The Pickled Parson of Sedgefield — Restaurant in England

Decent food, but inexperienced service and a poorly thought out interior design.

Although the food here was pretty good (although certainly not outstanding, and probably a little overpriced), the service was lacking and several choices about the interior design made dinner somewhat unpleasant.

I booked a table with my girlfriend on a Saturday evening. Although we had booked and the place was not particularly busy, we were made to wait at the door, and one member of staff, who stood writing in a book just five feet from the door while we stood there, made no effort to greet us or inform a colleague that we were waiting. Once seated, we waited for over twenty-five minutes, without drinks, before anyone came to our table. Once we did manage to order food and drinks, my pint had been so poorly poured that it was missing fully a third (and I'm honestly not exaggerating). When I asked the waitress to please top it up, she simply said 'it was full at the bar', which suggests to me a complete lack of experience in service. Not a big problem on its own, of course, but not ideal. The lighting in the restaurant is appalling. Instead of nice soft cosy lighting, the designer has chosen to go for pitch black, with a few powerful but tight spotlights aimed at eye level. This meant that my girlfriend could hardly see her food at all, for it was in the shadow of her head, while I was blinded to look anywhere but straight down. In addition, the designer had neglected to include any soft furnishings whatsoever - carpet, curtains etc - so although the pub is not very large, and there were perhaps fifteen diners in our vicinity, it was so loud that conversation was made difficult. An utterly incomprehensible choice. Finally, the lack of a cloakroom or coat hooks was irritating, especially in winter when coats are often too long to go over the back of chairs without dragging on the floor and being trodden on.

So a lot of minor points that, together, formed a pretty poor impression. This pub has priced itself firmly against The Dun Cow, so how does it compare? The Dun Cow has better food (though The Pickled Parson was not bad), a more pleasant interior, and infinitely better service. It's...

Friends booked a table for the 4 of us for 1pm. We were the only people in the restaurant yet the service was so slow that by 2.10 pm we had eaten our starters but our mains hadn't arrived and we had only parked for 2 hours. We ordered off the 3 course special menu which was a big mistake. The brie starter was good but the mushroom starters were miniscule. The burger was overcooked in a dry toasted brioche bun with fries....no side salad nothing in the burger bun totally unappetising and the same with the chicken burger. The chilli with rice was fine. Due to the length of time we waited we hadn't time for a dessert which made the meal even less of a good deal. I mentioned to the lady who asked about our meal that we were disappointed and explained why but we decided not to make a big deal about it paid and left and decided never to return. Before writing the review I rang and spoke to the Deputy Manager Matt .I explained about the wait which he stated was because only 6 were booked in but 47 covers were taken due to walk ins. I said that's all well and good but we booked so we should have come first and he agreed that was not managed by the team appropriately. I stated that the mushroom starter was fine but minute and the brie starter was good however the burger meal was unappetising to look at and not of a good standard. He stated that to produce a 3 course meal for £19.95 they couldn't serve the same as how it is presented on the full price menu. I said ok but surely adding some salad garnish wouldn't have broke the bank and that because of the slow service we didn't get a dessert making it very poor value. I said that sadly they had lost 4 potential repeat customers. He said he would make sure we were looked after if we returned but I don't think we want to take...

My Dad asked me to write a review for his stay he spent with my Mam for a wedding. He doesn’t have trip advisor so I am writing this for him.||||The hotel, food and area were brilliant. The trio ad a whole was fantastic as we were staying for a wedding. Unfortunately this stay was ruined due to the hotel and Booking.com letting us down. Due to a mistake Booking.com made, we ended up with 2 rooms instead of 1, of which we did not know about until after our stay when the hotel contacted us. No one at the hotel mentioned an additional room even though we were at the reception 3 times during our stay. Upon gathering this information we contacted the hotel to be met with “well you should be more careful” and to “blame whoever booked it”. All be it they didn’t charge us full price for the extra room, it’s not the point. I understand that the hotel has lost out on a night stay however It was not our fault that Booking.com booked 2 rooms and only sent us information/confirmation for the 1 intended room. When trying to contact Booking.com, I was hung up on 3 times after speaking to an agent, explaining our situation, and being completely ignored. Unfortunately, what would have been a lovely stay has turned into a nightmare and no help was given. After trying and trying to get the situation across to both the hotel and booking.com, we have ended up losing money for someone else’s mistake. We would have loved to return to this hotel however the whole experience has been tarnished due to lack of understanding and help from both the hotel and...