A feast fit for an army.

Byline: GORDON BARR 

Hadrian's

Slaley Hall, Northumberland, Tel: [phone]

*****

AN ARMY marches on its stomach.

If only Hadrian's had been around at the time!

That's a proclamation on the menu at Hadrian's restaurant at Slaley Hall.

It's a big statement as well, so would the food live up to it?

We dined there last Friday evening and noticed immediately the restaurant had been refurbished since our last visit a little over a year ago.

It is quite a vast place, yet it was pretty busy this night, with both hotel guests and visitors dining there.

You can choose from the Great British Classics menu (what would Hadrian have thought about that?) at pounds 21 for two courses and pounds 24.95 for three, or a la carte.

We decided to mix and match.

For starters we both looked towards the Classics menu. The cullen skink - potato, onion and smoked haddock soup - sounded delicious and what was served up met all expectations.

It was brimming with taste, with chunky bits of potato and fish in a wonderfully warming stock.

It was extremely filling too and I could actually have coped with it as a main course.

Callum decided to have some cheesy toast - well, Welsh rarebit, to be precise, from the Classics menu.

It too was very tasty, with heaps of melted cheese mixed in with fabulous creamed leeks.

All in all, the British classics starters were, indeed, Great.

I don't know what Emperor Hadrian would have thought of veggie food, but if Callum could have had his way, he'd have filled a whole army with his selection from the a la carte mains menu.

His grilled polenta, Portobello mushroom and bean cassoulet (pounds 12) was, in his words, in the top five vegetarian meals he had ever had.

It was a far cry from the set menu he'd had a day earlier at a conference at Slaley when he was served up a very bland pasta and broccoli (with no hint of sauce anywhere). Thankfully, this menu does not have that!

What it does have, though, are delights like confit of duck leg with rissole potatoes, bacon, celeriac and choucroute (pickled cabbage); fisherman's pie with locally-caught sea food, creamy mash, cheddar topping and buttered carrots; chicken curry perfumed with southern Indian spices, chutney, naan and fragrant rice; and rump of lamb, aubergine, potato and sweet onion stew.

Living with a vegetarian, I don't get the chance to enjoy a good steak all that often, so I went for the 250 gram sirloin (pounds 24.95).

OK, it was a bit on the dear side, but I so wanted it - and I'm glad I had it.

It was cooked medium-well, as requested, and it was a wonderful piece of meat.

I had it with buttered carrots and some of the tastiest hand-cut chips I have had in ages.

Somehow, and I don't really know how, I had managed to keep a little bit of space in my belly for desserts (all at pounds 6).

I asked for all the cheeses on the farmhouse cheeseboard to be hard, and I was served up a lovely array to choose from, with a good selection of biscuits too.

Callum was worried he did not have enough room for dessert, but was advised the lemon posset with shortbread was fairly light.

Indeed it was, although he did leave some of the shortbread.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable meal in Hadrian's and the food certainly was fit for a soldier's appetite.

One small complaint is that our table did not appear to have been cleaned too well and had glass and liquid stains on it.

A little clean-up between courses would not have gone amiss either.

That said, we enjoyed ourselves, and a mention must go to our waiter Tristram Douglas too, a local lad who was full of good banter.

CAPTION(S):

MARVELLOUS MENUS - Diners at Hadrian's, at Slaley Hall, can choose Great British Classics or a la carte