Maryland Tavern — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

The venue was nice, modern, clean, although quite dark - mood lighting was definitely in full force. Staff were attentive, but also wore their emotions on their sleeve, so you could tell when they were annoyed or agitated. Good selection of meals on the menu, but surprisingly missing some staples like garlic breads, and there were some "hidden" costs like $2 for tomato sauce. Meals were quite nice, filling, and quick to arrive, although there was a breakdown somewhere along the process - even though all the steak meals were ordered as medium, some were prepared as medium-rare and others as medium-well (we were told that when picking up our meals, it wasn't just a feeling), so some had to be taken back to cook further. Wasn't immediately obvious where to order the food from, with lack of signage, and even though everyone was given table buzzers for their meals, maybe half the tables seemed to have their meals delivered to them, and the others had to go and pick up the meals from the kitchen themselves. Kids game room wasn't thought out very well - kids only wanted to play the game consoles, but they are literally just proper gaming consoles rather than ones set up for this environment, so kids were turning them off, arguing with other children, and it simply wasn't possible to leave the kids in there to be self-entertained while you enjoy your meal - it took an adult away from the table at all times to assist and play babysitter. Overall the experience was OK, it'd be better suited to groups of adults only (and the meals were quite nice), but we won't be back again whilever any of us have...

As a local I was excited with the concept of a new pub. I had tried the old tavern out twice and food was good as you’d expect for the style of bistro it was. With the brand new tavern opening, I was hoping for a very good experience and had hoped for decent beer range for a more modern world. I knew going in that the beer range was only commercially owned, the menu prices were higher for a suburban pub, very mixed reviews since re-opening but I also had heard good things from friends that tried it. Unfortunately I did not experience the same. My wife had lamb cutlets, they were nice but nothing too exciting, I was surprised with the duck fat potatoes not having any crunch… they were more of a duck fat confit cooked potato and served with a standard oud salad. I had a the southern fried chicken burger, the chicken was tasty and well cooked but the only good thing about it which made me feel I just ordered a big chicken nugget, the bacon jam was average, the mustard overpowered and lacked good balance but over all the bun killed the whole meal as it was so dry and stale it crumbled like bread crumbs. There is no way I’d ever serve a bun that fry and stale especially in a nice new establishment like that. I will go back to try something else from the menu but doubt I’ll return if I’m disappointed again and will go the extra distance to the Fire Station or even Jesmond Hotel which I’ve had great...

I ordered from the vegetarian/vegan section because I am anaphylactic to dairy, so vegan is usually a safe option to get a meal without any milk in it. When ordering, I made the waiter aware of my allergies, and I asked for the burger without the halloumi. Unfortunately, when I went to get my burger it had halloumi on it. As I am anaphylactic, even the slightest trace of milk can cause a reaction. So I explained to the waitress that I had told the gentleman when ordering of my allergies, which she questioned me "Do you actually have an allergy?". No, I just carry an Epipien for the fun of it. After clearing it up, they said they would remake my meal. Once my meal was ready, I received a burger without any bun (see picture below). My assumption is that the bun must contain dairy, hence kitchen staff omitted it from the meal. This is fair, thanks for keeping me safe. However, I question if it is ethical to promote a burger as vegetarian/vegan when the buns have milk in them? The real problem lies in the menu. It's false advertising to have a section which is vegan/vegetarian and to not actually define what items are which. I would have never ordered the burger if I had known I wouldn't have been getting a burger.

Overall, the menu is confusing and it's also riddled with typos. We were a group of 6 and everyone's meal was was bland. The general consensus is that we won't...