Six hundred feet below Lambton Park runs the Five Quarter seam.
For two centuries the Great Northern Coalfield powered the world, and the Lambton Estate sat at its heart — the Lambton collieries sent their coal down the Wear to Sunderland and on to every port in Europe. Among the seams the pitmen worked, one name appears on colliery plans from Winlaton to Wearside: the Five Quarter, so called for its thickness of five quarter-yards of good coal. When Durham's mining engineers lettered the seams of the coalfield, the Five Quarter was seam G — sitting above the Main Coal, the Maudlin and the Low Main.
We've taken the name as our own — a fifth quarter, something extra beyond the expected — and we hope the pitmen would approve of what we do with it: honest food, generous measures, and a proper welcome, in the county that dug the seam.
The seams of the Durham coalfield, as the mining engineers lettered them.
The Menus
Example menus — dishes and prices may change before we open. Breakfast, lunch and dinner served daily; the deli counter runs all day.
Breakfast
The Fifth Quarter full breakfast grilled sausage, field mushroom, crispy bacon, black pudding, beans, tomato, toast white or brown, egg of choice — poached, fried or scrambled£12
The Fifth Quarter vegetarian breakfast white sausage, field mushrooms, tomatoes, vegetarian black pudding, beans, toast white or brown, egg of choice£12
Smashed avocado poached egg on hot honey & chilli sourdough£10
American style pancakes vanilla Greek yogurt, macerated berries£9
Eggs Royale our own smoked salmon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce£11
Smoothie bowl frozen fruit yogurt topped with banana, fresh fruit, granola, nuts, seeds, smooth peanut butter£9
Gypsy eggs black pudding, sautéed potato, spinach, onions, chorizo, poached eggs on sourdough toast£11
Something Simpler
Rolls sausage, bacon or egg — add an extra filling £3£6
On toast eggs (fried, poached or scrambled), beans or mushrooms£6
Toast jam or marmalade£4
To Drink
Speciality teas & coffee
Freshly juiced orange
Freshly juiced apple
Power juice spinach, apple, ginger, cucumber
Red juice beetroot, apple, carrot, ginger
Lunch
Soup of the day
Signature sandwiches and salads from our deli see the Deli menu
Burgers lamb — goats cheese, tomato & mint jam; the 5th Quarter beef burger — burger sauce, Monterey Jack cheese, crispy bacon, gherkin; or veggie — all with fries
Beer battered fish and chips mushy or garden peas, lemon & tartare sauce — add curry sauce £1
Prawn salad Greenland and king prawns, Marie Rose, shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato
All our roasts are served with duck fat roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and rich gravy.
Roast sirloin of beef
Roast chicken chicken fat roast potatoes
Herb rolled pork belly crackling
Roast salmon pea and Parmesan risotto
Aubergine melanzane salad
Cauliflower cheese on the side
Extras
Duck fat potatoes · chicken fat potatoes · crackling · Yorkshire puddings · braised red cabbage£3 each
Extra gravy£1.50
Extra meat£7.50
Puddings
Sticky toffee pudding ice cream and butterscotch sauce
Tonka bean rice pudding
Vanilla crème brûlée
Ice cream selection
Cheese
From the Oven
All our pizzas are made with a rich pomodorino sauce and fior di latte cheese, except the zucchini — that’s a white base. Gluten-free bases and vegan cheese available.
Margherita freshly torn basil, rich tomato sauce£12
Prosciutto funghi roasted field mushrooms, Parma ham, shaved aged Parmesan, rocket salad£14
It’s a Sin slow cooked smoked ham hock, chilli honey roasted pineapple£14
Zucchini Bianco thinly sliced yellow & green courgette, chestnut mushrooms, aged Parmesan, fior di latte base£13
On the Side
Dough balls garlic mayonnaise£4
Crusts and dips£5
Extra dips hot chilli honey, ’nduja mayonnaise, garlic mayonnaise£3 each
Charcuterie board£15
Burrata red onion and tomato salad£15
Pizza Night at Home
The Pizza Box got a pizza oven at home? Two doughs, tomato sauce for both, a bag of pre-mixed flour for rolling, fior di latte, and your choice of six toppings£20
As chalked up on the boards around the room
Signature Deli Sandwiches
Katz salt beef, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, sauerkraut
Club roast chicken, smoked streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, Pommery mustard mayonnaise on thick white bread
Cheesesteak
Chicken Parm
Veggie caprese loads of chargrilled Mediterranean vegetables, mozzarella and pesto
Fish finger
Salads
Caesar
Feta and onion
Goats cheese and watermelon
Houmous bowl
As chalked up on the boards around the room
From the Dry Ager
Dry aged, individually selected and butchered steaks — choose yours from our dry aged fridge.
