Garden House — Restaurant in Great Britain

I’ve never been inside this establishment before and here’s my review from my visit. It’s detailed because I believe it deserves a chance! 4.6/5 overall and somewhere that does deserve your money.

Service Quality 5* - I interacted with 4 members of staff today, all were very pleasant and friendly. They cleared worked in union with each other and there was no overlap / missed gaps in service.

Venue Quality 5* - The space was immaculate, welcoming and clean. I’m usually first to become dismayed by

Value for money 5* - £31 for a tremendous amount of food, one bottled cider and one soft drink. Very good value!

Beverages 5* - There was a lot of choice on offer. We had one bottled drink and one drink from tap, both were great. My partner is fussy with post mix soft drinks but this one hit his approval.

Food 3* - I really really wanted this to be good. I was rooting for it, but there were a few fall downs. Disclaimer could easily have been remedied if I’d brought it up with staff but I personally wasn’t feeling great today and wasn’t up for the interaction. Turkey was lovely, I must say. So many places muck this up and serve dry sandpaper but it was very nice here today. The potato’s (mash and roasties) tasted nice but the roasties weren’t warm and hadn’t been brought back up to heat very well. The veg was very nice, not mushy, and still full of flavour. Pigs and blankets were cold. The gravy was the thickest I’d seen, and a bit lumpy and salty, certainly not inedible, i did eat it, but it was a fall down for me and I believe the plate was cold on delivery, which meant anything that was lukewarm/cold already, had no chance of surviving to the end of the meal.

I’m didn’t hate but I wasn’t going to write home about the food. I do want to say though these are my opinions and that another diner in the room said they thoroughly enjoyed their roast so definitely do give this place a try.

I ended up here by accident after walking out of Ramside because their food looked hideous and both of us didn’t feel like we’d made a bad decision by to...

We've had an awful experience at this place. My friend suggested this place as she had heard great things about the food (in the past I presume as our experience was subpar at best). On first impression, the place looked lovely and cosy, and the menu looked like what you'd expect from a gastro pub; and I am certain that at some point the food was great, as the menu looked impressive. However, the food did not live up to the standard of the menu and it was actually terrible. I suspect they have brought in a new "chef" who is unable to maintain the standards of the person who initially came up with the menu (just an educated guess, I may be wrong). Secondly, my friend who had ordered a fish and chips has a peanut allergy and the waitress approached this very unprofessionally. The waitress came back from the kitchen first time round, mentioning that there may be traces of peanut in the oil and she offered a fried fish on a pan without the batter (which was fine). Then she came back a second time mentioning that due to the same issue with the frier she would only be able to offer my friend fries as opposed to chips. At this stage this process had already gotten somewhat frustrating and to add insult to injury the food that was brought to my friend was an absolute disgrace (not that I personally had a much better impression of my food). The evening culminated with tears and a completely unfinished portion of "fish and chips", as the lack of professionalism of the staff and the tragedy of a food that was brought to my friend reminded her of the frustrations of suffering from an allergy. The icing of the cake was charging us £44 for two drinks and two awful meals, one of which should have never been served in that state. You would be better off eating at your local Whetherspoons! Avoid at all costs, especially if you suffer from any sort of allergies. P.s. I have given two stars only because I thought the...

We called in and the blonde bar staff/Manager was so rude to us, I couldn't believe it.

We were looking around for a seat, simply to sit down and enjoy a quick pint of coke....to which she hurriedly ushered us out of the dining area like cattle and said "have you booked??!!"

Not "hi guys, take a seat" or "hi guys what can i get you?"

I said no we hadn't booked and she told us to "wait there" and ran off. The place was unusually busy with diners and she was clearly horrified that three more customers had arrived....she wrongly assumed we were after food.

Anyway, my collegues went outside and sat down on the decking area out the back whilst i waited at the bar to order. She returned 10 mins later with three menus in hand and looking confused as to where her party of 3 had gone. I told her we were simply calling in for a swift pint of coke like we've done many times before and that i thought it was strange how we weren't able to just pick a seat where we wanted.

Like i say, she never even asked if we were dining/drinking, etc simply shouted, "have yous booked?". She never gave me chance to say why we were there or what our order was. Anyway, ordered the coke/crisps and as i asked for a receipt (common practice whilst at we're at work) she rolled her eyes and reluctantly printed one. As she handed it to me she literally slammed it on the bar, WITHOUT looking me in the eye and WITHOUT so much as a "cheers" or "thankyou"....without speaking a word to me, began to serve another customer right next to me.

Utterly appalling service from a supposedly "high end" gastro pub in Durham city centre. If i wasn't at work i would have made a huge scene but instead opted to take my thoughts to instead! There's always a "pompous" atmosphere in this place, i just can't put my finger on it. The bar staff always seem to look down at you....