Three Star Sustainable Restaurant Rating For Battlesteads Hotel in Wark

Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant in Wark, near Hexham, has been awarded a three star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA). The SRA Rating System involves restaurants completing a rigorous survey, providing answers and evidence to 70 questions across 14 areas of sustainability. The SRA then assesses the results and rates the restaurants accordingly with one, two or three stars.

One hundred and fifty restaurants completed the SRA Star Rating in 2011. A further 300 restaurants are currently going through the process or are booked in to complete it in 2012. Battlesteads has achieved Three-Star Sustainability Champion status, which represents demonstrating exceptional all round sustainability, scoring consistently well across every category. The SRA is a national, not-for-profit membership organisation providing more than 600 restaurants with expert sustainability advice through a team of specialist account managers.

Judges commented that ‘Battlesteads is truly exceptional in its efforts towards integrating sustainability throughout all aspects of the restaurant.’ They also noted that ‘Battlesteads also works with local primary schools in the area to teach students about sustainability and has recently begun to provide lunches to the local school.’

This is yet another accolade for the Battlesteads Hotel after they won our campaign to find Northumberland's Best Sunday Lunch late last year. We can't recommend them highly enough and would like to extend a personal congratulations to owners Richard and Dee Slade who have worked so hard since they bought the Battlesteads in 2005.

Review: Jolly Fisherman, Craster

PLEASE NOTE THAT IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT THE JOLLY FISHERMAN HAS CHANGED HANDS SINCE WE WROTE THIS REVIEW - MANY THANKS.

The Jolly Fisherman is located in the beautiful fishing village of Craster, which just happens to be the starting point for one of my favourite walks. Nothing can beat a ramble along the rocky outcrops to the majestic ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle and on to the beautiful sands of Embleton Bay. On a crisp day the views are simply stunning, but you'll probably need to sit by a roaring fire afterwards to help thaw out your limbs.

This is where the Jolly Fisherman comes in, it's right on the harbour and has fantastic clear views out to sea. When we arrived the fire was indeed roaring and there were many walkers warming themselves (and their dogs - allowed in the bar) with a hot drink and a meal.  The menu, as you would expect, consists mainly of fish dishes and seafood. If you're not a lover of the fresh catches from our great seas I would recommend you look elsewhere, I counted two options that didn't contain fish. We were looking for a light lunch so we ordered fish goujons with chips (£8.50) and the pea and leek soup (£3.95) with a side order of chips (£2.95) and took a seat by the window to admire the sea cascading over the rocks by the harbour.

It genuinely is a wonderful vantage point and we did enjoy the uninterrupted views, unfortunately the food couldn't quite live up to the surroundings. I'm afraid to say there is no other way to describe the soup presented to me other than 'poor'. It was essentially a bowl of what tasted like luke warm tinned peas with two strands of leek running through it, it even tasted as though the tinned pea juices had been used as stock. The chips came in a separate bowl, were meagre in portion size, slightly undercooked and oily. The cost for these two items alone came to £6.90, simply not good enough quality to justify half that price tag.  The fish goujons were a vast improvement over the soup and were tasty, but did come with the same oily (and often black) chips.

Unfortunately after a few mouthfuls of peas I couldn't stomach any more and had to leave half the bowl (and I really hate to leave food to go to waste). I can only hope that the other fish specials on the board are of a much higher quality than the food we were given. We went to the bar to pay and I was ready to give honest feedback about the quality of the meals we had been served. The bar staff however didn't ask if we had enjoyed our meals or if everything had been OK, they seemed very keen to take the payment without conversation. We left still hungry, with a slightly bitter taste in our mouths and a much lighter wallet.

Highlight: The wonderful vantage point that the Jolly Fisherman offers and the warm and cosy (dog friendly) bar area.
Lowlight: Disappointing food quality and service.

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

Overall Score: I would recommend the Jolly Fisherman as a brilliant stop off point after a bracing walk along the coast. A warm drink by the fire or sitting and watching  the waves crash over the harbour walls with a pint, it doesn't get much better than that. However, based on what we ate I couldn't honestly recommend the food, it was in my opinion of poor quality and didn't represent good value for money. *1/2

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

New Year, New Events and What's On Section

As promised we are in the process of completely revamping the way we organise our Events and What's On Section on the main website. This will include a page for each month of the year, listing all the main events and festivals for the year ahead. Hopefully this will help people plan their holidays and spare time so they know exactly what's on when.

We are also launching a monthly newsletter. This will cover the month ahead, giving a full listing of what's on the following month, have a few stories of interest and give our advertisers more opportunities to reach their customers. In the next few days our first Newsletter will go out to:

• All our Social Networks (Fast Approaching 4,000 people)
• Our Mailing Lists (Currently 2,000 people and businesses)
• Visitors to What's On Section of the site (Currently up to 4,000 hits per month)

As an introductory offer we are giving away advertising in January's newsletter absolutely free to any Northumberland business. The advertising spaces are limited and the deadline is tight, so if you run a business that would like to reach up to 10,000 potential customers absolutely free then get in touch ASAP!

Advertising rates for February 2012 onwards will start from just £10 which is excellent value for money. More information about advertising in future newsletters will be released later in January.

Contact us on enquiries@yournorthumberland.co.uk if you'd like to take us up on this offer.