It came as a shock to many last year when Hjem announced the closure of its Wall restaurant, where it’d held a Michelin star since 2021. The first restaurant ever in Northumberland to achieve the feat, which is wild.
Less of a shock to anyone that knew about Freyja. Hjem’s second restaurant, or more accurately, Hjem’s evolution, is a walled garden restaurant with rooms over at Close House. You can follow the progress here. It will be ace, no doubt about it — more of the same, but bigger and better. Hjem closing was simply about the transition to that restaurant. A purpose built site that the team probably wanted from day one, with a kitchen garden, and ridiculously low food miles.
In the meantime, the entire kitchen team has packed up and taken residency at South Causey Inn in County Durham for six months, which act as a bridge and somewhere to experiment and test Freyja dishes before the restaurant takes shape.
It’s a grand departure from that Greggs pop-up. The South Causey is quite fitting, they’ve completely taken over a separate farmhouse building on the site. So it manages to retain a special feeling, away from the hustle and bustle of the bars and restaurants of the main hotel area.
If you’ve read my review of Hjem in Hexham, you’ll recognise the DNA immediately. The South Causey menu riffs on many of the same ideas, ingredients, and suppliers that made the original restaurant so special. Lindisfarne oysters, North Acomb Farm beef, closing the meal with fika. But this feels like a more relaxed, accessible take on the full tasting menu format. A little less ceremony, but with the same level of care.
There’s the full shebang tasting menu featured here, as well as a more approachable 3-course menu for £60 which is where I would imagine most people will find comfort.
The longer menu opens with a run of snacks. A shellfish bisque and a Lindisfarne oyster with champagne sets the tone, chicken skin crackers are Hjem-familiar in the best way, but the North Acomb Farm beef 😮💨 oh it is smoky, and full of flavour, dry aged for all to see in cabinets in the restaurant. Get this if it’s on the menu. After this, the menu feels a lot more relaxed.
A trout and pistachio ajo blanco course is a familiar raw fish dish. The ajo blanco does the heavy lifting, way beyond the usual ‘cured scallop’ that currently overruns tasting menus across the world. Similarly great-but-I’ve-seen-it-before is sweet beetroot with buttermilk foam. Home-grown, and salt-baked beetroot, of course.
Brioche and cultured butter is 🤌🏼 so be sure to keep some for all of the well-made sauces here.
Mains are where it’s at, so on returning, it’d be the larger format three course menu I’d get. Here the absolute standout of the evening is brioche-stuffed poached chicken with morel sauce. It’s just classic cooking, chicken as it should be, with a beautifully made sauce. It’s this type of dish that Hjem x South Causey is made for — bistro dishes elevated beyond recognition. There’s a non-alc pairing here too: the chicken pairs brilliantly with a blackcurrant and juniper vibe on red wine, while later a rooibos/ amaretto match as a dessert wine is quite clever.
As with Hjem, expect the chefs to bring dishes to the table themselves. It’s very personable, encourages interaction, and carries that peak hospitality vibe through from the OG Northumberland restaurant. The whole thing is more cosy than I’d expected. It sits very comfortably between the Michelin star-OTT, and country pub informality.
A choux au craqeulin with blueberry ice cream, hazelnuts and (they didn’t call it this, but) monkey blood sauce rounds things off in a fun way. Petit fours (fika, in Hjem’s parlance) are as with Hjem, a wonderful end to the meal — ending with ‘those financiers’ cooked a la minute.
It’s the best food Stanley will see in a long time, that’s for sure. It’s just such accurate and considered cooking.
Until Freyja opens (projected for the end of 2026), it works well as an interim and will probably help to attract those unfamiliar with Hjem to Alex’s style of cooking.
To add to that approachability, on top of these menus, they’re doing a Sunday roast/feast which I’m keen to try. So I’ll get back with some more thoughts on how Hjem x South Causey has evolved after that. For those that didn’t make it to Hjem proper, or didn’t fancy the Fenwick pop-up, you should like this one.
Info: The pop-up runs to the end of September only, Weds–Sun. Tasting menu ~£105pp, 3-course available for £60pp.
Contact: southcausey.co.uk
Address: South Causey Inn, Stanley DH9 0LS (it’s about 20mins drive from NE1)
