A Tale of Two Lunches – The Central Bar, Gateshead

Since we moved closer to Gateshead town centre, Mr. Canny has been desperate to pop into The Central for food. While not technically our local, it’s the only one I think we’d venture into! One of his work colleagues had mentioned that there was vegan grub on the menu, so we made a pact when we had more time we’d pop in to try out their Sunday lunch. Part of The Head of Steam group, it is locally renowned for the top quality ales it has on offer. 

I had an awful time over Christmas due to suspected food poisoning, which is not great at the best of times but even worse when you’re heavily pregnant! I couldn’t be bothered to cook (what’s new?!), so offered to take him for scran when I was feeling a bit better to get us both out of the house.

There were plenty of options available, and at £6.95 was cheap to boot. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting much from a chain pub in this respect, but it wasn’t bad at all. I had the Beef and, while it didn’t live up to Staith House or Artisan for quality, it was better than anything I was going to knock up in my condition.

The Mr had the Parsnip and Cranberry Bake, which was served with vegetarian gravy. I actually preferred his gravy to mine, which was on the watery side. I appreciated the fact they brought out gravy boats for us both, meaning we could add as much or as little as we liked. Feeling left out on the Yorkie Pud front, he was offered more Roast Potatoes instead. He was very impressed. Accompanied by a bottle of Trooper Beer (which is vegan), he was a happy bunny. Coming in at £18 for us both (with drinks) I said I was happy to return as it worked out cheaper than making our own. Plus there was no washing up!

Having noticed there were pool and table tennis tables, Mr. Canny decided to take Jnr over the Christmas break one afternoon. Apparently there’s only so much PS4 you can play before you go a bit stir crazy in the house! They were both fed and watered before burning off the calories with a competitive game of table tennis.

The Mr ordered their Hot Pot, which appeared to be a crafty way to reuse some of their Sunday Lunch veggies. He ate it, but said it lacked substance. A couple of sprouts, carrots and sliced potato does not a meal make, even for a vegan.

Jnr had the Vegetarian Spicy Tortilla Lasagne, which he said was on the bland side. He was clearly expecting something with more of a kick to it. Both ate their meals, but were unanimous in their disappointment. Admittedly at £5.95 each the meals were cheap by pub standards, and perhaps they’d both made dud choices. Great to see a pub offer a few options for those following a meat-free diet, which is more than can be said for other establishments we’ve recently visited. Look out for a future post on this. We’d still recommend giving The Central a go for grub however, especially when they have a 2 for £10 on burgers between 12-6pm Mon to Thurs.

Thanks for reading,

Pip x

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