Restaurant review: National Glass Centre Brasserie, Liberty Way, Sunderland

Having recently returned from my summer holiday, the past couple of weeks have been spent catching up with contacts and getting things planned and in the diary for the months leading up to the festive season.

So it was I found myself at the National Glass Centre this week for a business lunch, talking shop and catching up on a spot of gossip, too.

I decided I may as well take the opportunity to review the brasserie at the centre, too, for the purposes of this page.

Truth be told, it had been years since I had visited here, and that is quite shameful. It’s an integral part of the North East culture scene and, as I discovered, it’s certainly a place to enjoy a good meal, too.

At present, the brasserie is only open evenings on a Friday and Saturday, but its lunchtime menu is certainly one to relish, and that is perhaps down to 1879 Events Management having taken over its day-to-day running.

It was pretty busy when we sat down at our table and quite a few diners were taking advantage of the good weather and eating outside.

There are views across the river and, indoors, the brasserie is light and airy. It was the perfect setting.

Each week it provides a specials menu and all three options on it this week caught my eye, so I stuck with it.

For starters I had coriander and lime breaded crab cakes with a sweet chilli dip (£3.95). Crab cakes often promise much and don’t deliver, the flavour tending to be bland.

This was certainly not the case here. The cakes were packed with taste and the coating was cooked to perfection – little burned around the edges but that is just how I like it.

Diner 2 stuck to the main menu for her delights. Here you have a varied choice, from a National Glass Centre club sandwich to a Frisee salad. Having learned the homemade soup of the day was broccoli and blue stilton, her mind was made up.

This diner is a known demon in the kitchen and is very fussy about her soups.

Her comment? “I loved it. It was just the right consistency, just as I would have made it at home.” So far so good then!

For main course, the specials this week had been minute steak with thick cut chips, grilled mushroom and beurre rouge (£7.95).

When it arrived it also had asparagus on, which I duly gave to my dining partner – much to her delight.

I adored this dish. The steak was spot-on and tender. I often find minute steak can prove a little tough, but this was the exact opposite. The sauce was the perfect accompaniment, while the grilled mushroom was packed with flavour.

The chips came on a cup on the plate which I duly emptied and enjoyed every mouthful of.

The other chosen main course was catch of the day (£10), which on this particular day was grilled salmon. It came on a bed of mixed leaves, tomato and red onion and looked as delicious as it tasted.

My friend had a coffee instead of dessert but I couldn’t resist the specials sweet of forest fruit cheesecake with cream and coulis (£3.95) – a delightful and not-too-heavy dish which was the perfect end to the meal.

The brasserie also does break­­fast from 10am to 11.30am and children’s lunches, too.

If you want to try it out on a Friday or Saturday evening, there is the early dining menu or the evening dining menu to choose from – the former from 5pm to 7pm on a Friday only, the latter from 7pm to 10pm on both Friday and Saturday.

Meals on those menus include pan haggerty, home-cooked pasta, Prudhoe pork loin medallion and mixed grill.

I loved the meal at the Brasserie and will definitely be returning again.

Where: Liberty Way, Sunderland

Call: 0191 515 5555

Web: www.nationalglasscentre.com

Open: Bar opening times Monday to Thursday: 4pm-Midnight, Friday: 4pm-1am, Saturday: Noon-1am, Sunday: Noon-Midnight

Restaurant opening times Monday to Friday: 5pm-10.30pm, Saturday: Noon-10.30pm, Sunday: Noon-6pm

Disabled access: No

Parking: On street parking