Eddy Eats at Route in Newcastle: Expensive new restaurant leaves him disappointed

Back in 2014 England failed to get out the World Cup group stage, nobody had heard of ‘Brexit’ and Ed Miliband ruined his leadership chances by eating a bacon sandwich. I was also tucking in to a delicious roast at Staith House.

Now, the hope that ‘football’s coming home’ is back, President Donald Trump is cosying up to North Korea’s dictator, and the people behind the same restaurant have served me the most disappointing meal for a long time.

A lot has changed, hasn’t it?

Their North Shields gastropub is - rightly - renowned as one of the region’s best and, when I visited four years ago, it drew well-earned phrase such as ‘What a meal! It was a huge portion with every part spot on’, and saw me dish out marks of 18/20.

One of the brains behind the venture, Masterchef: The Professionals finalist John Calton, has now opened a new restaurant in Newcastle city centre and I was excited.

“We’re going to Route on The Side,” I told Mrs Eats, who stared back with puzzlement etched on her face.

“The new restaurant next to Crown Posada”, I corrected myself, remembering pubs were better placemarkers than daft street names.

Open for just two weeks when we arrived, the small, plainly furnished restaurant was about two-thirds full when the two of us - plus a good friend of ours - sat down in the former Burger Stop.

A Larousse wine guide was propped up on the bar, and the selection of wines was impressive. A natural (or ‘orange’) wine caught Mrs Eats’ eye having glugged a bottle or two on a recent holiday, while our companion and I settled for some bottles of Vedett and Estrella (£7.50, £5 and £4.90).

However, our array of starters - £26.50-worth - arrived and we were off to an atrocious start.

We’d ordered two small plates; smoked paprika chorizo (£4), which were tiny but tasty enough, and some rabbit and black pudding fritters (£4) that turned out to be the star of the meal.

Before we’d tucked into that, our eyes and noses were immediately drawn to the toasted bread served with the other two starters — Shields crab (£10) and a ham, duck and guinea fowl terrine (£8.50).

The four pieces of bread ranged from badly charred to cremated. Only one slice was buttered, while the crusts proved to be a challenge for our teeth, eventually crunching down into the sort of crumbs you’d find inside a toaster. Sadly the taste of carbon overpowered the delicate crab and the terrine.

Sunday’s main course options were three meaty roasts and two fish options, slim pickings for vegetarians and vegans, but we each opted for a different roast, beef (£16.50) lamb and belly pork (£16 each).

The presentation left plenty to be desired; vegetables dumped on top of meat, dumped on top of potatoes with a massive Yorkshire on top of all that.

The meat was far-and-away the best bit of the well-stocked plate. My lamb was tender tasty and pink as requested, Mrs Eats liked her beef while our friend said the pork belly was delicious, albeit on the small side.

From there, it was very underwhelming. Although there were three types of potatoes; one roasted, one boiled and mash, none stood out as more-than mediocre. And the veg - plain cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage was overcooked to my mind.

Could the desserts go some way to redeeming our meal? (Spoiler: No)

We had two between us, a dreadful treacle pudding and a baked yoghurt with strawberries. The treacle pud was like a bad nostalgia trip - it put me in mind of a dreadful school dinner - being sickly and with a sponge that felt gritty in texture. The baked yoghurt was marginally better, in that it was inoffensively bland.

With just one drink each, the bill came to £105 for the three of us. It’s a new restaurant, so maybe it’s just teething problems, but our meal was a combination of bad and expensive; one’s forgivable but the double-whammy left a very bad taste in the mouth.