Sunday lunch at The Church Mouse – review
We recently enjoyed Sunday lunch at The Church Mouse in Chester-le-Street so thought I’d share an honest review.
To celebrate Father’s Day and our wedding anniversary, we headed to The Church Mouse in Chester-le-Street for a Sunday lunch treat.
This was my first visit to The Church Mouse, but Steve had been before.
It’s also just a stone’s throw away from our wedding venue – Lumley Castle so we drove past to show Elsie once we’d finished our meal.
Some of our wedding guests stayed at this Travel Lodge when we got married and had enjoyed food at The Church Mouse.
About The Church Mouse
The Church Mouse is part of the Vintage Inns family of pubs.
They welcome locals and travellers making the journey between Newcastle upon Tyne, Durham and Sunderland.
The menus are full of hearty favourites and country pub classics, as well as seasonal spring dishes.
There’s also a well-stocked bar, including cask ales, fine wines and British gin to suit very taste – which will taste all the better when enjoyed either in the beautiful gardens or by the crackling log fires.
The Church Mouse is a dog friendly pub.
We welcome four legged friends and have water and treats available to ensure they’re as comfortable as you are during your visit!
Dogs are allowed in the bar area of the pub.
Sunday lunch at The Church Mouse
The Church Mouse is just under a 30 minute drive away from our home in County Durham and has an ample free car park and has a Travel Lodge attached to it.
We booked for 12pm on Father’s Day and it was already quite busy when we arrived.
We were shown to our table and perused the set menu – three courses for £25.95 and the children’s menu for Elsie.
Our drinks order was taken really swiftly but we had quite a wait to order our food and Elsie had started to become quite restless and the colouring in wasn’t cutting it so the tablet was whipped out.
Both Steve and I plumped for the signature King prawn cocktail to start followed by the sirloin of beef roast dinner.
For Elsie we ordered breaded chicken with chips and requested her meal come out with our starters and a glass of milk.
Our starters arrived promptly and Elsie’s food was brought out at the same time.
The King prawn starter was much larger than I was expecting.
I’m not a huge fan of avocado so didn’t eat much of that, but the lettuce was crispy and the King prawns really juicy.
The accompanying bread was really nice and crunchy – I would’ve liked the option of butter on the side but we both polished the lot.
Elsie’s meal was a decent portion and she was thrilled to get her very own bottle of Heinz ketchup.
We had also ordered her a Yorkshire pudding which she got stuck into while her chicken and chips cooled down.
Steve noticed the add a side to your roast at the bottom of the menu and was worried that our beef wouldn’t come with a Yorkshire pudding so hastily ordered one each when our starters were cleared away.
And of course our mains arrived with two Yorkshire puddings each – oops!
We gave Elsie extra Yorkshire pudding and she was chuffed to ribbons.
The beef was quite fatty but nonetheless delicious. It may be too rare for some pallets but I found it spot on.
The gravy was particularly rich and delicious but the jug could have been bigger. If our server hadn’t been so rushed off her feet I would have asked for extra gravy.
We shared additional veg – parsnips and broccoli which were lovely and a decent portion.
The carrots were charred but not too much and very tasty. I enjoyed the roast potatoes but they could have been crispier for my taste.
Overall we really enjoyed our roast dinners, such a treat to have one as we don’t at home usually!
And then it was time for dessert.
We ordered the chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream from the children’s menu for Elsie and chocolate brownie with honeycomb ice cream for yours truly and a raspberry sorbet for Steve.
The brownie was very rich and served warm, I thought it was delicious and the honeycomb ice cream a nice accompaniment.
Elsie couldn’t manage all of her dessert but surprisingly ate all of the ice cream.
Steve enjoyed his dessert, I did have a taste and it was fresh and zesty – the citrus came through wasn’t too overpowering!
We really enjoyed our Sunday lunch at The Church Mouse and I would definitely return.
The servers were busy but friendly and everything was tasty.
I popped to the ladies before we left and the toilets were clean.
The atmosphere was really good and it’s very family friendly.
Where is The Church Mouse?
Front Street
Waldridge
Chester-Le-Street
County Durham
DH2 3RJ
The Church Mouse opening hours
- Monday 11:30 – 23:00
- Tuesday 11:30 – 23:00
- Wednesday 11:30 – 23:00
- Thursday 11:30 – 23:00
- Friday 11:30 – 23:00
- Saturday 09:00 – 23:00
- Sunday 09:00 – 22:00
The Church Mouse contact details
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Other food related posts
See what I thought of our Sunday lunch at the Manor House Inn
Find out if I enjoyed my first taste of NE1 Newcastle Restaurant Week
If you’re looking for somewhere for all the family here’s my thoughts on the Blue House Haswell.
See our thoughts on The Miner’s Arms Medomsley
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