We’re lucky to have the perfect escape less than 25 miles away 💆🏻♂️
We’ve fancied the Lord Crewe Arms (The Square, Blanchland, Consett, DH8 9SP) for a while now. Both for its idyllic-but-not-that-far-away location in County Durham, and the ‘want it’ scran regularly coming out of the kitchen.
Second point really highlighted in my recent post on North East chefs to follow on Insta, where local and seasonal ingredients are consistently melded into gutsy and hearty bait by Head Chef Emma Broom.
Despite only being a short drive from town, it’s worth an overnight stay at The Lord Crewe Arms, primarily a hotel. Blanchland is a ghost town once the sun sets, and has zero light pollution, no cars rushing past at midnight, and offers the resting of tired legs that only a Durham Dales stroll can bring on. Worth the typical room rate of ~£200.
They’ve cannily got the dog market cornered with the ‘pawsome retreat’ to bring your mutt along. Which is a plus for us, having a Jack Russell who’s more ‘jump on the table’ than ‘sit under the table’. Everyone here has a dog or five in tow. It’s a great spot for fishing, shooting, or even just a long walk like we did and seriously, when you’ve got the North Pennines AONB on your doorstep like we have, use it. It’s both beautiful and serene and the peace we all need from the hustle of NE1 sometimes.
Without the bells and OTT flash of a ‘luxury spa’ kind of place filled with tossers posing for their 86th Snapchat story of the day, The Lord Crew Arms is really the epitome of cosy country hotel. No surprise at all, given it was built in 1165(!) and the roaring, medieval fireplace in the restaurant is framed by huge dark wooden beams, uneven cobbled flooring and anything else that wouldn’t look out of place in a Catherine Cookson novel, including lots of very old looking stonework.
Which helps explain the food, best described as rustic, hearty, and seasonal British at its core. Clichés yes but what that means to me is no tweezers, no pan-Asian influence and no real surprises. But if that isn’t the type of proper cooking that you come here for, then you’re doing it wrong. It has a sense of place and it’s done accurately and sympathetically.
Starters (£11-16) of house-smoked salmon and terrine sit alongside the Whitby crab on toast, and a Comté soufflé which we ordered.
I’ve had some stonking crab dishes this year and this was up there with the best. The fresh and liquorice-flavoured shaved fennel balanced the rich brown crab meat mayo on sourdough, with pickings of white meat providing sweetness. You can’t not love every bite of a dish like this. And while the soufflé doesn’t look like quite as impressive as say 21s calorie-dense version, the onion velouté offered something a bit more complex than just dairy on dairy. Really good.
You can see the stylings running through the rest of the dishes. The fleeting goodness of Wye Valley asparagus joins menu mainstays of salt-aged steaks and textbook bistro dishes like my venison. Served here with a deeply flavoured fondant, and orange braised chicory being a surprise citrusy highlight. £30 for the venison, with mains averaging ~£25ish but it is a hotel after all. Kate’s lamb chops came very similarly dressed but were equally as well grilled, with both dishes having big sauces to pull everything together.
Desserts are — surprise, classics done well. Brûlée with a just set gentle custard and crunchy top satisfying a not-too-sweet craving, and a HUGE and decadent sticky toffee pudding as belly-warming and artery-clogging as you could ever want one to be. Those little biscuits alongside the brûlée also feature on the tea tray in the rooms with some Lord Crewe Arms kitchen fudge too, which is a lovely touch and costs nowt.
Wine costs aren’t at all silly, and service is as friendly as you need in a place like this. And although christ knows where the nearest pub is, that just serves to make it very easy to slide next door into the crypt bar and finish another few glasses of wine in peace and very civilised fashion with lots of tired and full dogs.
Even after such a good feed mere hours earlier, a long walk warrants a good breakfast the following day and it ticks all your hotel needs — lots of picky bits to enjoy on top of your main event. Fruit salad, crumpets and toast in abundance alongside a textbook benny and similarly ingredient-led Full English.
Country hotels owned by hospitality groups can easily fall into the trap of being outdated and trading on location or heritage alone, but I’d love to stay at the Lord Crewe Arms again, even if just for more of that crab on toast. When it all gets too much, venture out of town and book a trip here to reset.
Contact: lordcrewearmsblanchland.co.uk
Food hygiene rating: 5/5
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