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The Waiting Room, Station Road Eaglescliffe. this has to be one of the best kept secrets in Britain. A vegetarian Restaurant that your average meat and two veg man would actually like. everything is mighty tasty, well portioned and they have an excellent wine and beer list. A Better Restaurant you will not find in the whole of the Teesside (if not the North East) area. they even do that butterscotch goo you used to get on your ice-cream at school, oh what joy!!!! On top of that, the prices are well cheap in comparison to the overpriced muck in M'Boro and Stockton. Check this place out or die in ignorance.

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Fantastic food! I have been a vegetarian for 17 years and it is the best vegetarian food I have had served. Cosy unpretentious atmosphere. Went midweek and it was nice and quiet too. A must for any vegetarian to try.

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Over the last few years, one of the quirkiest venues on Teesside has slowly been building a reputation as a home for some of the most interesting and innovative musical experiences around.
During the working week, The Waiting Room - in the shadow of Eaglescliffe railway station - is a homely and super-friendly vegetarian restaurant. On Sunday nights, the scrummy food remains, but the back room is taken over by the wonderful, bohemian world of Waiting For Sunday.
Music press darlings Duke Special, King Creosote and Piney Gir have all trodden the Waiting Room stage in recent months and the new Waiting For Sunday season promises to be an equally eclectic treat.
Acclaimed "sonic experimentalist" ERGO PHIZMIZ is promising a unique, specially-composed set for Sunday, March 25, with legendary punk-folk nutter JOHN OTWAY, above, booked in for an April Fool's Day treat the following weekend.

And with owner, promoter and all-round Teesside top bloke Luke Harding promising to bring some of the cream of the country's stand-up comics to the venue to try out their pre-Edinburgh Festival routines, the summer programme looks just as mouth-watering as the menus.

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Here is a quality test for vegetarian restaurants. Find a carnivore who borders on the Neanderthal. Make sure he/she has had a terrible week at work (tantrums, tears, broken e-mail – the lot). Then on Friday night get them to drive you for an hour through thick fog and mounting tension to a restaurant that you’ve forgotten to mention doesn’t do steak. Proceed to neck white wine while your designated driver looks on with indignation. The Waiting Room’s main dining area may be welcoming and warm, scattered with quirky objects and kitsch without overkill but this relaxing environment did nothing to pacify my friend. Nor did the cool Cabaret Bar with its dimmed lights, red and black seedy-chic furniture and speakeasy atmosphere. The starters won her round. We shared a delicious antipasti of artichoke hearts, olives, garlic mushrooms, roast pepper and feta (£6.50) and a trio of pates (£5.95 for hummus, baked mushroom and honey roast shallot pate and a chilli bean dip served with an assortment of hot bread). The food was tasty and simple. There was no fuss and the portions were generous. My friend’s main was wild mushroom and goat’s cheese roulade (£10.50). This well-executed treat was served with an almond pesto tapenade that was full of the fresh basil that goes so well with strong goat’s cheese. My Tuscan aubergine Cannelloni (£10.95) came with a leek and herb stuffing that was satisfyingly heavy on the leeks and married well with the warming oregano gravy. The Waiting room is no undiscovered gem. This restaurant has been knocking out the rissoles since the 70’s. More recently the venue has become a musical destination as well as a culinary one. This month the glamorous cabaret bar will be the setting for the Alchemical Bro’s Bonfire Night Feast (5) and the intriguing sounding Spanish Night 3 amongst other highlights. If the entertainment is as good as the food you’re in for a great night.

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Our order

Starters: Warm Moroccan dip (aubergine, garlic, potato) with pitta bread, £4.45; sweet potato and coconut soup with organic granary roll £4.25
Mains: Thai green curry, £10.50; Spinach, petits pois and three cheese pancakes, with sesame potatoes and mixed-leaf salad £9.90
Desserts: One ice cream with butterscotch sauce £4.25
Drinks: Two soft drinks £2.70; Two glasses of Pinot Grigio white wine £7.20
Total: £43.25
Verdict: ****

My sparky 17-year-old daughter likes to give me advice on clothes, books and cosmetics and, after visiting The Waiting Room vegetarian restaurant, she suggested that we go. Gone are the days when this young foodie was happy with McDonald's. Now she whips up stir-fries or pasta sauces from scratch. She turned vegetarian about a year ago, and vegetables and pulses are the new chocolate - well, almost.

So the Waiting Room, on Station Road in Eaglescliffe, seemed an ideal destination for us. While I still have a flesh-eating streak, good food of any kind is my top priority. We went there on a warm evening and sat at a table under the open bay window, surveying the menu with interest.

The restaurant's website says its food has "an English kitchen garden feel with the addition of beautiful, aromatic dishes from around the world". Add to that organic wine and beer, fairtrade coffee and tea, and fruit wines such as elderflower and rhubarb. As the restaurant quickly filled up with diners, we enjoyed our starters. My daughter had a warm Moroccan dip of pureed aubergine, potato and garlic, with a pitta bread She dipped away happily, especially fond of the fact it was warm. A nice idea, I agreed, pinching a bit of the deliciously spicy blend. My sweet potato and coconut soup had a pleasant, subtle taste and a velvety texture. Main courses include cashew and mushroom biryani, and curried date, raisin and almond risotto. My spinach, petits pois and three cheese pancakes were more like a bake, since I found it hard to locate the pancakes under a thick topping of cheese. It was a more conventional veggie dish, but fresh and satisfying. This came with a dish of wonderful sesame potatoes - dark and crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. There was also a standard mixed-leaf salad. The Thai green curry was a stand-out dish. It consisted of vegetables such as red pepper, green beans and baby corn in a fairly hot, piquant sauce with lime and coriander rice. Daughter found it a bit sweet, but forked it up nonetheless and, in a few minutes, she said her "second ice cream stomach" had kicked in. Time for a well received home-made vanilla ice cream with butterscotch sauce - but the large portions had finished me off.

In fact, The Waiting Room has two rooms. The front one has wooden chairs and tables, a fireplace, a huge paper lantern, like a more traditional veggie haunt. But I noticed the more intriguing back room has umbrellas suspended upside-down from the ceiling, and art on the walls - and then there were the jazzy loos. Swirly orange and pink in the women's. Red and yellow walls in the men's (it was open and unoccupied when I passed it, since you ask).

Every Sunday evening there are such events as world music quartets, the "Fingerobics groove vehicle" and so on. I'll definitely be going to one of those because entertainment, combined with the restaurant's imaginative, fresh cooking and efficient, friendly service would be a great night out. Or afternoon, since it serves lighter meals and snacks throughout the day

What are you waiting for?

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