Fat Hippo Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

VERY disappointed. Was recommended this place by a friend who had a great experience, and have to say, I came out of it extremely disatisfied.

STAFF IGNORING US ON WALK IN

When we walked in, it took around 10 minutes before any of the staff even acknowledged we existed despite several members of staff walking past us. One of them could have easily said "we'll be with you shortly" or let us know there would be a bit of a wait. Additionally, a party came in after us, and they were seated immediately.

POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

When we did get someone, an older Gent, he showed us to our table but failed to tell us about the delay in the kitchen or that they had run out of fries (how do you run out of fries?!). We had to overhear this from a friendlier member of staff talking to other customers.

After that it took 20 minutes before anyone got to us to even get us a drink, it was very warm in there so we were very thirsty.

When we did get someone, a lady with blonde hair, she was actually very nice and served us well.

STARTERS

From that point it got a bit better, we got our starters within about 20 mins of ordering and they were great (buffalo wings with the blue cheese crumb and the trash browns). The trash browns were supposed to have Cajun onion strings, but didn't. The sauce on the wings were absolutely amazing however!

Someone mistakenly ordered our drinks twice and we managed to get those free so that was great but yeah, it came by incompetence.

MAINS

When we got our main meals, my girlfriend was happy enough with her vegan burger but my honey monsta was poor. The beef patties were really mushy and not seasoned or cooked well. It should have also come with a "hot honey sauce" which I did not get so mine was quite lacklustre in taste and was a bit dry.

Considering it was £17.99, youd expect so much better.

DESSERT

I had a butterbeer which was really nice and my girlfriend had the concrete schoolyard. She really enjoyed it too.

Having not complained about any of the experience so far, I had to say something about the burger, the young male member of staff was nice and took it well and even said that others had given the same feedback.

DISCOUNT

We did get a discount, which was half price on the burger. Was acceptable but yeah, I think given everything that had happened, id have expected not to pay at all for that but I was in a good enough mood to leave it at that.

Overall, pretty poor. Starters good, dessert good, main very poor. Genuinely wouldnt recommend to a friend or return.

Definitely need to work on the welcome and overall customer service. If there's delays, let customers know, and don't leave them without a drink for...

So impressed! Food was SO DELICIOUS and came RAPIDLY. Experience was smooth and 10/10 overall. We ordered Trash Browns and VGN Wachos as starters, and they came shortly after the drinks. Both were absolutely delicious, but especially the Trash Browns - the liquid cheese was INCREDIBLE! The Candy Floss cocktail made our tongues feel sophisticated; there was layers to it! Burgers were scrumptious, but we were quite full after the starters. Hand cut chips are offered instead of fries, and these come with Cajun seasoning. Dedicated vegan spot on the menu, and most of the sides you could make vegan if requested! They were obviously very busy and couldn’t seat all the big groups coming in (so book in advance if in a group), but they catered to as many people as possible! Although they were busy, the staff looked relatively calm and content, which is always a green flag for a hospitality business. It’s an underground place but there was good lighting and the interior had lots of open brick. We sat by an old fireplace which was cool! Seating was well arranged. The waiters were super efficient and helpful (one provided takeaway boxes when we asked and was super friendly about it!) Lots of stairs so I don’t know how wheelchair accessible it would be? Perhaps there’s another entrance? All in all a wonderful experience and would...

This is a snug little place, well done out, a bit drafty, but it is a cellar of a very old building. We were seated very quickly and our waitress was very quick to take our order. Our drinks arrived, no food. We waited and waited, still no food. Eventually, I had to say something to the waitress, explaining that in a very small restaurant, we hadn't received our food, or an explanation for our famine, this was after 20 minutes. She apologised and off she went to see the powers that be. When she returned she explained that the food would be another 7mins ( very accurate and honest). With this apology came with a tray of free gratis crinkle cut fries, which were delicious and well received, as by this point my stomach was eating my spine. When the burgers, onion rings and two buckets of dirty fries arrived our appetite had somewhat shrank a little. Never the less we soldiered on through what can only be described as burger heaven. I left The Fat Hippo, extremely well fed and confused. The food was excellent and the service was friendly and apologetic. However, well over half an hour to serve buger and chips did seem a bit, slow. We had noticed that, we had not been targeted, as everyone else seemed to be...