The Cross Keys at East Marton

10:40am Friday 7th July 2006

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AS my son's birthday party was booked for the day after his birthday, we needed to mark the big day itself, so once the parcels were all opened and squealed over, we went out for tea.

The Cross Keys at East Marton fitted the bill, it seemed child-friendly without being over-run with toddlers, and it also had two huge carved chairs in the corner tables, which make a birthday child feel like a King! (Or, of course a Queen! ) With Copper Dragon and Black Sheep on one side of the bar, and a crowd of regulars the other, the signs were good.We ate in the bar due to the need for birthday seating, but noticed that there was also a non-smoking dining room which I would choose on another occasion.

There is a regular, fairly straightforward menu of steaks, burgers, gammon and curries, with a board displaying some of the more adventurous dishes.

To start, my husband chose a warm bacon and black pudding salad at £4.95, which he thoroughly enjoyed, while the birthday child ordered mussels. He has eaten these before and loves them, but I do not think he was expecting the larger, chewier greenlipped variety which arrived in a very rich cream and white wine sauce. He ate them, but was a bit overwhelmed, and a bit full!

Atrip to the dentist earlier in the day meant that I took the unusual step of ordering soup, and was rewarded with a lovely comforting bowl of creamy mushroom soup and a large hunk of bread to dip in it.

As main courses, we ordered Yorkshire ham which came with an egg and chips from the children's menu at a very reasonable £3.50 for one child, and burger and chips from the adult menu for the other.The ham was lovely, and just what you would want to see and the burger was solid and meaty, and very large!

I ordered a chicken green chilli masala, which was a hot and fresh tasting curry served with rice. However, the portion size was huge, and between the soup and the dentist, I managed barely half. My husband did better justice to the shark steak in prawn and mussel sauce with new potatoes and vegetables he had ordered from the specials board and this dish really did stand out as special.The shark steak was firm and moist, and the new potatoes soaked up the rich sauce.

As my son had, of course, made sure that the waitress knew it was his birthday, his dessert of chocolate fudge cake was brought very thoughtfully with a candle burning in it! After we had sung somewhat self-consciously, we shared this dessert, along with two others of profiteroles, and cherry lattice pie, all of which were very pleasant.

Our meal came to £66.55, which included drinks, and we left very full, and as ready as one can be to face the party of 15 eight-year-old boys the next day!

Candy Squire Watt