Reviews in County Durham

Started the stay with afternoon tea and it was really nice food and very fresh! Staff were helpful and friendly throughout our whole stay. The evening meal was amazing!! We were told the head chef was new and we think he deserves a lot of credit. My wife had Seabass and I had the venison and red wine pie and was so so tasty!! One of the best meals I've had and for what paid it was great value. We will definitely be back.

Amazing food and service! Steak was beautiful, myself abd my husband both enjoyed our 2 courses. Waiting staff could not do enough, the girls were lovely. We also had breakfast the following morning and the food was again lovely. We will definitely be back to eat.

This was a deal through wowcher which included afternoon tea which was excellent the best we’ve had. Also included was an evening meal 2 courses which was very disappointing, the fish pie was mostly mashed potato with the odd fleck of fish, no chunks could be found, should really have complained. My husband had beef bourgeon which he thoroughly enjoyed. The desert was ginger sponge was average, so too my cheesecake unfortunately. Service excellent.

Delicious tapas, helpful wine recommendations, relaxed atmosphere, felt very authentic. Highly recommend!

This restaurant has previously been one of my favourite restaurants in Durham. However, I previously had a disappointing experience there. I ordered 3 plates: the two lentil and chickpea casseroles and the asparagus with beetroot. The lentil casserole was okay but didn’t have the tomatoes or the butternut squash which the menu stated. The chickpea dish was very unsatisfactory, simply chickpeas in a light tomato sauce with a few pieces of whiteish cabbage. The menu said it would have kale in it. The asparagus was really thin and the beetroot not particularly tasty. I believe I’ve ordered all these dishes previously and really enjoyed them, so perhaps a supply issue is at fault but it would have been good to know the menu had been adapted before ordering if this is the case.

Gilroy’s restaurant was exceptional for breakfast, luxurious afternoon tea and indulgent dinner. Slightly high cost but great portions and high quality seasonal produce make it worth the extra. Waiting staff were efficient and knowledgeable. Could not fault it.

We stayed in the hotel and booked for Evening Meal in Prego. We were seated immediately. Four servers asked if we wanted drinks (better than none) Fully loaded garlic bread with bruschetta to start - beautiful but took 30 mins to arrive. Chicken Supreme with king prawns, greenland prawns, mushrooms and sauce was gorgeous. My wife had fillet steak which she loved but seasoning is one of those preference things and she found it a bit too salty. Lovely surroundings but it took forever to be served. Woman on next table with grandson said they’d waited an hour for a pizza. We then waited 45 mins for our main. Couple also complained about the randomness of who was served first as they waited an age also. Wouldn’t put us off as this is an amazing hotel, bar and restaurant.

We had a lovely afternoon tea in a very pleasant comfortable atmosphere. We have visited the Morritt hotel before which was really nice and we hope to go again very soon.

Stayed over at the Morritt with my daughter & had a 2 course meal included. The food was delicious!! We both had the venison & red wine pie. The meat melted in your mouth, the veg was fresh & buttery & the mash was lovely. Service was fast & friendly & the overall atmosphere was relaxed & cosy. Would defo drive the 50 mile for the food again

Not impressed. Came for afternoon tea as part of a spa break. And was given less variety than others who had ordered the same. It was an automatic fruit scone, not asking if fruit or plain. Which led to me having to pick out sultanas. Also only given jam for the scone no cream or butter. Which meant it was very dry. The bread on the sandwiches were starting to go hard as if it had been left out a while. Staff were not very welcoming. We were seating bang smack in the centre of the room when there were plenty of empty tables around that were by windows for a nice view. When asking for some more sweetener for my tea it seemed as if it were a chore for the staff to get me some before it being heavy handedly placed on the table. It was also very expensive. 2 cups of tea = £7! Overall, not a good experience for us. We wont be returning.

Love this place!! Excellent value for money. Amazing food. Warm and cozy. Staff go above and beyond to help you.

17th Feb, ‘23 After booking lunch at this hotel (a week prior) as a stop-off point on the way to the Lake District, we found ourselves on the day of travel, stuck in traffic. Realising that we would be late for our 1.30pm appointment we decided to ring the hotel to ask if we could push our booking on until 2pm. Our first unanswered call at 1.18pm was followed by a further nine (9) unsuccessful attempts every few minutes or so (& each time ending up on answer-phone machine) until finally at 1.42pm (24mins later & already 12mins late for our lunch appointment) the telephone was actually answered! Hooray! I explained the situation & that we had actually been trying to call for the last near on 25mins expecting the young man to give some explanation as to why they hadn’t picked up, but no! After asking if possible to push our lunch appointment on 30mins he said he would find out & call me back, & to be fair he did, & confirmed that it would be fine. We arrived a bit fraught after our journey, & we’re really looking forward to a nice relaxing lunch. On entering reception we gave our booking name to the girl behind the desk & again explained why we were late & that we had tried to call many times but with no answer until the young man (also now sat behind the counter) had answered our call. Again no explanation as to why the telephone remained unanswered. I must also point out here that when you call the given number (01833 627232) you are greeted with four options - press 1, 2, 3 or hold for reception. We tried every option at least twice and they all ended up with the exact same message asking to ‘leave a message’ as they were busy! Busy doing what? All departments were busy!! There were 2 people in the restaurant & maybe 5 in the bar/Bistro. We did also leave a message somewhere amongst all those calls, but no return call. The young lady checked our booking and led us to the Dickens Bistro which looked a little less inviting in real life & as I’d noticed 2 people eating in the restaurant (Gilroys) to the right as we entered the hotel, asked if it was ok to eat in there instead. She replied yes, so we made our way back through the reception and waited (as the sign said) to be seated. She never returned, so after 3-4mins we went in & sat down. After a further 5mins of being ignored by the reception staff & what looked like a manager passing through the room, I said to my wife that if we were not acknowledged in the next few moments I was going to get up & leave. My wife went off to the toilet & returning some 3-4mins later, we were still waiting for someone to speak to us. Nothing, not a ‘we’ll be with you in a minute’ or anything. We stood up, put on our jackets and left via reception without being spoken to. I was so annoyed that we had tried our best to do the decent thing and let them know in advance & due to their lack of professionalism our lunch reservation had been completely ruined. I never write restaurant reviews & we eat out a great deal, but I feel this place really needs sorting out by someone higher up the ladder, unless of course they are the same! PS. We also today received an email asking if we’d enjoyed our meal!

Excellent food, brilliant service and tremendous value. Have visited numerous times, and there has definitely been a step up with the service levels.

Absolutely fantastic meal, we went for the 3 course happy hour menu and it was all absolutely delicious and brilliant value! Fantastic service and lovely ambience in the restaurant, we will definitely be returning.

We really enjoyed our meal in the Antler bar. Food was lovely and had big portions! Service was great, very friendly staff. Thanks.

This is a beautiful restaurant in lovely surroundings. The staff are very attentive and the food is just amazing. We can't wait to visit again in the near future.

The restaurant is very nice the food was good but the portion of the sea bass was really small with just a few potato and a couple of tomatoes not good value the sweets were ok but again very small portions fir the money

Lovely atmosphere; gorgeous food, decent portion sizes and great price! Highly recommend