Harry's Bar Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Excellent customer service in the first hour of my stay, warm and welcoming and food was good...

After leaving to meet some friends and coming back after bigging the bar up, we enjoyed some time at the lower level bar in Harry's. After approx an hour of standing near the bar enjoying ourselves we were surprised to be asked to end our conversation by a young male barman. He claimed that he had overheard a deep political conversation between us.

The conversation was our opinion on the free movement of immigrants into the U.K. Also our views upon the rights that some foreign residents claim when taking up residency in the uk, only to then publicly support certain religious militants who murder or attempt to murder innocent uk residents. It is my belief that this is generally a relevant political conversation to be having, given the recent attacks in Manchester and London.

After the barman asked us to end the conversation, I politely asked the barman his opinion on the matter, to which he declined to answer. I then asked that if we had been immigrants ourselves debating about Cristian beliefs and immigration rights to free movement into the uk would we of been asked to end the conversation in the same manner. He replied that this would be the case. I found this hard to believe and could see that as the barman was obviously not open to share the reasons why he wanted our conversation to end. I informed him we would leave and take out political conversation elsewhere.

I have no problem with a barman asking people to end a conversation if it is offensive towards his own personal views or that of fellow patrons. However, if a public establishment is to employ people with strong political beliefs and patrons are to be asked not to talk about certain topics, some sort of official sign should be erected stating that it is offensive to freely speak your personal opinion on that certain subject. Either that or a temporary sign be erected when bar employees who may find that said topic offensive are on duty.

To myself and my friends it seemed that we were innocently enjoying a personal debate about relevant political matters. We live in a free country and found it rude to be interrupted by a barman who took these views too personally for someone working in a public house where I imagine it is common to overhear uncomfortable conversations on all sorts of political or personal subjects.

As far as any of us could see there was no warning that if any conversation regarding certain subjects could offend Harry's bar employees. Or any warning that you would be asked to cease conversation on certain subjects and barred from any further free conversation that may contain this subject.

To conclude, I am slightly bewildered at being asked to end a conversation between friends. If I ever visit Harry's bar again I will tread carefully when talking about political issues of immigration, religion or speaking freely my opinion on any current national issues that unbeknown to myself, others who live within this country and work in Harry's bar may...

Called into Harry's after walking around for a while looking for somewhere to eat. It seemed fairly busy so thought that we would give it a try. I came to regret this decision by the end of the night.

We went with the waitresses recommendations for drinks. I had the Hawaiian Margarita which was very tart but not offensive. My friend opted for the Caipirinha which he found to be odd tasting as if it included some kind of pre made juice which he didn't like. He asked about this and was told that there was definitely nothing like that included.

Now onto the food. Harry's offer 2 types of bruschetta, Pomodoro and Mushroom. We decided to get one of each and these were both tasty, whetting our appetite for the main event. 2 portions of chicken fajita coming up.

The place setting was laid out and immediately there was an issue. As the accompaniments were delivered, it was obvious that the guacamole was out of a bottle or tub. Taste wise it was offensive and inedible for both of us. The sour cream also tasted like a cheap imitation so that was also left.

Even though they are described as fajitas, the bread item served with the dish is not a tortilla. Instead, you are served soft taco shells which are much smaller and thicker. You end up eating more bread and less filling unless you want to just wade in with a knife and fork. My last issue with the meal if that it looked and tasted as though the peppers and onions were cooked together with the jalapenos and 5 chicken strips thrown on top as an afterthought rather than the chicken being cooked with the other ingredients. This left it slightly flavourless.

We brought this to the attention of our waitress who did attempt to make amends by offering us a dessert on the house however after a starter of bread and then too much bread with dinner neither one of us wanted to eat any more.

Hopefully this isn't the usual standard at Harry's but I don't think I'll be back...

We’ve gone to Harry’s for years but I don’t think we’ll be going back because a lot of the staff don’t seem to care these days. Twice now my daughter has had a short measure in her cocktail. Last night she questioned whether the drink she’d been served was missing an ingredient because, not only was it a short measure but it looked and tasted different. The bar staff said the drink looked fine but after tasting it she returned it to the other bar. Again the bartender said that it looked fine but reluctantly said he’d replace it. The new drink looked and tasted totally different. Another time I was in the bar in the afternoon so I’d ordered a cup of tea. The bartender didn’t ask any questions and disappeared around the bar and returned with the tea several minutes later. When I poured the tea it looked very weak so I checked the label on the teabag to find that it was Earl Grey. I don’t like Earl Grey tea or any other aromatic teas and thought it odd that I’d been served it rather than ordinary English Breakfast tea so I returned it , assuming that the bartender had picked up the wrong teabag. To my surprise he just said, oh we don’t have any English Breakfast teabags left. Why didn’t he tell me that? He then listed all the aromatic teabags available but I told him that I only like ordinary tea and had he told me that they’d ran out I’d have chosen something different. At that point he walked off and returned with a pot of English Breakfast tea he managed to get from the other bar. Don’t know why he didn’t do that in the first place, it wasn’t even busy! The same bartender once refused to make a Pina Colada for no reason. When another member of the group ordered one from a different bartender he was served it no problem. Could the first bartender just not be bothered?That’s just 3 examples of many times I’ve been disappointed with the service received in a bar that...