FOOD REVIEW
MEAT FEAST!
M
Tees Life editor Julie Burniston discovered the secret to a successful
Sunday lunch at Tomahawk Steakhouse, Yarm
y kids, though I love them dearly,
are notoriously fussy when it
comes to food.
Jonah, a strapping 20-year-old, is visiting
for the weekend, having survived his first
four months at university on a diet of pretty
much anything as long as it’s deep fried
and starts with Mc! Evangeline, my sweet
ten-year-old daughter, is going through her
"Save the koalas from the bush fires" phase
and decided about three seconds before we
arrived that she’s vegan and can’t possibly eat
"cow"!
Under this blonde mane, I’m actually a
stressed out grey! Taking the aforementioned
darling children to Tomahawk Steakhouse
may be somewhat of a trial, I think. All I
want is a peaceful family Sunday lunch but,
with such a big age gap, it’s hard to find a
venue to satisfy both their needs, so I’m
ready to chalk this up to another “Why did I
bother?” venture.
How wrong I was! All of us were
immediately impressed by the décor in the
stunning Yarm eaterie. Evie almost had a
cow – pardon the pun – when she saw a
life-sized one above the door. The booths and
tables follow the bovine theme with leather
and cowhide partnered with chic wooden
floors and interesting "moo-abilia" on the
walls. The overall look is stylish and quirky,
which befits the restaurant’s location on the
trendy high street.
On a Sunday lunchtime it was
understandably busy, but the size of the
dining area (there are seats both up and
downstairs) ensured it still felt airy and
relaxed. The clientele was a mix of Yarm’s
movers and shakers (“Don’t look, Mam, but
there’s someone from Geordie Shore sitting
behind you!”); plus families and couples of
all ages, which made for a lovely ambience.
Considering number one son hadn’t eaten
a square meal in months and Mama was
paying, we…he…decided to go the whole
hog and chose half a kilo of fresh mussels
in white wine sauce served with sour dough
bread (£8.95) to start. Evie and I chose garlic
bread with herb butter (£3.50) and king
prawn pil pil – shell-off king prawns in garlic
and chilli butter and olive oil (£7.95). The
presentation was great and the food superb
The presentation was
great and the food superb
– not too big that you didn’t have room for
your main course, but just enough to take
the "haven’t eaten breakfast" pangs away.
Onto the highlight of the lunch and the
famous Tomahawk steak. Our friendly and
informed waitress had talked us through
the different cuts and types of meat on
offer – Himalayan salt dry-aged steak and
the legendary Wagyu - super marbled and
proclaimed as one of the finest meats in the
world.
With a press like that, of course, we had to
try it – and so we did, in three different ways.
Jonah opted for a 12-ounce ribeye, served
rare, at £39.50 with a choice of two sides. He
chose house hash browns with brisket and
cheddar (to die for!) plus beef dripping chips.
Evie plumped for an eight-ounce Wagyu
burger (medium/well) with fries and
slaw (£14.50) – perfect for "little adults",
though there is a dedicated children’s Little
Herdsmen menu with dishes at £5.95.
I chose the Sunday lunch special – roast
beef Wagyu - cooked through with stuffing,
roasties, Yorkshire pud, cauliflower cheese,
seasonal veg and red wine gravy (£14.95).
Bloody lovely!
Evie and Jonah rounded off their mains
with a shared triple choc-chip cookie dough
dessert, served with Milky Bar ice cream
(£6.50).
The test of a good meal for me is the
amount of winding up and sly digs my two
give each other throughout. Since there was
not a peep out of either of them, this shows
just how delicious the food was. For the first
time in ages my stress levels were low and I
truly enjoyed the family time.
So thanks, Tomahawk, we will definitely
be back – just as soon as half-term comes
around and I decide to re-open the "Bank of
Mam"!
tees-life.co.uk
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