Fine dining restaurant Faru has unveiled a new five-course tasting menu.
Opened by husband-and-wife team Jake and Laura Siddle seven months ago, Faru has offered diners a 10-course tasting menu for £98 per person since its launch.
Now the couple – the former head chef and front-of-house manager at Newcastle’s Michelin-starred House of Tides – have created a five-course tasting menu priced at £60.
The new menu features dishes such as beef, artichoke and walnut; and a sea bass dish served with celeriac and apple. Firm favourites such as the hen of the woods dish, which has won high praise from diners, are also on the new menu.
Laura, 30, who worked with Jake at House of Tides for nine years before they decided to open their own venue, said: “We introduce new dishes when the seasons change to ensure we’re offering the best quality produce to our diners. Although we have always offered a 10-course tasting menu, we put on a five-course menu during Durham Restaurant Week which proved so popular that we have decided to continue with it.”
The new sea bass dish is cooked on the barbecue, and served with celeriac cooked in coal oil, apple ketchup, celeriac purée, mussels, apples compressed in burnt apple oil, sea herbs and a smoked vermouth sauce.
“We also have a new sous vide beef fillet with a walnut gel, a caramelised Jerusalem artichoke purée and a Jerusalem artichoke cooked in marmite,” added Jake. “It’s served with a small bowl of shallot jam, braised beef shin and a Jerusalem artichoke and beef fat espuma, then finished with roasted artichoke powder. We are also putting on a new tart to replace the crab tart – a chicken liver parfait in a pastry case with a fig gel, pears compressed in a lemon thyme pickle and a chicken and hazelnut crumb.”
Faru, which means journey in Old English, was a “dream come true” for the couple who always wanted to own their own restaurant.
Jake, 29, who worked with House of Tides’ Kenny Atkinson from the age of 17 at Rockliffe Hall before he opened his Newcastle restaurant, said: “Our aim has always been to make fine dining a relaxed experience. The restaurant itself is very comfortable and guests can watch all the theatre happening in the open-plan kitchen. The new five-course tasting menu means guests can still enjoy the full Faru experience, but at £60. It’s a bit more accessible to people who may not have tried Faru or for those who want a lighter option to the 10-course experience. We’re still very new as a business and it’s only been seven months since we opened, so we’re still learning and developing. We’ve had fantastic support so far, with people travelling from all over to try Faru, and we’re really grateful for that. We want to continue to push ourselves and offer top-level food and service.”
