The Bridge Hotel, North Road, Durham City (From Durham Times)

The Bridge Hotel, North Road, Durham City

2:36pm Friday 15th May 2009

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Traditional food in a traditional pub.

AT a rough guess, I would say that the Bridge Hotel must be one of Durham’s oldest surviving hostelries, apparently pre-dating the nearby viaduct that carries the East Coast Main Line.

The viaduct dates from 1857 and some say the hotel was built seven years later, although the photographic evidence seems to suggest that it was there when work began on the massive granite structure.

Although its address is North Road, it is separated from the shopping part of the street by a huge roundabout and is more or less opposite the turning for the steep road up to the railway station.

It doesn’t feel like a typical city centre venue, more like a popular local that does food, and does not have the bland homogenised look of many chain-operated venues.

I’d only been in occasionally for a pint so I thought it was time to see what the dry offer was like.

The atmosphere is more laid back than that found in other establishments in North Road, which was all the better for a leisurely lunch away from the ringing of telephones and the rush of deadlines.

It turned out to be not as busy as on previous visits and we had no problem at all getting a table.

I decided to kick things off with the soup of the day, which this lunchtime was cream of carrot and zucchini (a courgette with exotic pretensions) and ginger soup, while my friend plumped for brie with cranberry sauce, which turned out to be unavailable.

In the face of this setback, he ordered the chef’s pate, which came with chunks of salad that included tomato and red and green peppers, and toast.

The Bridge usually has three cask ales on – Theakston’s Best, Speckled Hen and a guest – as well as the usual selection of lagers and ciders so I went for the Theakston’s while my dining companion decided to slake his thirst with a lager shandy.

We did not have to wait long for our starters to arrive and, in terms of quantity, they could easily have served as a main course themselves.

I thoroughly enjoyed my soup, which was tangy, thick and crispy and came with heated chunks of baguette and was undoubtedly the highlight of the meal. In truth, the soup on its own would have filled me up nicely, ready for the afternoon’s labours.

Sadly, the pate was not so well received, my friend finding the strips bland and slightly unappetising in appearance. To make matters worse, the crusts had not been cut from the toast.

For the main course, we chose from the specials board, me a chicken bordalaise, pal a sirloin steak with chunky chips and vegetables.

Here, the veg was to blame for a bit of disappointment on both sides of the table, due to it being a little overdone. The rest of my meal was good enough but I do not think the steak had my companion in raptures as it was a tad dry for his liking.

We were both quite full by now but despite this decided to try to find room – a little greedily perhaps – for some dessert.

There was a beaming face looking across the table at me as my pal had his tastebuds well and truly tickled by a delicious sticky toffee pudding, which came very attractively presented to boot.

I had ice cream – scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry – but could not do it justice. The whole meal, a brace of drinks each included, came to £47.13.

The service was friendly and efficient and the piped music in the bar was pleasant enough.

The Bridge essentially offers pub grub staples such as mince and dumplings, cod, sausage and mash – they do Sunday lunches as well – and the majority of the main meals seem to be less than £10.

We both found something in our meals that we really enjoyed which on balance made the visit.

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