chloedickensonLast Updated on 11th April 2023
This post about Blackwell Grange Hotel contains affiliate links.
For Matt’s birthday all the way back in February he received a Buy A Gift voucher for an experience of his choosing and so he decided to treat us both to a fancy night away in a lovely hotel. However, due to ongoing Covid restrictions and lockdown easing, as well as us both being very busy with everything opening up again, we only got around to visiting our hotel of choice, Blackwell Grange Hotel in Darlington, a few weeks ago.
Even though we only had a one-night stay at Blackwell Grange Hotel, we had a truly lovely time. Our gift voucher also included a 2-course meal and breakfast at their on-site Havelock’s restaurant so we wined, dined and slept like blissful babies when we visited a couple of weeks ago.
If you’re looking for a little minibreak in the beautiful County Durham city of Darlington, you need to add Blackwell Grange Hotel to your staycation list! Check out my full review of our stay and dining experience below.
Blackwell Grange Hotel is a fabulous 4* hotel boasting 108 spacious bedrooms, an on-site bar and restaurant, leisure facilities, and conference and event rooms, all set upon a fantastic 17th-century mansion.
It’s only a 30-minute drive from the beautiful historic city of Durham and a short 20-minute walk to Darlington, so it’s situated in an awesome location for exploring many nearby towns and cities.
As we were waiting in the reception area to check-in at Blackwell Grange Hotel, I couldn’t resist getting my camera out and wandering around the lobby area and nearby casual dining area to snap a few pictures as it all looked so grand and elegant.
The hotel is also equipped with its very own swimming pool and gym facilities. We did have a quick dip in the pool, but as it’s a pretty small pool and our visit was during the school holidays, it was pretty heaving so we didn’t stay too long.
Our room was one of the standard double rooms and while it wasn’t exactly anything very fancy or plush, it was more than nice enough and was plenty spacious for the two of us.
The bed was huge and ridiculously comfortable; hotel beds are just the absolute best, aren’t they?!
One thing that I really loved about our room was that the bathroom had a bath and a shower which I always love when staying in hotels as it gives you the flexibility to enjoy a lovely, relaxing soak in the tub on an evening and then a refreshing shower in the morning before you depart. The shower was also pretty powerful and wonderfully hot, which always makes a huge difference.
Again, the bathroom wasn’t overly fancy, but it did the exact job of a bathroom and the only issue I had with it was that the bathroom door kept sticking when you opened/closed it and at one point I thought I was going to get stuck in!
As I mentioned above, the gift voucher for our stay at Blackwell Grange Hotel in Darlington included a 2-course dinner in their Havelock’s restaurant and as soon as we arrived at the hotel and booked in our slot for dinner, I couldn’t wait until later that evening when we could finally eat there!
The restaurant is open daily from 12pm-9pm and you don’t necessarily have to be a guest at the hotel to eat there. If you’re just looking for somewhere awesome to eat in Darlington, I would still highly recommend booking a table at Havelock’s as our dining experience there was truly brilliant.
Despite our dinner voucher not including drinks, we still decided to treat ourselves anyway and so we bought a bottle of rosé wine to share.
I’d usually nearly always go for white wine over rosé (and definitely over red wine as I can’t stand the stuff!), but the bottle we shared at Havelock’s at Blackwell Grange was absolutely scrumptious and more than enough to leave me feeling a little tipsy!
Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name, but our waiter at the restaurant was so helpful and he very kindly checked to see if anything we’d ordered contained nuts (we ordered a brownie for dessert and as Matt is severely allergic to nuts, we always like to check just in case).
The menu at Havelock’s has so many options to choose from and me being the food-obsessive that I am, I had already scoured it multiple times before we’d even arrived at the hotel!
As we both had the 2-course dining option, we decided that one of us would order a starter and main and the other would order a main and a dessert so that we could try out and share all three courses without having to pay extra.
We ordered the halloumi fries for our starter, which is actually the first time I’ve ordered halloumi myself from a restaurant menu. I only realised that I really liked halloumi a couple of months ago when I shared some with my friend at our local Pitcher & Piano restaurant in York and ever since, I’ve wanted to try them again to make sure that I really do like them! The halloumi fries at Havelock’s were served with a scrumptious Tzatziki dip and the only negative I have to say about them is that there wasn’t enough; I could have quite happily eaten many more!
For my main, I had the braised smoked brisket of beef, served with potatoes, broccoli and carrots, topped with a brandy and peppercorn sauce. As soon as I saw this on the menu, I knew that I wanted either this dish or the chicken parmo (which Matt ended up ordering anyway!) and I’m so glad I did because it was absolutely delightful. The beef was so unbelievably tender and it practically pulled away as I cut it. The brandy and peppercorn sauce was an excellent addition to the dish and I even thoroughly enjoyed the carrots and broccoli!
Matt ordered the infamous Teeside chicken parmo which was hands-down the best parmo we’ve ever had; if you’ve never tried one before, I insist that you visit Havelock’s and order one, I promise you won’t regret it! It was insanely garlicky (something that I will never, ever complain about!) and was topped with lashings of cheese and béchamel sauce and it was truly a delight.
For dessert, we ordered the Warm Chocolate Fudge Brownie with hot fudge sauce and Baileys ice cream and while I wouldn’t usually say that I’m much of a Baileys fan, this dessert was positively heavenly and I could have quite happily eaten one all to myself!
We were delighted to find that our hotel and dinner voucher at Blackwell Grange Hotel also included breakfast and as hotel breakfasts are one of my very favourite meals to eat, we couldn’t resist stuffing ourselves full of the good stuff before we set off on our epic Southern England road trip (plenty of posts to come about that soon!).
Blackwell Grange was still implementing their own Covid-19 safety rules at the time of our visit which meant that even though they usually offer a ‘serve yourself’ hot breakfast buffet, they now had a member of staff serving it for you. However, you could still go up to the buffet table and ask for whatever you wanted, so this didn’t really matter to us at all and of course, the breakfast was truly yummy!
Our stay at Blackwell Grange Hotel in Darlington was exactly what we needed before a very busy few weeks exploring the south of England in our newly converted campervan. It had all the necessary touches of luxe and elegance, but it’s not a hotel break that will cost you a fortune! Even if you don’t plan on staying at Blackwell Grange, I simply insist that you must eat at their Havelock’s restaurant as it was one of the best meals I’d had in a long time!
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Have you ever been to Darlington? Have I convinced you to visit so you can stay at Blackwell Grange Hotel? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram @imjustagirl_16.
Hi there thanks for sharing your experiences. We are just planning a small round trip through North England in April and I was wondering if we should include this hotel. Your report sounds very convincing 😉 And the photo of the brownie …. made me drool… Sending you the best from Germany Simone