Old Reliable GNER

King's Cross to Wakefield (again!) 2nd August 2005. Old reliable GNER's restaurant - despite its hideous name, "Go Eat" - lives up to its track record of good food and wine. Tonight it's the imaginatively named "Menu B" (who thinks of names in this organisation? Joe Bloggs?) Tomato and porcini mushroom soup for starters. Tastes as good as it sounds; the porcini mushroom and the garlic adding a smokey, charcoal flaovour to the rich tomato background. Warm bread with thick butter to go with it. Shin of beef next. Good portion of beef, strangly (but thankfully) off the bone and served with "Provençal hash and a tomato and red pepper sauce" which tastes better than it sounds. The hash turns out to be butter beans (do they have those in Provence) with courgette and onion. The whole thing cooked in a red wine sauce. Tender, juicy and tasty. Accompanied by small earthy carrots (just as I like 'em) slender green beans and boiled potatoes that have been re-heated (I think - maybe sauted whole?) in their skins. This together with a half bottle of Chilean Merlot that goes down smoothly and partners both the beef and the soup. Dessert is just like the packets mother used to open but can't complain. It claims to be a Black Cherry Pavlova served with mascarpone, vanilla and cherry jus but it turns out to be a maringue nest with stewed (tinned?) cherry filling and lovely mascarpone with vanilla crème. Coffe - acceptable - served with a white chocolatesque confection indivually wrapped. At £32.15 one might expect a little more of something in an ordinary restaurant but travelling at 125 mph one wonders how they do it for such a reasonable price.