Nigel Burton enjoys the high life as he travels to Alnwick Garden’s famous Treehouse to try out some fine dining

THE last time I ate in a treehouse my “meal” consisted of a bag of beef-e Tudor crisps, a handful of penny chews, the remains of a Curly Wurly and a bottle of Dandelion and Burdock pinched from my mum’s pantry (an act for which I would pay dearly). The year was 1975 and I was nine years old.

Back then, we perched precariously on a couple of planks of wood and sheltered beneath some off-cuts of roofing felt when it rained (which it did in Scarborough a lot).

The treehouse at Alnwick Gardens cost a cool £3.3m and has space for 300 visitors. It’s built around 16 mature lime trees, which continue to grow unconstrained by the structure, and boasts a reception area, a turret-topped restaurant, reception rooms with flat screen televisions and “hidden” toilets. Neighbouring Alnwick Castle doubled as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies. This fantasy tree village (Europe’s largest) could easily provide the setting for Peter Jackson’s long-awaited movie of The Hobbit.

The 60ft high attraction’s maze of suspended walkways are an impressive engineering feat and they afford a fine view of the surrounding countryside. Given that Alnwick is a 90-minute drive from our house, it had better be good.

The Treehouse Restaurant was the idea of the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Jane Percy, who designed it as the perfect appetiser for her other pet project the Alnwick Gardens, which are sometimes called the Versailles of the North. When it was announced, it was referred to as TreeTopia but that idea has been quietly forgotten.

Access to the restaurant is via a wooden walkway.

At some times of the year it is candle-lit, but high winds and drizzle put paid to that when we visited. But what a venue. Part giant scout hut, part restaurant, I can honestly say I haven’t dined in a spot quite like it. High-backed seats are made from driftwood, tree branches sprout from the floor and a cosy log-burner crackles in the middle of the dining area. I was sad to discover that the branches weren’t alive (they are set in concrete) but, as my wife said, imagine the mess during the autumn.

In keeping with the back to nature theme, most of the produce is locally sourced from Northumberland. Presumably, some of the greens are grown in the Alnwick Garden itself.

To start I had the chef’s soup of the day – a nicely-spiced carrot and sweet potato – with bread roll and butter. The natural sweetness of the soup was balanced by a piquant kick that lingered just long enough to have me looking forward to the main course.

Jane selected the shredded confit of duck salad with mango and chilli salsa. The trick to duck confit is preparation – it’s cured duck leg preserved in fat – and the Treehouse chef had done his homework. Jane’s only criticism was that she could have eaten her starter as a main course.

I’d opted for the roast loin of pork with roasties (crisp on the outside, soft on the inside just as I like ’em), mash, sage, onion and lemon stuffing, honey crunch mustard and apple sauce. Oh, and a Yorkshire pud that was as big as small house. This plateful tasted great. The pork was a nice cut with tender, moist and flavoursome meat and the crackling was just the right side of crunchy. The honey crunch mustard was excellent – sweet and chewy.

JANE had the Turnbull’s sausages with root veg mash, ale gravy and caramelised red onion jam. R Turnbull and Sons is an example of why it’s often a good idea to buy local. A long-time member of the National Butchers Q Guild, which represents many of the country’s leading independent meat retailers, it has won best butcher’s shop in the North- East for two years running. All Turnbull’s bangers are home-made on the premises from locally-sourced meats and taste lip-smacking.

Although the company does some unusual flavours, including a rum sauce sausage, those served up at the Treehouse are good old-fashioned bangers – meaty, flavoursome and nicelytextured with a richly browned casing.

For our puds, Jane picked a real treat: the Treehouse lemon posset with rhubarb compote and butter shortbread. Originally a drink made from hot milk and honey laced with ale or wine, posset was a popular cold remedy in the Middle Ages. It is perhaps best-known as the device with which Lady Macbeth knocks out the guards in Shakespeare’s famous play.

Over the years the recipe has changed and today’s posset is a thick creamy dessert, flavoured with lemon. After a big meal a lemon posset makes a perfect pudding – tangy and refreshing.

The rhubarb compote was unusually sweet, too.

A triumph, then, and my sticky toffee pud was also enjoyable, albeit slightly too dry for my own taste – I prefer a moist pud.

Three courses cost a reasonable £22.75 and there’s a separate children’s menu.

The Treehouse is open daily for lunch and on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Mondays for dinner. You don’t need a ticket to the Garden to enjoy a pre-booked meal, but I’d advise anyone travelling from County Durham to make a day of it by visiting the Garden and the castle (which re-opens on March 31).

As for me, I reckon the Alnwick Treehouse beats a Curly Wurly and beef-e crisps hands down any day.

Food Facts

The Treehouse at The Alnwick Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland.

Tel: 01665-511852

Lunch: 11.30am – 2.45pm (daily)

Dinner: 6.30pm – 9.30pm (Thursday – Sunday and holiday Mondays)

Website: alnwickgarden.com

Food: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 5/5

Value-for-money: 4/5