The Lambton Worm - County Durham

My Mum and I have had Sunday lunch three times recently. We book online and it's great that you can leave a message to say whether you'd like to eat in the restaurant or the bar area. Staff do read the messages as I have asked about sitting at a certain table and this is respected. Credit to the staff team. Food is the same in both areas but the restaurant is lighter and more airy than the bar area which suited my 83 year old Mum. We chose the half portion for £6.95. Mum had beef and I had the turkey. We didn't want the Yorkshire pudding and asked for the gravy to be in a jug so we could add what we wanted. Our plates arrived beautifully presented with some mashed potato and mashed turnip, roasted potatoes, roasted parsnip and the meat. Great care had been taken on the presentation. We also had a serving dish with cabbage, cauliflower and carrots to share as well as a jug of gravy each. By my reckoning, that's seven different vegetables. There was more than enough to eat. The full size portion is £12.95. Neither of us could finish the half portion. The cooking of the meat and the vegetables was just how we like it, not mushy at all. If I could choose this during the week, I would. There is one staff member called Emily who has seated us on all three occasions. She is professional, courteous but also has such a lovely manner with all the diners. She remembered us last weekend when we came. It is going to be something we do regularly on Sundays at least twice a month. On the same day a family arrived with several children for lunch. The staff provided the children's menus with colouring pencils so they could decorate what would become their placemat. This is great value for Sunday lunch. Young and old welcome and there is plenty of parking. Great experience and a consistent one.

We had a good nights sleep in a very spacious room that had all the necessary amenities to make it a comfortable stay. Breakfast was excellent with a lot of choice. My reasoning for not having 5 stars is that the entrance to the bedrooms needs an upgrade and last orders at the bar was at 21.45 which is ridiculous for a pub(we wanted to celebrate Sunderland’s deserved victory over Watford and didn’t get back until 21.10!!!

Lovely welcoming place, we met for a lunch with friends and all thought it was first class. We were given our choice of tables, and not hurried at any point to order food or get a drink from the bar. The food was delicious large portions and really tasty. I had halloumi gyros which had just the right amount of spice and came with a huge portion of fries so big I couldn’t finish them! My friends both had the belly pork, one with the black pudding mash and one with regular mash. Both said it was cooked to perfection. We will definitely be back and recommending to friends!

Warm welcome from Mark. Room was spot on very comftorble bed and very clean room. Food in the evening was crispy pork belly with black pudding mash which was great. Only loosing a star because the HobGoblin was very cloudy and wouldn't clear (sacrilege) but was changed immediately for an alternative.

Stayed at the Lambton Worm for the England Cricket on the 29th 30th August. Sam and all the staff are very helpful, had an evening meal of 3 small plates on the Tuesday which where gorgeous. Breakfast very nice as well.