It wasn’t my idea, but last week, management announced that we were going out to lunch with a couple of old friends.
Where should we go? Nothing too expensive but somewhere nice?
These days there are plenty of places to choose from. We could go west into Barnard Castle and the Dales, or north to Durham City, south to the North Yorkshire border, or we could stay local.
We left the choice to our old friends, so the blame rests solely with them!
The village of Metal Bridge lays about 5 miles south of Durham and an equal distance east of Bishop Auckland. The Metal Bridge that the village is named after, supports the East Coast main railway line between York and Newcastle.
There are two pubs/restaurants in the village and the choice our friends made was The Old Mill, a former Paper Mill and latterly, a failed Workingmens Club.
Following major alterations and refurbishment several years ago, the Old Mill had forged a decent reputation as a good eating place.
There was some more building work going on as we arrived and were advised by staff that some tables might be better than others in the circumstances.
There was an extensive choice of starters and main meals detailed on a blackboard and three reasonably priced specials to choose from.
We destroyed two large dry white house wines, a pint of Tetley’s and a pint of Carlsberg before ordering lunch. We didn’t go for starters but three of us went for Fish & Chips and the other went for the Lamb Chops with mashed potato.
I’ve lost count of the times I have eaten traditional Fish & Chips, but I have to be perfectly honest. If the Fish & Chips get no better than this in the future I will have to choose something else. Apparently the Lamb Chops were serious knasher testers aswell.
We finished the lunch with another three drinks and settled the bill of £77.
The decor was good, the atmosphere was pleasant and the staff were obliging and helpful.
But I think we’ll try the other restaurant next time.
