The original Tyne Dock station was opened on 19 June 1839, which would have been my brother’s birthday, (were he the grand old age of 178) and was part of the Brandling Junction Railway linking Gateshead to South Shields. The metro station as it is now was opened four years after the metro first opened in 1980 when the network was extended from Heworth to South Shields.
If you leave platform two and walk over the footbridge probably one of the first things you’ll see after a social club and a local taxi office is the orange neon lights of the newly opened Man V Food restaurant, which as well as being an ideal stop off for a high quantity meat fix on your way to the docks (hello Sailor) has its own small bar area so is geographically the closest place to get a drink.
We visited at about 6ish on a Saturday night and there was a nice buzz about the place. The staff were extremely friendly and seated us in a booth promptly and took our drinks order. It’s not often we eat on out WBMT visits but the smell of succulent barbequed animal was too much to resist, plus we needed something to soak up the two bottles of wine we found ourselves ordering.
The restaurant is everything you’d expect from somewhere who promotes you eat your body weight in meat; very modern. Very America and everything is XXL. For the sake of ease we ordered the four person sharing BBQ smoke tray at £44.95 between you. This comes with all meat dry rubbed and marinated, slow cooked and smoked and includes house nachos, pulled chicken, beef ribs, half chicken, spicy lamb sausage (which is pretty spicy!) chicken wings and pit beans. You ALSO get to choose 2 sides on top of that and 2 choices of sauce on the side.
We had a great time wading through all the flavours and considering we took a good portion home with us, it’s exceptionally good value. Booze wise the bar is pretty reasonably priced; the cheapest bottle of wine is £12.95; there’s cocktails all costing £5.95 and draught pints (including Brooklyn lager and Vedette) from £3.60 a pint.
I know it’s not technically a pub but if you find yourself hanging about by the docs are any reason (hello Sailor) , in fact even if you’re not, it’s a really, really great place to visit. We’re already planning our next trip back to tackle the dessert menu!
Contact:
Hudson Street
South Shields
NE34 0AD
Tel: 0191 4567198
Web: www.manvsfoodgrillhouse.co.uk
Find out where else we’ve been on our metro adventure here
