetite for our Sunday lunch.

A friend recommended The Court Inn, but warned us it gets very, very busy.

The pub is a stone’s throw from Durham’s court building and just across from Durham University’s Students’ Union and Kingsgate Bridge.

Duly alerted to its popularity, we arrived around 11.45am.

We’d worked up a grand appetite and I settled down with a nice pint of Geordie Hinny, £3, while Mrs Eats ordered a large glass of house white, also £3.

The Court sells local ales from the likes of Wylam Brewery and renames them especially for the pub. Mine was a pleasant, pale ale which was thirst-quenching.

While enjoying it we noted we had been wise to arrive early. By 12.15pm the pub was full and people were being turned away.

I settled on a Sunday roast, £7.50, while Mrs Eats decided on haddock and chips, £6.95, which we were informed by the helpful landlord was a pub special.

It was more than enough to persuade Mrs Eats to put her diet on hold!

Foregoing starters, in a very small nod to Mrs Eats’ good intentions, we took in the atmosphere.

The Court Inn is a traditional pub. No doubt it has been serving court officials, policemen – and possibly the odd criminal – for hundreds of years.

The Sunday lunch crowd was a pleasant mix of families, couples and the odd student party.

This made for a convivial and lively atmosphere.