Your steak, your way all served with proper chips, field mushroom and onion breadfrom £23 per 100g
Add prawns in garlic butter
Sharing Cuts
Chateaubriand · côte de boeuf · T-bone weights chalked up daily
Sauces
Bordelaise · peppercorn · Béarnaise · blue cheese
Please ask our team about allergies and dietary requirements — most dishes can be adapted.
The Delicatessen
A proper provisions counter in the grand tradition — shelves stacked with good things in jars, and hot food worth queuing for.
Hot Counter
Rotisserie chicken, whole or half
Deli sandwiches, built to order
Pizza from the stone oven
Daily hot special
The Shelves
Preserves, pickles & chutneys
Our own smoked salmon
Northern cheeses & charcuterie
Oils, vinegars & store-cupboard treasures
The Bakery
Homemade biscuits by the tin
Cakes & traybakes
Fresh bread, daily
Hampers made to order
THE BAKERY
Sweetfield’sAT THE FIFTH QUARTER
Our bakery belongs to Sweetfield’s. It began in lockdown as Say Cheesecake, baked at home and on the shelves of Fenwick Food Hall in Newcastle within no time. Six years on, Sweetfield’s bakes from our kitchen for cheesecake lovers and cheesecake haters alike: look for her fridge and shelves in the deli, and for her bakes on our menus.
Celebration cakes and orders go straight to Laura:
Cocktails done properly, a considered wine list, and North East ales that would have kept the pitmen happy. Open from morning coffee to last orders.
CocktailsWinesLocal AlesCoffee
Find Us
Lions Gate, Lambton Park
Chester-le-Street, County Durham
DH3 4DT
Lambton Park lies a mile from Junction 63 of the A1(M) — ten minutes from Durham, fifteen from Newcastle. Parking on site among the landscaped grounds.
The Suggestion Box
We’re still building The Fifth Quarter — tell us what you’d love to see on the menu, the shelves, or behind the bar.
Work With Us
We’ll be building our opening team through the year ahead — kitchen, front of house, bar and deli counter. If you take food seriously and want to be part of something new at Lambton Park, we’d like to hear from you.
Send us your CV and a few lines about yourself, and we’ll be in touch as roles open up.
David left school with no idea what he wanted to do. A catering course at college in Middlesbrough settled it quickly: cooking was the job. He qualified and went to the south-west coast of Scotland, and still says that is where he was made as a chef. As soon as he passed his driving test he worked his way through all five of the group’s hotels, learning the classics one kitchen at a time.
Then came the road. Storrs Hall on Windermere. Sharrow Bay on Ullswater, a house that held a Michelin star and a name known around the world. The pastry section back in Scotland. Opening the Bay Horse at Hurworth. And the Pot Kiln in Berkshire, Mike Robinson’s game kitchen, where the day began by collecting the crayfish traps from the Kennet. That is where David found his love of rustic food: proper, homemade, cooked with care.
Cooking at Jeffers by the Marina in Bangor, Northern Ireland, he entered MasterChef: The Professionals and reached the final eight, a semi-finalist from thousands who applied. A pub kitchen near Kirkby Stephen brought him back towards home; a call from a friend brought him the rest of the way, to the North East. Then Rockliffe Hall under Kenny Atkinson.
A call out of the blue from Eugene McCoy took him to the Crathorne Arms near Yarm, and he stayed twelve years. The kitchen was named Teesside’s best restaurant in 2020 and again in 2026, and those years taught him the lesson he brings to Lambton Park: cook what people want, not what the chef wants.
The Fifth Quarter has been months in the planning, and the aim is simple: a real destination, a place people travel to for the food and for the whole experience.
The North East always brings you home.
South-west ScotlandStorrs HallSharrow BayThe Bay Horse, HurworthThe Pot KilnJeffers by the MarinaRockliffe HallThe Crathorne Arms
