Lunch & the Children's Menu at St Mary's Inn near Morpeth | A Review

I am delighted that after a period of closure, one of my favourite pubs with rooms, St Mary's Inn will be re-opening their doors on 21 June at the very latest. This may be a little earlier depending on how quickly renovation works can happen. 

The pub is just along from Whitehouse Farm in Morpeth and is a fantastic place to enjoy a family meal or Sunday lunch. 

Keep an eye on the St Mary's Inn Facebook page for updates. 

The rest of this post is based on our visit in 2016 but will give you an idea of what to expect.

 We adore St Mary's Inn and I have written about my love for this cosy country pub on numerous occasions. Despite there being a wealth of places I still have yet to set foot in and would like to visit, St Mary's Inn always draws us back and we couldn't resist popping in for lunch with the kids when we were in the area. 

St Mary's Inn is a large welcoming inn. More often than not, our family are seated in the main dining room area. There is lots to look at and keep you entertained. Our children have been provided with cool colouring sheets featuring the inn in the past but unfortunately weren't on this occasion. I hope they're still available! It didn't matter too much though as the service we received was nice and quick so the kids didn't need too much distracting.

The children's menu is a real bargain at £5 for a main course, dessert and juice. The options are decent too - there's no being fobbed off with a scoop of ice cream for dessert (which is often the case). There are actual options including chocolate brownie or banana split. The main courses are good too with fish fingers, grilled chicken skewers with pitta and vegetable rice, sausage and mash, chicken dippers (homemade - not the frozen sort) and fries and tomato pasta all on offer.

All of this for £5 is a real steal. Most chain restaurants charge £5.95-£8.95 for a 2 course children's meal and drink so you really are getting a bargain. Especially as the food is homemade and delicious.

There are a selection of sandwiches available at lunch time from just £6 but Steve was too tempted by the specials board and couldn't resist ordering a Lindisfarne Oyster.......

Followed by Salt Beef Hash with Fried Duck Egg, Brown Sauce and Onions. Delicious and a perfect lunch dish with a difference we thought.

I went for a couple of dishes from the 'light bites' menu and ordered the Lamb Koftas with Harissa and Flat Bread plus the Crispy potato skins - both perfect.

I always think adding an automatic pudding to the children's menu is a secret ploy to encourage the grown ups to indulge too and most of the time it works! Some of the desserts on the St Mary's Inn menu are on the expensive side (most are priced £6.50-£7.50) so we decided to order an espresso and Macaroon each whilst the kids enjoyed their brownies - well it says Macaroon on the menu but it was actually a Macaron that arrived. There's a huge difference in the two so please change your menu St Mary's Inn :-) Although I was disappointed when my Macaroon didn't arrive (they're my favourite), the Macaron was still lovely and at 75p, a very inexpensive treat to end a lovely lunch.

As Steve settled our bill (just over £40 FYI), I took the kids on a little bit of an explore around the inn. We counted the number of wire dogs (I think there were 12) and real dogs in the inn (2) which kept them entertained. I love the art on display at St Mary's Inn and this really tickled me:-

St Mary's Inn may be a little out of town but their children's menu really is worth making the journey for. The staff are always ever so friendly, the atmosphere and ambience is warm and comfortable  and £40 for a 2 course lunch for 5 including drinks of this quality is a real bargain.

Read next:

• Afternoon Tea at St Mary's Inn | A Review
• An Overnight Stat at St Mary's Inn | A Review

Disclosure: We paid for our own food and drinks