The Wicket Gate - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in England

Just went to The Wicket Gate restaurant/bar venue in Chester Le Street County Durham for a meal with my wife and 18 year old son, no bouncers on the door at 9:10pm to ID him so we weren’t aware that as he didn’t have his ID on him that we could be asked to leave or that licensing laws change at their venue at 9pm, no signage present to make you aware of this on entrance. We all sat down to have a lovely family meal, ordered our food which arrived and moments later the staff arrived to ask for my sons ID, we were then told as we couldn’t produce the ID we would have to have our son immediately leave the venue leaving his dinner and pint of lager but we could stay and finish our dinner and drinks, I mean what planet are these Management and security staff on, what parent is going to continue finishing their meal/drink with their son out on the street looking in. They explained that the licensing laws change at 9pm to stop anyone under 18 to not eat after this time so why is it that The Wicket Gate don’t have their security start until 9:30pm, surely they should start before 9pm to ID people on their way in so families wouldn’t make this mistake OR my son could go home to get his ID.

We argued our point that if there is a change of time that their security should be in place and/or have signage around the place and on front door.

We explained that UK licensing laws allow anyone over 16 to have an alcoholic drink with food, their pathetic comeback was that they weren’t registered as a restaurant so this doesn’t apply. They weren’t going to refund us for leaving our meal and drinks, which were now cold and we now had the whole establishment looking at us like we had committed a murder, the argument by the staff to get a refund was ridiculous.

Don’t eat here with your families, never been treated so badly in a long time.

My recommendations to the company: get your security employed from 8:45pm and put signage on your doors and menus and treat your customers with kindness and not with your...

Wetherspoons is usually one of those places you can safely go and know exactly what to expect. Not this one apparently.

I have had the misfortune of going here 3 times due to being a close location for family, and every single time had problems. Waited over 40mins for food on a quiet day, c'mon it's Wetherspoons. Every single meal I've had has been burnt to a crisp. Not slightly overdone or well cooked, but burnt to the point where they could have carved a slice of tractor tyre and used that as my burger, I honestly wouldn't have known the difference. I've had the wrong meal brought to me twice, which after only 3 visits is quite amazing! I've had a meal brought to me without chips, which was weird cause they weren't an extra, they simply come with the meal. Staff have been super rude when I've brought up these issues, and I've often had to wait 30-40 minutes again to get it rectified. By the time I had my meal brought to me, the rest of my group were ready to leave.

I've been to so many Wetherspoons right across the country, from London to Inverness. They can sometimes be a little hit or miss, but nothing comes close to how utterly shambolic this one has been consistently. I will never be returning here as long as I...

Good friends & family afternoon, good drink very reasonable price, nice surroundings, nice smoking area.

Visited here on the afternoon of 27th August with family, very busy. Everything was going fine until the glass that my drink was in totally shattered covering me in broken glass & drink. A young lady from a table near to us told a member of staff who came to the table & wiped it clean leaving all the glass around us & when we asked for another drink she informed us it wasn't their fault & it happens, we .would have to buy another! She didn't even ask if I or anyone else was OK she went away still leaving all the glass around us. She returned with a replacement drink, still not clearing the glass, so we asked for the manager who came & apologised & said this member of staff was having a bad day & they were all overworked. The manager then proceeded to clean the glass up herself & said she would have a word with said girl. I can appreciate their problems but it could have been a lot lot worse & the 1st young lady's attitude was bad to say the least. Myself & others could have been badly hurt with the shattered glass, as it was, 2 of us only got a soaking with a double...