The Hudson — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Extremely disappointing all round. We booked as a party of 4 for the evening of Saturday 23 October 2021. The establishment presents itself as a high end offer with relatively opulent furnishings but at best it is casual dining with poor service and mediocre food. After taking our drinks order a carafe of water (with ice, but no lemon as requested) appeared promptly but we were left for a good half hour with no pre-dinner drinks. It was impossible to get the attention of waiting staff who seemed to be busy rushing around but with no attention to customers at their tables. Our starters arrived (still no drinks) and only then were we able to tell them. Huge apologies were offered and an explanation that 'the system' had failed to put the drinks order through. The drinks then appeared promptly and the starters were fine. My partner and I had both ordered the caesar salad which was good, but really far too large. One issue is that what anyone looking at the menu would consider to be starters were billed as 'small plates'. Honestly there was enough for a light meal there. The main courses were the most disappointing. My lamb bolognese lacked any flavour, and the pasta was hugely overcooked. Worst of all was the flatbread pizza my partner ordered: the base was incredibly dense, she had to tear it with her hands and could only manage to eat half of it. We passed on desserts as by then the experience was too bad, although as we had entered the restaurant the glass cabinet displaying them only had a few items in and looked completely unappetising. Not a good look. When coming to pay the bill (£160 for four including two rounds of drinks, for two courses per head) the very polite young waiter asked the standard question of whether everything was alright for us. On explaining the problems we got an apology but then he proceeded to take full payment with no offer to either reduce the bill or get the Manager. This was the sad end story to quite a miserable experience. In my opinion this restaurant represents all that is wrong with the hospitality industry in our country: Chain businesses operating from standard menus where profit comes first and the customer a poor second. Like other reviews here I fully concur with the points made about too much noise from the public bar, and worst of all poorly trained and led staff from their management. This establishment is trying to do too much with too little. Staff appear confused between their responsibilities to serve the bar and the restaurant. Needless to say we did not leave a tip and will not...

We booked a table online for 15.3.24 for 6pm (and confirmed it via the reminder link sent), we arrived for our table last night to be told that there was no booking for us. I purposely booked for 6pm as we had a show to attend at 7:30pm. I showed the member of staff confirmation of the email to show the booking had been confirmed to which she said ‘yes you may have that but I don’t have it on my side so unfortunately there is no table, but I can get you in if you wait 20minutes and get a drink at the bar’ My husband and I told the staff member that we could not wait that long as we had a show booking and she said well there’s nothing I can do and there was a wait on food. I was appalled by this service and then queried if I could have confirmation that my card would not be charged as I had used it to confirm my booking online. She told me that ‘ No it won’t be changed it’s a hold of £0 and it wasn’t even on her system so I wouldn’t be charged’ We were forced to leave after looking forward to a special occasion meal booked well in advance on 8.3.24 and could not get in anywhere else as such short notice. My card was charged £20 for a no show fee to a booking that we did show up but it was the management of the restaurant that had overbooked and not had our reservation on their system I informed the restaurant after attempting to contact them over 20 times via phone and being passed from employee to employee. I finally spoke to Connor the ‘General Manager’ and requested that I was refunded immediately but yet I am still waiting and being told inadequate information that ‘Open Table’ had processed a refund to which I did not believe so I contacted them myself to which clarified that the information the ‘manager’ passed on was false. On contacting Open Table they stated that this is not the case as the money is charged through the restaurant themselves as they do not take money it is the restaurant who have charged me. I emailed Connor back and had no response. We would not use The Hudson ever again as it is clearly ran by unprofessional staff who do not have ‘Customer Service’ at the forefront of...

To start, this is probably my longest review and one of the most difficult, as I was a guest of someone else who paid the main bill. We still had a lovely evening as the company of our small group was what made it. About the Hudson restaurant, what can I say really? It was a mixed bag and pretty poor. I was there for a surprise celebration meal with friends, 6 of us in total, and were there for 6 hours. Food: Starter was nice (salmon rarebit) but was slightly scorched on the corner. My main was meant to be medium rare steak, which arrived heavily scorched and hard. it was quite a thin piece which should have taken minimal cooking. This was sent back. The replacement steak, when it eventually arrived was thankfully perfect, just as it should have been first time around. Unfortunately, everyone else was almost finished their main course by then. I had lemon tart for pudding which was perfect. No coffee or tea was available as machine was broken. Drinks: We drank several bottles of wine during the meal and bottle of prosecco for a toast. At the end of the meal we stayed at the table for more drinks. We all ordered cocktails which were slow to arrive, like everything else. We ordered a further round of cocktails which failed to arrive. After 45 minutes a complaint was made. We were then promised we would get the drinks and would be free of charge. By 10pm still nothing so we settled our drinks bill for what we did receive (food and wine was kindly settled by our host), and left. Staff were very friendly and courteous but I felt poorly trained and not enough of them, both kitchen and bar struggled. The restaurant wasn't full but there were a couple of large parties bigger than ours. If I hadn't considered the possible effects of Covid on the issues we had, I would...