Review: The Railway Inn, Acklington

Friday evening, 8pm, "where will still be serving food?" we asked ourselves. A quick google search for the places we could think of in the vicinity and we decided on the Railway Inn at Acklington, who served food until 9pm that day. When we arrived at about half past eight we could hear how the busy the bar was as we walked through the door, a quick peek inside and I thought there was no chance we were going to get seated. There were large groups of people dining and all the visible tables were full... until we realised that the restaurant went right around and behind the bar, revealing a much larger eating area than I had expected. There was a musician and a singer setting up near the entrance so we decided to head to the far end of the restaurant area where there were two tables still available.

We were greeted by a really friendly lady at the bar who took the drinks orders and said they'd being them over to our table, so we sat, took in the atmosphere and browsed the menu. It looks like the Railway Inn has been recently refurbished and on the whole it has been a success, although I was slightly bemused by the RAF theme to the décor. If anything I would have expected the railways to feature, but I'm sure there must have been sound reasoning behind this, even if it wasn't immediately evident. The place was buzzing with large groups, families and quite a lot of children milling around the restaurant, and with that comes a lot of noise.

Our drinks arrived and we placed our food order, although we were told there would probably be a long wait as a group of 22 had just ordered their food. I had the potato skins to start and to my surprise they arrived within a few minutes! Perhaps they had decided to sneak our order for two in ahead of the group, for which we were very grateful. The starter was acceptable, some of the thicker potato skins hadn't quite been cooked through, but there was plenty to eat and the dips were tasty. As we finished the starters the 'live music' started up which made conversation, even at the far end of the restaurant almost impossible. The quality of the act was somewhat questionable, with the female lead managing to make each song sound identical to the last and I don't think the guitar player knew more than three chords. However, having said that the large groups of people seemed to be having a whale of a time and as time passed and the drink flowed the atmosphere became even more boisterous.

Our mains arrived promptly, I had chosen the Gammon Steak (£12) and my dining partner had Belly Pork (£10). The Gammon was of generous proportions and extremely succulent, it was obviously a very good quality piece of meat and the eggs were fried to perfection. There was however an impostor on the plate! I despise mushrooms in any form and there were four very large ones presented to me with my main course. Quite why anyone would choose to put a fungus in their dinner is well beyond me and I certainly would have welcomed opportunity to ask that they weren't included. Unfortunately they weren't mentioned on the menu, so I wasn't able to, but thankfully it didn't quite manage to put me off my meal. My dining partner's belly pork was also very good, the layered fat was ever so slightly under-rendered, but the crackling on top crackled perfectly.

We decided after our mains that we couldn't face another course (or another song) and asked for the bill, which was incorrect. The till had charged the Belly Pork at £13 instead of the £9.95 that is was marked at on the specials board. This was no problem, it was quickly rectified and apologies were made profusely. The correct total for two starters, two main courses and three drinks came to a little under £40.

Highlight: The friendly, attentive and personable staff.
Lowlight: The noisy, boisterous 'holiday camp' like atmosphere.

The Railway Inn’s Scores
Venue: **1/2
Ambience: *1/2
Service: ****
Presentation: **
Taste: ***
Value for Money: **

Overall Score: All credit to the Railway Inn for managing to fill such a large venue with happy, paying customers, which is no mean feat in the current economic climate. It is perhaps better suited to the families and groups staying on site than it is to the casual diner. We left having had our fill, in more ways than one. **1/2

My scoring system explained:
***** Outstanding **** Excellent *** Good ** Average * Poor