The Valley — Restaurant in England

I went last night as a gift for my boyfriends birthday and the food was lovely but the experience was nothing like what I was expecting. The “curry train” is just a normal train from central station to Corbridge, I was expecting a specific train connected to the restaurant or at least a private section of the train, this was just a normal train with normal commuters going through the carriage, even another party said “oh its just a normal train” when the train pulled up so I wasn’t the only one and I’ve looked up the return ticket price and it would have been £9.50 to book for 2 passengers. If I’d known this i would have brought my own alcohol for the train journey instead of over paying on the train. We were given the 5 course meal, we chose our starter and main and everything else was chosen for us, one rice and one side dish was mushroom which my boyfriend won't eat so that was kind of disappointing, we got 2 drinks while we were there, considering I’d already paid a £20 deposit when the bill came out as £94 i was shocked, I’ve done the math myself from the menu and all the food we got and the return train journey minus the deserts and drinks (because I couldn’t find the prices on the website) would have came to £51.85. It would have been miles cheaper to just organise the train journey myself and then we would have been able to chose whatever we wanted from the menu rather than use a set menu. I’m annoyed that I’ve paid this much for a normal train journey and some food, so if you’re thinking about booking realise it is just a normal train and you’re probably better off just booking the train and food...

Becareful of the glamorous reviews... most the reviews are from folks doing the "Curry Train".

This restaurant is very poor for an Indian restaurant.

Six of us attended a few weeks ago. We got sat at our table fairly quickly and smoothly, and then a gentleman came around and placed the napkins on our laps. Another gentleman then took our drinks orders which came fairly quickly, and we then ordered starters and mains upon the servers return. Everything went down hill from here. They literally FORGOT about our order. We ordered around 6.15pm and we had to remind them at around 7.15pm that we still hadn't had our starter. This was despite a server coming around just before 7pm asking If we needed anything - we replied at the time "Our food would be great please" but it still didn't arrive. This meant that shortly after the starters arrived at 7.15pm, our mains then arrived, rather than being spread out a bit. On top of this, they served me prawns instead of the chicken that I ordered. Good job I wasn't allergic! There was no apology or compensation attempt made from the restaurant. They all just looked clueless as to what was going on.

In regard to the food, you get more chicken in a CostCo curry than you do here. And for some reason, the sauce tasted watery? Not quite sure what was going on. Maybe we went at a bad time but we won't be returning...

What an excellent experience! After seeing Michael Portillo do ‘the curry train’ on his railway journeys programme, we decided it was a brilliant model for a good evening out. Their guide met us under the big clock by the ticket barriers at Newcastle Central, to catch the train to Corbridge, Cobra bottled beer or prosecco in hand. The Valley Restaurant building is lovely, possibly the oldest ex-station house in the World. The food was delicious, and there was so much - popodums and pickle tray to start, and the starter and mains we’d ordered at Newcastle/on the train from a great choice for carnivores, vegetarians/vegans. Also included are keema and plain rice, sides of bindhi bhaji & Bombay aloo, with a puffy, light garlic naan; then a mint ice-cream bombe and a caramel/choc ice-cream pot to share, followed by coffee and mints. Drinks choice is also extensive, with draught and bottled beers, and wines. The guide, waiters and owner were all friendly and very polite, and made us feel very looked-after, they couldn’t have been more professional and attentive. They directed us to the platform for the return journey just after 9pm. We were very full and had enjoyed the whole experience very much indeed. We’d deliberately travelled from Manchester to stay over in Newcastle to do the trip, and were not...