The Muddler — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

This is for the customer care manager we spoke with in Newcastle on Saturday night😀

As an immunocompromised person this place has been a godsend to my partner and I especially during covid. I have blood cancer and am at high risk from the more severe effects of covid.

Therefore we minimise indoor social contact as much as we can but we also have to have a bit of a life too.

Here we can sit outside, have table service and people watch to our hearts content due to the fantastic location on Grey Street and all whilst minimising risk.

The return of the electric heaters is most welcome and the staff are always friendly, polite and understanding.

My only gripe would be the layout of the outside tables in relation to the umbrellas. The umbrellas fully cover the two standing tables which are hardly ever used but only partially cover the seated tables.

The consequences of this are;

If it rains then all outside tables and chairs get wet and are unusable for a time. A few times we have had to go elsewhere (their rival across the street 😱) because when we arrived nowhere was dry to sit down.

We have also witnessed plenty of other people who wanted to sit outside go elsewhere due to the wet furniture.

Staff have tried drying them for us but this is not ideal as staff aren’t always free for this and the furniture doesn’t dry properly. We tried this once and ended up with a wet arse 😀

If it rains once we are seated then we have to quickly finish our drinks and go or stand awkwardly at the standing table, this is not an option if other people are wanting shelter here too.

The umbrella placement also affects all other outdoor patrons, especially people who are dining. If it rains when the outdoor tables are full then people and their food are going to get wet, nobody wants a soggy sandwich or indeed a soggy bottom!

The Muddler is the best on Grey Street and if they sort the umbrellas out then it will be even more besterer😀.

P.s the food and drink are just...

Unfortunately we had a not so pleasant visit to the Muddler on Saturday evening. We had previously booked online for 2 people, paying a £10 fee for this, but due to a change of plans we had an extra person eating with us. Due to needing to send a WhatsApp in order to change bookings which was majorly inconvenient, we instead decided to arrive to our booking 30 minutes early in order to see if there was a possibility of getting seated as a 3. We knew this may not be possible due to the small nature of this restaurant but thought trying would be better than not showing up.

We were shouted to at the door by a very rude gentleman behind the bar who seemed greatly inconvenienced at our presence. When we asked about adding the extra person, he simply pointed to the table which had two seats and said 'that's your table'. We asked again thinking he had misunderstood but he abruptly said that we had only booked a table of two. Obviously it is completely understandable for the restaurant not being able to cater to our now larger party but the way in which we were spoken to felt completely out of order for the request we had. We left the restaurant and had a lovely meal at Kaltur- would definitely recommend!

Having been sent an email asking for feedback from the Muddler and explaining our poor experience, we got yet another poor response from Jonny Lodge Customer Experience Manager stating 'it was unfair to say the staff were not accommodating' when in fact the issue lied with the rudeness of staff. Yet another example of this company not understanding the needs of the customer.

Overall a terrible experience from walking into the restaurant to the follow up of management...

To anyone reading, I have not been paid to write this, and am not affiliated with this restaurant, it was an accidental discovery through a friend. Generally I am very picky with my Japanese food as it's my favourite cuisine. So here goes:

Wow, what an incredible place!! Stepping in this restaurant feels like going back to the 20's, with a minimalistic feel. The added underground corridors from bar to restaurant are such a bonus and give it an added mysterious feel.

Cocktails are as dreamy as they come, sophisticated and absolutely delicious, not your usual daiquiri but something completely innovative and unique, inspired by Japan, with special effects too.

Now the food, to say it's heavenly would be an understatement. High quality ingredients, exceptional attention to detail and combinations that take your taste buds to another world. We had mixed starters and with every dish, it kept getting tastier by the bite. We expected there to be something that we wouldn't have liked as you normally would when you order a few things to nibble on, but how wrong we were! Every single one of us absolutely and fully enjoyed their meals.

I don't even have enough words to say how gorgeous the chef's platter was, fresh sashimi and sushi, presented in the most creative manner! I had the whole thing to myself, it was just delightful!

There were 2 gents serving the restaurant and they were very attentive, patient, informative and professional so service was great as well!

I strongly recommend going if you love Japanese food, it is worth every single penny! We will definitely be back without a doubt, the best in the North...