The Thinford Inn. The earliest restaurant I can remember. As a small child in Southend the closest I got to going to a restaurant was getting a takeaway from Pang’s or eating a bag of crisps in a pub car park. Until I went on holiday to County Durham.

The highlight of any holiday to Durham was a trip to the Beefeater restaurant at the Thinford Inn. I can’t remember what I had there for a main course because the Beefeater experience was all about dessert. Any food consumed before dessert was just necessary toil on the journey to the knickerbocker glory.

This was an Empire State sized pile of ice cream and sticky sweet raspberry squirt topped off with whipped cream and a flake stuck in the top. The KG was so big it had to have a special long spoon forged to get to the bottom of the glass it came in.

My northern relations would utter impenetrable phrases of encouragement as I worked my way mercilessly through the sugar mine until not one reserve of calorie was left, in some childish burlesque of the empty coalpits that surrounded the village where I later grew up.

The Thinford is shut now and only its legend lives on.

To see other restaurants I’ve been to (possibly near you!) go to the GoogleMap …

Food Restaurants Beefeater Co. Durham Steak The 80s Thinford