Reviews in County Durham

Red opened its doors in June this year and having now visited the restaurant on numerous occasions I would like to recommend it to the sugarvine readership. Lloyd & Helen (the owners) have spent a small fortune in making the ambiance suitable not only for the full a la carte experience but also perfect for those who want to pop in for a Pasta, Pizza, Burger or just a coffee and a Muffin during the day. They have brough Carl Magill in as Head Chef along with his team and those who know Carl will know, quality and presentation are paramount. We visited Red on Saturday night with 4 friends and were greeted by a smiling member of staff and shown to our table One of our party decided to go for the Special of the Day, Goats Cheese tartlets, presentation was superb as was the taste. the rest of our party chose Pate,Garlic Mushrooms and the Salmon & Prawns for starters. All were delighted with their respective choices. Mains consisted of Chicken Caesar with salad & Home made chips, Lasagne, Chicken a la Creme and Chicken Parmesan. All served piping hot and beautifully presented. Some managed desserts, Creme Brulee to die for plus Apple Pie and Toffee sauce and ice cream (Archers Jersey Ice cream)! Coffee to finish. Presentation, Service and quality of food all of the highest standard and drinks reasonably priced. Happy Hour between 5 & 7 is proving to be extremely popular and I can see this establishment very soon becoming the 'in' place to go.

recently taken over by drew & erin, they offer a warm family friendly atmosphere, with outstanding food with a twist, log fires, gardens, views, food and beer, what more could you want

Sunday Lunch - 19 Sept 2010 In a picturesque setting by the village green and old church. Nice interior decor, but some attention to detail is need on things. If you can't get parked at the front, then there is further space at the rear. We were greeted upon entering, and once informing them that we had a table booked, were asked if we wanted to go straight to the table or have a drink at the bar first. We opted to go straight to the table (you get the service then, rather than squeezing in at the bar! Plus they were also serving a bar menu and it was quite crowded). Drinks were ordered (pint of Theakstons and a glass of house red) and also a jug of tap water. (The jug had some strange staining on it? Not a pattern!) A short while passed. The Menu arrived. Half a dozen choices for each course (fish & vegetarian included) A bit longer while passed before they came to take our order. A bit more time until a basket of unevenly sized home made rolls were offered, mostly on the smaller side and looked as if slightly over proved and knocked. Butter was already on the table and soft enough to spread (I hate it when you need a chisel for it) Again after a pause, our starters arrived. (the unused empty clean wine glasses were left on the table) I chose quail egg & bacon lardons, with saute potato dice, rocket & red wine dressing. (i'd only had toast for brekky so this made up for it!) The leaves were at the base, with the lardons and potato scattered over, four halves of hard boiled quails egg at the corners. Red wine vinagrette dressed around the edges and a little over the whole. Whilst this was overall quite good and nicely presented, I think it would have been better with a single poached, yolk running organic small egg, than the cold hard boiled quail ones, but this could be due to Sunday lunch service pressures? My friend had chosen Wild Boar terrine. This came as a very large quenelle of the terrine/pate, with toast triangles (crusts off) and a little salad leaf garnish, and apple mayonnaise. Having tasted a small sample of this, I thought it a little bland and under seasoned. (perhaps a mustard mayonnaise too, or a pickle or chilli relish?) Another while passed. Starter plates cleared. Another while passed (are you noticing a theme here?) The main course arrived. I had chosen roast sirloin of beef (and asked for the rarer end of the joint slices). Two large slices of rare roast beef filled the plate, thickened gravy over the top, a good sized and crisp Yorkshire pudding on top, and an unnecessary watercress garnish. Mustard or horseradish sauce offered. My friend had chose sea bass with tagliatelle of vegetables in a white wine sauce. The vegetable were bound in the sauce, with two halves of a fish fillet at a jaunty angle on top. The skin appeared to have been grilled, with a couple of heat burn bubbles, but the rest of the skin wasn't crispy. The vegetables & sauce were ok. We each were served a side dish of vegetables (glazed carrots (lacking the glaze) big chunks, brocolli with toasted almonds, creamed potato (maybe a little over on the nutmeg and under on the butter, and slightly over mashed to the edge of the "gloopy/shiny sort), and roast potatoes (real roasted, quite good). This all went down well with my beef, I could perhaps have done with a little more gravy (personal preference), but alongside my friends sea bass, these vegetables didn't really go. A little thought for something different missing here. Plates were cleared, crumbs brushed off, empty wine & beer glass left on table? Menu presented again to choose desserts. A short while passed. I had cheese. (often in high end, especially London, restaurants, the cheese is an additional charge to a "prix fixe" menu - though not here). Local Cotherstone and Jervaulx Blue, slightly chilled, needed to be out of the fridge longer really, four Carrs water biscuits and three homemade biscuits (I couldn't make these out for flavour, whether supposed to be sweet or savoury), enough butter, some grapes "en branche" (these were just starting to brown around the stalk) and some celery (this was pale and bendy - not good) Plates cleared (though the empty drinks glasses remained? and still the clean ones there too) Coffee and mints followed, coffee in a small stainless steel cafetiere, just enough for a demitasse and a half each (though more was offered) but no cream or milk arrived? Fine for us as we drink it black but ome should have arrived or been offered. and an After Eight each (After Eight in the morning I presume!) £17.95 each + £6.83 for the drinks (don't know the split on these or if it included the jug of tap water) Overall the food was good, much better than an average carvery, decent sized portions. Let down by attention to detail and slow service. (2 & 1/2 hours for 3 courses and coffee - although we weren't in a rush) Yes I would probably go again if heading that direction, but not for a while, there are other places to try.

