The Mal on Sunday

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day; whether I’m having fresh fruit and natural yoghurt, a deliciously indulgent danish pastry and some hot, strong coffee, or gorging myself on a Full English after a heavy night. From a young age, my mother has instilled in me the belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that there’s no excuse good enough for skipping it. Not that I often do, but being more of a night person, when I’m getting up for work it’s invariably already almost lunch time by the time I get up. Working Monday to Friday, I find my weekends are now spent recuperating from the week. Sunday’s are always an indulgent day anyway, but there’s no better (or more indulgent) than spending an afternoon enjoying Sunday Brunch at Malmaison, so you can imagine my excitement when I was invited along!

Malmaison is definitely one of my favourite hotels in town. Inhabiting the old Co-Op, it’s such an iconic building right on the quayside. With it’s amazing views of the Tyne plush purple velvet interior, and Alice in Wonderland style over-sized armchairs, I knew the brunch was going to be nothing if not decadent. The way the brunch works is that you’re seated, order your main course, then are free to help yourself from the buffet style selection of starters served from the chef’s table. We could help ourselves to cold meats, salmon, soup, bread, olives, cheese, paella and all sorts. Not to mention being able to request waffles, pancakes and eggs cooked anyway imaginable from the chef. Being just the starter, I was tempted to try loads of things out but I didn’t want to fill up before my main course! To be honest, I could’ve easily gone backwards and forwards a few times instead of even opting for a main course. Having roped the whole family along for the review to celebrate my little brother’s birthday, we selected a range of main courses from steak and frites to more traditional beef and chicken Sunday lunches. Although I opted for steak, the beef and chicken looked amazing! And served with a slightly different selection of veg, including courgettes, it’s definitely not just your run of the mill Sunday lunch.

I’m not a huge fan of big lunches most of the time anyway, but with the perfectly cooked beef, I’ll definitely be trying one on my next visit! Instead, me and my Dad opted for the steak. And when they came, perfectly pink inside, and accompanied with a delicious red wine butter, I knew I’d made the right choice. After spending a good few hours in the restaurant, we finished with desserts before taking coffee in the bar. Sunday’s are definitely the kind of day where you can just wind down and take things slowly and the staff at Mal are more than happy to let you indulge yourself at your own pace. With all that food up for grabs, there’s no rush really. Once we’d finished our food though, we headed to the bar to sit in the window enjoying the views while we digested. The whole premise of the brunch is that you take it easy and enjoy spending time moving a little slower, so in the bar there were board games for guests to play as they relaxed with a coffee. It’s really rare that we go out as a family and when we do, it’s sometimes a hassle to try and choose something that everyone will like. With Mal, there’s such a huge selection that you can’t go wrong. I’ll definitely be back for another brunch. But I think I’ll probably be waiting until after my holiday now… Mal’s indulgent Sunday Brunch is definitely not the way to a bikini body.