The Fire Station — Attraction in Sunderland

Been to see Taylormania tonight, thought staying in one venue would be better & booked a table for myself & my 11 yr old Niece. Menu was extremely limited - especially since Niece is vegetarian & does not like the texture of meat substitutes - so asked for Children's menu. Niece ordered a Margarita pizza £7 & a portion of chunky chips £4.50 & I ordered the Engine burger £16.50 & paid an extra £1 to upgrade from skinny fries to chunky chips. The meals arrived & the pizza was a cheap frozen pizza (similar to the first frozen pizzas you could buy in the 70s - if you're not that old think of something akin to supermarket saver/basic frozen pizza 4 for £1!) The burger wasn't much better a thick tasteless lump of processed grizzle (Mcdonalds burgers are better than this offering!) - for the £16.50 price tag it should've been proper beef - I was expecting something along the lines of a freshly prepared smash burger. When asked if our food was ok - I told the server that I was not happy, I did not finish my burger & explained why. She spoke to her manager & came back to say the bill would be discounted - upon receiving the bill (which should have been £35.50) it had been discounted by the grand sum of £3.55!! & I was informed that I was not charged for a coffee I ordered also. What makes matters worse is after we had left we were made aware that the venue were cooking proper log fire pizzas outside! (A chef came from the outside venue into the place we were just leaving & proceeded to the kitchen & returned carrying fresh dough on a bakers tray. Why on earth were we served the frozen "crap" when their chefs were making far superior ones for a few pounds more? - had it looked like it was operating when we arrived we would've opted for that but the venue looked closed down & half dismantled as if it had stopped trading. My first experience of the venue has not been a good one & I will not return to...

Hi, I hate having to write this email as I am a big fan of, and regular visitor to The Fire Station. My complaint refers to my recent visit on Saturday 7th December for the Livewire show. We were told we had queue outside to gain entry via ( what I always thought was a fire exit), rather than the usual point of entry. As you will be aware the weather on Saturday was arguably the worst of 2024 to date. People were soaking and freezing. I approached the (head?) guy in blue/purple uniform to ask why the change in entry procedure (I have been to many ‘standing’ sell out shows previously at this venue without any entry issues). He was abrupt, confrontational and extremely rude. I pointed out the weather:- he replied “yes, and that’s where you have to go and queue”. I asked if the scanning could be carried out in the vestibule :- he replied”does it look like I have a scanner” I asked if searches could be carried out in vestibule:- he replied “do I look like I searcher”. I queued outside and heard lots of people complaining of process to access. Some were first time visitors so we’re unaware of the previous arrangement of access via main entrance. Once finally inside we were amazed that we then had to LEAVE the ‘restricted’ bar area, having to show wristbands on way OUT to get to the cloakroom! My observations are:- • that showsec are probably more used to more bigger and probably more ‘boisterous’ venues rather than our Fire Station. • the Fire Station is unique to Sunderland and had a nice friendly, welcoming feel. This was a polar opposite on Saturdays. Showsec don’t get it. • access- if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it. • The show itself was brilliant only spoilt by the points...

Very mixed feelings about this place. Went to see a gig that we'd booked months ago and though we'd picked out seats at the time, we couldn't remember where they were. Staff directed us to the wrong seats along with about 30 other people so it looked like there was lots of double bookings.

Different staff were directing people to various places, including back to where we'd came from. It was actually a fellow audience member who'd attended several gigs here who helped us find the right seats.

Service at the bar was pretty poor and slow too. When we eventually got served I was handed a dirty glass that had been put back on the bar for collection, rather than out of a glass washer.

Conversely, the venue itself was really good (aside from them needing to work on better seating differentiation - maybe consider printing the nearest entry door on tickets like they do at the Sage). The sound quality was very good, way better than many other competing venues. Seat space was good, as was leg room.

The gig itself was so good it's helped me be more objective in my review and I realise this is a good venue but staff training needs to be better and they really need to address the naming of seating areas and entry points to the performance area. Plus it was really funny seeing lots of people go into the showers upstairs as they were nearer than the toilets. Great planning from the...