The Grafton Hotel, Durham

Apr 11 2008 by Geoff Laws, The Journal

DURHAM City is one of the most picturesque around. Whether it’s the cobbled marketplace, the winding streets with bijoux houses or leafy riverside walks, it’s a city of great character.

Looming over this collection of quaint and historical is the monumental cathedral. The Grafton Hotel, however, has a different take on this magnificent view because it’s situated on a hill directly opposite the cathedral. From pretty much wherever you are, you look up and there it is.

The Grafton also has its own position on good food, which was our reason for being there.

Chef Vicky Turnbull takes great care over everything that leaves her kitchen. In fact, it starts long before that point, because she even grows some of her own ingredients.

Starting locally with a Northumbrian smoked cheese, onion and leek tart, I loved the combination of oil-rich pastry, mildly pungent cheese and savoury vegetables. The depth of flavours was well-served by the foil of crunchy salad leaves.

My companion’s dish of Vietnamese spring rolls was a very different take on the usual deep-fried versions. Vicky’s had slices of chicken breast and grated carrot with layers of fresh coriander, basil and mint leaves wrapped in translucent, soft rice paper. The snow-white wraps, with their colourful cross-sections of cream, orange and green, came with a powerful chilli, lime and peanut dipping sauce, which made them apparently too good to share.

Continuing the Far Eastern theme, we enjoyed soy, ginger and anise braised belly pork with spring onion potato and Chinese greens. The slices of melt-away meat had juicy fat that disappeared into the fragrant, star anise sauce. A languid layer of softened pak choi and generous amounts of the creamiest mash produced the best combination of exotic flavours and homely ingredients. With vegetables in mind, my companion chose the tamarind chickpea and spinach curry, served on naan bread, with cucumber and tomato raita. A sumptuous tomato and tamarind sauce glazed nutty chickpeas, chunks of floury potato and wilted spinach. The base was a fluffy naan so well constructed that it held its shape and texture throughout. Contrasting chilly cucumber and sweet chutney side dishes kept the taste buds on the go to the very end.

It’s extra clever stuff when you can make these basic ingredients sparkle like this – and the sparkle continued into desserts with an elegant Baileys Irish Cream and dark chocolate mousse. A chic glass full of densely chocolate mousse with a semi-liquid centre was dusted with icing sugar and dotted with melted chocolate. As if that wasn’t enough sweetness, Vicky added a buttery shortbread biscuit. Her treacle tart was even more hedonistic. The butter pastry and syrupy rich filling was so amazingly light it had hardly any gravitational pull. A scoop of crème fraiche did its very best to balance up healthy-over-sugar, but who cares. With food this good you deserve to eat well and without worry.

So, if it’s a different view of the cathedral or a new take on excellent food you’re looking for, the Grafton has it all!