Sunderland Restaurant Week, organised by Sunderland BID, is returning 17th-25th September and I was lucky enough to have a little preview and sample some scran from 3 of the eateries taking part!

If you’re unaware of the event, Sunderland Restaurant Week allows a whole host of restaurants and cafes across the city to show off their menus whilst giving visitors a chance to dine for £5, £10 or £15pp. We have been lucky to see so many new restaurants open this past year, so if you haven’t had a chance to visit some of them yet – this might be your perfect opportunity!

On the preview night, we visited 3 venues for starter, main and dessert. Those venues were My Delhi, The Engine Room and Grinder Central. Now let me tell you aaaaall about it…

MY DELHI

Our first restaurant of the evening was the incredible My Delhi. You may have already visited their Newcastle restaurant, but they’re pretty new to Sunderland and it was wonderful to get along! My Delhi are passionate about their food which showed in the way Chef Gaurav spoke to us about the dishes. He and the team brought out a number of their street plates for us to try including; Samosa Chaat, Paneer Tikka, Cauliflower Manchurian and Onion Bahji, all of which are on their restaurant week menu! As a restaurant, their aim is to create authentic Indian food packed full of flavour, that will transport you to the roadside stalls across Delhi. The dishes were delicious and I cant wait to visit again – Adam will love it! You can check out their menus, including the restaurant week one, here.

THE ENGINE ROOM

You’ll find The Engine Room at the heart of Sunderland city centre, set right next to the newly refurbished Fire Station. If you’re planning a night at the theatre, or just fancy food and drinks with friends it’s the perfect place for you. The team brought out a number of small plates and large plates from their restaurant week menu for us to try. Stand outs for me were definitely the Bourbon Glazed Pork Belly Bites and the Korean BBQ Chicken Burger. Their offer for the week is either two courses for £15, or three small plates for £15. Bargain! Also, their Prohibition Daisy mocktail is the best I’ve ever had…as you can see from my face below!

GRINDER CENTRAL

Grinder Coffee Co is an independent coffee shop with two wonderful Sunderland locations. Grinder Coffee is based on New Durham Road and Grinder Coffee Central is based in Hills Arts Centre just along from Sunderland rail station. We headed to Grinder Central to grab a cuppa and some cake to finish off a lovely evening. They’ve got plenty of drinks and sweet treats on offer and after a few minutes contemplating, I decided to go for a white chocolate hot chocolate and slice of honeycomb tiffin – both of which were delicious! What I really like about Grinder Coffee is that they’re big on supporting other local businesses so have a lovely local lass called Joyce baking their cakes, and a number of prints and gifts for sale made by local artists too!

I had an absolutely wonderful evening and can’t wait to make the most of restaurant week later this month. To find info on all participating restaurants and to download your vouchers to make most of the offers, head to the Sunderland BID website here.

**Full disclosure: all food was kindly gifted in exchange for this post (AD).