Sunday Lunch at Restaraunt Faru, Durham

Michelin Guide 🤝 Sunday Roast

Faru (etymology: old English ‘journey’) opened about 18 months ago in the heart of Durham. Michelin recognition followed soon after, so much like Sonnet, it’s been on my radar and near the top of the always-growing ‘want-to-visit’ list.

Chef-owners Jake and Laura, both protégés of House of Tides, clearly bring Kenny’s influence to their own restaurant. They’ve taken an old building on Durham’s touristy Silver Street and transformed it into a contemporary space. The (overly?) minimalist interior with an open layout, and peep into the kitchen tick most of the boxes needed to entice the Michelin inspectors. It’s all effortlessly elegant, and frankly, Durham needs more like this.

The House of Tides influence doesn’t stop at the restaurant design. Faru has a no-choice £98 menu of five/ten-ish courses which has notes of the chef’s CV running through it, and it all looks a bit familiar, but in that 1* Michelin way that I feel a lot of UK restaurants do.

We tried the Sunday lunch as a bit of Faru taster, before diving into a £300+ bill. That said, there’s currently a Durham Restaurant Week menu of 3c for £40, so go get that if you’re titillated.

Anyway, the format of Sunday lunch is starter, roast (no choice), dessert, and some optional snacks. We got some bread (warm, pillowy milk bread) & chicken fat butter, and these bitesize chicken liver parfait toasts (£3.5 + £6). A lovely cold parfait set off against warm and delicate brioche, the fig gel really made this a delightful couple of bites. Otherwise, there were olives (yawn?), oysters, and some cured salmon, though these change regularly.

Starter of mackerel in buttermilk was perfection. Split with dill and bolstered with some potato, it’s a winning flavour combo and I can’t honestly fault it. It’s familiar for sure, but I feel as though the entire Sunday menu isn’t meant to startle, but to attract a different crowd. It works.

Alas, we’re all here for the roast, and although I’d seen photos before, I still kept a niggle right until it was under my nose that it could be a bit tweezer naff and over-refined. But just look at it.

Simply, it’s one of the best Sunday roasts I’ve had, and everything you’d want in a ‘refined’ version. Beef is salt-aged and plentiful with well-rendered fat. Roasties have that crunchy interior/soft centre blend that’s so hard to get right, Yorkshire pud sings a perfect rendition. Beef fat carrot is a fate I’d imagine all carrots yearn for, and critically, the gravy well never runs dry. That’s before the sides…

Comté cauli cheese is basically what got me through the door in the first place and it is a decadent dairy assault as you might expect. Hispi cabbage does the humble veg proper justice, and best of the bunch was a swede & carrot crush cooked in stock, rich with butter, and off the charts where root veg flavour is concerned. Short of a plate that eventually got a bit cold (though it was a frigid 0°C last week), it’s all a gutsy step-change up compared to even a decent gastropub effort.

Wines are fairly £££, though the list is kinda interesting. There’s a good selection BTG and admittedly both of our glasses were beyond adequate. Couple that with service from a young team which was surprisingly slick and cohesive and it’s all a winner. There are loads of those little touches that most people don’t notice but signal a joined-up team. Bravo 👏🏼

Finally, and excessively for sure, but ‘rhubarb crumble’ was a complete surprise. I’d expected a la-di-da ‘just give me the classic’ fine dining take on an old-school pud but this was beltingly good. From a brown butter biscuit that’s toasty and rich to thick jammy ruby pink rhubarb and pops of tart blood orange, this was an absolute joy.

Coffee & treats are steep at £7 each, but the treats, particularly a mouth-cleansing and exciting calamansi pâte de fruits are a lovely end to a flawless meal. Unsure of the coffee supplier, which was just OK.

As with the best Sunday lunches, the only thing left to do was head home for an afternoon snooze. This is a good sized feed.

Faru’s Sunday lunch serves a dual purpose of being both one of the most memorable Sunday lunches I’ve had in years, as well as doing the job of selling me to come back and try the full menu. I’ve every confidence that it’ll be a bite-by-bite journey of flavours, textures and tread a familiar Michelin-baiting ground. But now I know there’ll be enough delights and surprises to make it a dining experience that Durham has been short of for a long time.

But if you’re just looking for a bit of a treat Sunday lunch (and let’s be honest — a lot of bang average Sunday roasts are £20ea anyway), put Faru at the very top of your list. Loved it.

Info: £40 for three courses, 12.5% service, Sundays only 12-4pm. Our bill with a couple wines £145
Contact: faru.co.uk
Address: 29 Silver St, Durham, DH1 3RD
See also: Coarse