Oldfields is flavour of the month at tourism awards

Oldfields Restaurants have picked up a prestigious accolade at the North East England Tourism Awards 2007. The restaurants were presented with the Taste of North East England Award at the ceremony held at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland on September 19.

The North East England Tourism Awards are organised by regional development agency One NorthEast and form the regional heat of the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence, showcasing the work undertaken by tourism providers in the region to reflect quality, performance and innovation in the tourism sector of the North East.

The Taste of North East England category was open to all sectors of the tourism industry, from producers of locally grown or sourced food and drink products, to accommodation providers, visitor attractions, transport operators, pubs and restaurants. All entries had to include a visitor experience such as Oldfields regular cookery demonstrations, and finalists included Malmaison in Newcastle and Sidneys Restaurant in Tynemouth.

Operations director at Oldfields Restaurant, Peter Wood, said: “We are thrilled to have won the Taste of the North East category in the North East England Tourism Awards. This is a great achievement for us as we work hard to ensure that our produce is local wherever possible. It’s great that visitors can eat out and be sure that they are enjoying food prepared using the finest regional ingredients, as the quality of our produce is one of the best things about the region.”

Oldfields Restaurants specialise in top quality British food, simply but expertly prepared using the finest local produce. The restaurants, located in Jesmond in Newcastle and Durham, strive to use ingredients that are local and seasonally produced wherever possible to provide simple, fresh and real food.

Richard Vickery, tourism business development manager at One NorthEast said: “There was a particularly high standard of entries this year but we were particularly impressed with Oldfields because of the Taste of the North East menu, which notes the miles that the produce has travelled so diners can see exactly where their meal has come from. We have had a chance to experience first hand the wealth of talent and experience in the region’s visitor economy and we believe that Oldfields has demonstrated a real commitment to making North East England a great place to visit.”

Oldfields changes its menu on a regular basis and sample dishes from their lunch menu include English asparagus with baby beetroot, grilled mackerel with heritage potato and onion mustard and rhubarb crumble with Beckleberry’s ginger ice cream.

Earlier this year the restaurant won an award for ‘Best Service’ in the North East Restaurant Awards held by The Gourmet Society and in 2006 Oldfields won an award for ‘Restaurant of the Year’ in the Durham Retail Awards.

Oldfields Restaurant, 9 Osborne Road, Jesmond

Oldfield’s Restaurant, 18 Claypath in Durham

Oldfieldsrestaurants.com