Love... Love.... Love this restaurant! I have recently had my birthday meal there with a large group of my friends and the staff really made my night special (sparklers, happy birthday music and birthday cake, it was great). The 3 course set menu was fantastic value for money with a huge choice of main courses, something for everyone. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to others!

Absolutely delicious food, attentive pleasant staff, lovely decor, definitely best value in town. Perfect setting and would recommend to anyone.

i have been twice now and both times it has been slow, poor service, not much choice for gluten free and not worth the money. will go to the other mexican across the road in future.

NOT RECOMMENDED! The decor of Fat Buddha is great but starting to look like a little maintenance is required. The menu has a decent choice of eastern food but the attitude of the staff is appalling. To make matters worse I wrote to them about a staff member that had been particularly rude and received no response at all from the management. I certainly wont be visiting again, which is a shame as we used to love this restaurant .

I and my family had lunch here. The staff were excellent and the food even better. It has a very relaxed atmosphere and comfortable furniture.

my grandparents owned the bay horse for 30 yrs , i have a photo here in the states of my grandparents father and aunts uncles standing outside with the building all decorated celebrating the end of WW1 .

i have been a few times but the menu seems to be the same as the time and the food is bland and lacking seasoning and is boring. maybe a whole change in menu would be a good start

We have been dining at this establishment for years, was taken over a month ago, boy has it gone downhill. Meals were cold, cremated and tasteless. Staff not in the least bit bothered when I complained. Place was practically empty for a Saturday night, unheard of in the past. Would not recommend to anyone, go to Pizza hut instead!!!

great food good value for money

i definitely would recommend the joiners arms for Sunday lunch.the lamb dinner is absolutely beautiful and and excellent value

The food was gorgeous,it tasted freshly prepared.The staff were lovely too and the atmosphere was very friendly.I would definitely recommend this to others,in fact i am going to book for my birthday in 3 weeks time

Fantastic food, can't be beaten. Lovely location, staff very attentive. Great night out

I have eaten at the Black Bull three times over the last six months. The food has always been excellent (especially the shoulder of lamb). Real ale (well kept) friendly service and 'interesting' surroundings with a real fire in an original range. Highly recommended.

This was the biggest disappointment ever!!!!!!!! called in for lunch today and the manager had clearly not considered the fact that it was a May bank holiday as the staff ratio was not enough to deal with the amount of diners , on top of that the food was inedible , clearly the kitchen could not cope either. The pasta dish which I complained about to the very Fractious Manageress was actually more like egg noodles , I was informed it appeared "in her opinion to look ok" and she then informed me it was fresh pasta , clearly then it had been cooked TO DEATH . YUK!!!!!!! My companions meal was meant to be a steak, OMG WHO ARE THEY KIDDING.the first bite said it all, it ended up in a napkin revolting and inedible , like an old shoe To top it all , I asked for the Manageress and I explained the starters were fine as was the wine, but unfortunately the mains were just inedible , this is where you see customer service at its worst, she was actually trying to justify it by looking at the full plates we had left on the table she also mentioned we should have told a waitress ,considering no one came over to the table this would have been an impossibility , I realized she was clearly missing the point, i offered to pay for starters and wine and that was not good enough, still waiting for the apology , i tried to explain that WE the customers could not eat the main courses , Ms Fractious then stormed off, eventually i walked out to be followed by the lynch mob waitresses , SO PROFESIONAL.................i REMINDED THEM OF THE CONVERSATION AT THE BAR AND THAT I WAS NOT PAYING FOR FOOD I COULD NOT EAT,they then accepted payment for the rest and belive me I WILL NEVER GO BACK AND WOULD SAY TO ANYONE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME IN THIS PUB .

I had high expectations of this place when I visited as usually restaurants within hotels, in my experience, are usually of fairly high quality. My partner and I decided to try the fixed price menu and we were heavily displeased. It was £29 for two people to order 2 courses each and have a bottle of wine. We do not drink wine, so we asked if we could replace the wine with something else. We were informed that we could not and the soft drinks we ordered were added to our bill. Our starters were quite dismal, especially the prawns and melon, where the prawns had obviously just been plopped from an defrosted Iceland packet, and the melon poorly hacked with no sign that there was any thought into presentation. These were followed by clumsily made main courses. The seafood tagliatelle contained crabsticks(!), rubbery squid, cold pieces of fish, all in a bland sauce and topped with large flakes of unmelted parmesan (as the dish was not even hot) trying to cover it all up. The pork loin "steak" was two thin pieces of pork that barely made up an entire steak , with heavily salted, stodgy potato mash, served with vegetables that clearly looked as though they were the microwaved leftovers from the lunch period that day. Or maybe even from yesterday. We were very quick to pay our (overpriced) bill and left no tip. Definitely not worth it.