Best Seafood in the North of England? Colmans Seafood Temple

I've long been a fan of seafood but there still seems to be a lack of great places in the North East of England so when Colmans asked me to try out their new Seafood Temple based in South Shields, I jumped at the chance and Looby was first to declare an interest as my plus one because she's a huge fan of mussels.

Colmans have long been a staple in the fish and chip world but now they're turning their hand to finer dining with a custom built building shaped like a boat at one end and a temple at the other, sitting right on the seafront at South Shields.  It's a risky business when you are well known in one kind of market to venture into another but like Virgin, if you can succeed in other market's keeping all kinds of customers happy then you truly can have the world!

Looby and I went down for lunch last week and we were excited, Looby commented that if only we could bring Holly Bobbins with us then it would be perfect and so we were thrilled to note that downstairs is a takeaway but with seating and dogs are welcomed with open arms, whilst they don't offer the whole seafood menu we were informed that they do sometimes have a seafood specials on their downstairs menu as well as the famous Colmans fish and chips.

Back to the upstairs though and it's a spacious light and airy building with 360 degree views, not only that but the seating is placed spaciously on the floor, whilst they could have gotten more tables in they've chosen not to, a definite sign of quality over quantity and that's always a good thing.

The menu is tantalising, you can have everything from the staples like Cod, Haddock and Scampi right through to Scallops, Oysters, prawns and there's even a steak option which I chose as it was a featured special of surf and turf.  It actually might be the first time I've ever had surf and turf, I can't quite believe that!

I started with scallops though, scallops are notoriously hard to cook and get just right, cook them for even a second too long and they taste like rubber and so if I see them on the menu I have to try them as they're a great marker for just how good a restaurant is.

No worries with Colmans Seafood Temple though, you can get them in three's and fives and although I was tempted to get the five I wanted to leave room for mains and pudding.  The three were perfect, a great appetiser and for me, I could quite happily just order a plate full of scallops from there as they were so utterly tantalising to the tastebuds.  Looby meanwhile had ordered herself a half kilo of mussels and took no time to clear out the pot of the plumptious molluscs.

For mains Looby went for scampi, she always goes for scampi, it didn't disappoint though and when my perfectly cooked steak came out with 3 large prawns on top, I did a little silent squeal, steak is my favourite and so I eat it a lot and I can tell you the difference between a good steak and a great steak.  Let me tell you that this was a great steak and those prawns?  Delish, I could have eaten a plate of them on their own!

We were quite full by this point but Looby reminded me that we have an extra stomach that's just for pudding...(yes, yes, we do, honest) so we ordered some perfection in a bowl, that's hot cherries with ice-cream, hot cherries with ice-cream probably goes into the list of my favourite five puddings of all time, it's just the ultimate combination and really as close to perfection as you can get with desserts in my opinion, as ever the simple things are the best.

So, if I had paid for our meals it would have come to somewhere around £75ish which for 3 courses and drinks is a pretty good price and if it's a special occasion then it's a bargain.  Looby gave it 10/10 and really she's the best judge as she doesn't care who's paying for lunch, she just likes what she likes and nd she's also quite fussy and particular about the things she does like so it makes me happy to say that she would definitely go again but we're really not one for leaving Holly Bobbins on her own at home so next time we'll be trying the downstairs takeaway with our favourite four pawed friend.

Thank you to Colmans Seafood Temple for inviting us down for a complimentary meal in exchange for an honest review.