As you might have seen or read, we’ve been having a weekly takeaway treat at weekends recently, to give ourselves something to look forward to. This week we had a three course meal from the newly launched Blackfriars at Home menu, that aims to bring the quality of their award winning restaurant right into your home.

Disclaimer: We received a complimentary three course meal for two.

The menu is set to change weekly, and is only available at weekends including their legendary Sunday roast. You can order one or two courses from a selection of a few dishes for each course, and wines or beers from their at home drinks list too. I’ll outline the specific details around ordering at the end, but first this was our experience.

We put our order in after 3pm on the Thursday from the Blackfriars at Home menu which you can find here. They deliver within a 4 mile radius of the restaurant in Newcastle city centre, at a charge of £3.50 but we opted to pick up instead.

The food arrives with you prepared but cold, with a full set of instructions for cooking anything that needs it. To start I went for the smoked mackerel pate, with dill picked cucumber and toasted sourdough, and Kieran had the summer vegetable soup with croutons.

Mine didn’t require anything extra so I sort of presented it on the plate, while Kieran heat up his soup which only took 4-5 minutes. I love seafood so the pate was delicious for me, with plenty of it. Kieran polished off his soup as well with no complaints at all.

While we ate our starters we had the mains in the oven, again which come with specific instructions for how to cook it just right. I had the salt aged rump steak and it gave exact timings depending on how you would usually order it, and the sides came separately including gratin dauphinois potato, and fine beans wrapped in bacon. There was a sauce that just needed heating through too.

Kieran’s roast pork shoulder with mash potato, braised leek and mustard all came in one carton too, so it was really easy to just put everything in the oven together while we finished our starters. For such a lovely dinner it was really easy to do, and didn’t feel like a takeaway at all – rather a restaurant style meal at home without all the preparation and worry about timings.

The food was excellent, my cut of steak was perfect and no fat bits to cut off. The dauphinois style potatoes are one of my favourites and the butter melted over them was just amazing. I think I presented mine nicely on the plate, unlike Kieran who literally poured the pork sauce and mash everywhere. Not great for my photos but it’s the taste that matters and he said it was really good. He polished the lot off too.

On a Friday night with a bottle of wine alongside, it really took me back to dining out with next level food, and portions that fill you without leaving you feeling bloated and lazy. It was such a nice treat that it felt like date night at home, with no hassle of shopping and cooking it ourselves.

We finished it off with sticky toffee pudding and a real hope that we will be back in restaurants like Blackfriars sooner rather than later. For now though the Blackfriars at Home option is a really nice one if you want a good restaurant quality takeaway.

Pricing is £18 for two courses, or £21 for three, which I think is really excellent value for the quality of the food, and especially when I compare it to some of the other takeaways I’ve spent more on for just one course. The final preparation for cooking some of the food wasn’t an issue at all which might have been a doubt I would have had before this. The instructions are really clear and it’s minimal effort for such nice food.

To order you can call 0191 261 5945 from 3-7pm on Thursdays, for collection or delivery slots across Friday – Sunday. There are vegetarian options, and their site has an allergy and ingredient matrix if you have those things to consider.

To see the full range of menus for at home ordering, including the wine list, cooking instructions and allergy table then visit the Blackfriars website here. I’d recommend it for a date night, occasion or just a nice weekend treat until we can visit the restaurant again. Like I said I think the price is great I would pay at least £30-£35 for what we had, and that’s my genuine opinion especially when I think what I’ve spent on other takeaways this lockdown.

Disclaimer: As mentioned at the start we were given our meal complimentary, but all opinions are my own and I absolutely would order this myself in future.