His Nibs and I have taken Geordie Bird to the Wellwood Arms for Sunday Lunch before, so we knew they did ‘small portions’ (the one thing she always asks about). We had originally planned to use The Red Lion in Alnmouth where we were staying, but sadly they no longer do Sunday Roasts, so we hopped the short journey to Amble instead.
The car park is a decent enough size but it’s quite snug, especially if you have a larger proportioned car! Having parked up, we headed down the steps and into the large, open plan dining room. A lovely member of the serving team, Claire, soon got us sorted out with some drinks and we just had to decide what size roast we fancied: a small plate for £8.49 (no prizes for guessing who had that!!), a regular plate for £11.99 which Mummy Bird, me and Fledge had, and a large plate at £13.99 (The Man Birds’ choice).
Chef was beaming happily as customer after customer came to his carvery counter; there was no queuing thanks to a well organised system that saw a couple of tables at a time go and get their dinners. There was a choice of Gammon, Beef, Pork and Turkey on the occasion we visited, and I cheekily asked if I could have some of the super-crispy Pork crackling (even though I was having Gammon and Beef), to which Chef kindly obliged. To be fair, it didn’t matter what size plate you went for, you weren’t going short of meat on Chef’s watch; the only difference was how many different ones you could have on your plate. All the meats were cooked perfectly to retain their juiciness and tenderness, so we were very happy campers!
When you said which meats you’d like, Chef also asked if you wanted a Yorkshire Pudding (these were bloody fab, by the way) and only GB declined. You can imagine my joy when I spied the big bowl of Cauliflower Cheese, and I’m not even a little bit ashamed to say that I had three big (ok, massive) scoops of it on my plate! There was mashed Swede, which you don’t often see on its own down our way in the ‘Shire, and it was velvety soft and rich with butter which made it a double delight. GB still insists that the golden toned veg is Turnip and that the little white things are Swedes, and she still gets over-ruled - which makes me smile, even though I know I should let it go.
The White Cabbage had been thinly sliced and was beautifully sweet in flavour and not stewed to within an inch of its life, which I was glad about because I’d also gone for a large helping of this! Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the Carrots and Green Beans; I thought they were a bit too soft, but the rest of the Flock were chowing down happily on them, so clearly it was just me being mardy about them. I didn’t have a stuffing ball (I didn’t see the bowl for whatever reason) but everyone said they were lovely and crisp on the outside, with a softer, flavour-packed centre. Some of the larger Parsnips were a bit tough for Mummy Bird, so I nabbed those off her plate and made short work of them. The roasties were superb; everything you want was there: colour, taste, and crisp outers.
It took a while, but we did all clear our plates! This did result in us not ordering pudding though, but we figured that with it being the second day of our holiday we still had plenty of opportunity for sweet treats – and this did in fact turn out to be the case. The staff had been very attentive and friendly throughout our time with them; the only thing I would change is the thermostat – whoever was in charge of that must not feel heat! I was flushing for Britain and the guests at another table had resorted to fanning themselves with the menus; I’m all for customer comfort, but blimey, this was a bit extreme.
With full bellies and the bill paid (£86.35 for the five of us, with drinks) we headed off back to our temporary nest in Alnmouth, smiling happily. Hot Wings given again here; no doubt we’ll be back at some point in the future with GB.
