But it suffers from the same problem as the rest in the village – the difficulty in parking.
With cars crammed into every available space, I had to park right at the bottom of the village, making the Hope and Anchor the last eatery on the walk back!.
Externally the pub is quite welcoming – both children and, unusually for a venue that serves food, dogs are given the thumbs up.
And the menu looked attractive, if a bit pricey. Everything is “home-made and freshly-prepared,” it declares.
There was a smattering of local produce – “award-winning” sausages, grilled Northumberland lamb steak, Northumberland roast beef baguette, Morwick ice cream and locally-caught crab and cod.
The ale was local too – Farne Island, from Hadrian and Border Brewery, quite a bitter-tasting beer but nonetheless refreshing.
Inside, the surroundings are pleasant enough. A big dresser, fireplace, subtle lighting and a lounge at the back with soft armchairs give it a warm, homely feel.
We elected to take a table in the restaurant but wished we had stayed put. The restaurant was a cavernous, cold room and did not enjoy the same ambience as the bar area. Efforts had obviously been made to smarten it up with real napkins and snazzy table clothes but the atmosphere was lacking something that we couldn’t quite put our fingers on. It was neither modern nor olde worlde and fell somewhere in between in a confused blend of both.
The menu boasted all dishes were home-made and freshly-prepared.
Starters (or Something Light to Bite, as they are called) were mainly priced at £4.95 and included avocado, apple and crab platter; deep fried Brie on mixed salad leaves with hot cranberry jus; home-made pork and chicken pâté with a spicy fruit sauce; and prawn, pineapple and spring onion cocktail. Soup of the day with bread roll was £3.95, and pan-fried mushrooms in a cream Stilton sauce was £4.75.
We decided to go straight for the main courses. We could have chosen braised lamb shank with dates, treacle and red wine (£9.95); grilled gammon steak topped with pineapple and honey (£7.95); grilled pork medallions on sweet potato with orange cream sauce (£9.95); surf and turf (£14.95); king scallops and king prawns in a white wine with tomato, onion and garlic on a bed of rice (£16.95).
After much deliberation, I went for the grilled fillet of sea bass on a bed of spinach with Hollandaise sauce (£13.95), my wife liked the look of the home-made steak and Guinness pie with a mixed herb crust; my son had the adult portion of locally-produced sausages served on a bed of leek mash with red onion jus (£7.95); and my daughter had the sausages from the children’s menu (which consisted of half-sized portion of cod, grilled half a chicken breast with a pizza-style topping or the sausages, for £3.95 each).
The dishes were not spectacular. My two sea bass fillets which were dipped in flour and seasoning were very dry and crispy at the edges.