Victors Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Table for two, expecting a nice restaurant for a date night.

Comments versus the description taken from their website (the reason I choose to book here)

“Enjoy everyday luxury and escape to Victors Newcastle, in the heart of the city along the Quayside. Experience our modern Asian-inspired menu and show-stopping cocktails, served under our iconic wisteria trees.”

Luxury is certainly an overstatement. The decor is nice but it is not a luxury experience. The food was equivalent to what I would expect at an average price gastro pub, not somewhere charging premium prices and claiming to be luxury. I was given a glass with my bottle of beer which had crusty brown bits on one side, I told the waitress who took it away but it was never replaced. A table near by got the Sushi platter which came with two giant sparklers on, it was very tacky and I honestly thought the women it was placed between were going to end up on fire because the sparkers (like mini fireworks) were pointing right at their faces. The ‘Asian Inspired Menu’ basically constituted putting teriyaki sauce on everything. I had ‘The Victor’s Way’ Burger which as far as I could tell is the same way everyone does it, including the little metal bucket the fries came in (like in Wetherspoons, very luxurious!) Sweet potato fries and house fries were seemingly from the freezer. (At £5.35 a side) A few things on the menu have fancy names like “Brocolini” which turns out to just be broccoli with a bit of garlic, not quite worth the £6 price tag. The cocktails were very good if this was the only thing I was reviewing they’d get 5 stars.

“Beautiful, vibrant, upscale yet informal, Victors Newcastle is the perfect restaurant for everything, from special celebrations and intimate dining, to corporate events and group bookings.”

It was beautiful inside, as mentioned in my first section - the decor was gorgeous. I would not say it is the perfect place for everything. When we arrived the music playing was some kind of Ibiza House Classics style playlist which really didn’t fit the aesthetic in any way. It was a little loud, with the addition of tables really close by and the people on them talking louder due to the music it was a little overwhelming and hard to hear. This wasn’t the end of this issue though, around 6:30pm a DJ turned up, the music volume increased and it was like we were eating a meal in a club - not quite the “intimate dining” the website promotes. We could barely have a conversation because the music was so loud. The service was lacking and at times rude, sides were missed off our order and we had to remind them meaning they arrived when we were half way through the main.

Overall - Nice food but underwhelming for the price tag. Terrible atmosphere and average service. 10/10 cocktails though.

An identity crisis in the shape of a restaurant with club music but gorgeous decor. Expensive pricing but average food.

I wouldn’t recommend Victors to anyone and I wouldn’t return, with so many nicer places to eat in Newcastle I’m just disappointed I was fooled by the claims on...

Me and 2 of my friends visited victors for the first time and the 50% sale was on which was a bonus as we were willing to get more dishes to try as we are all foodies. We were then seated at our table which was right next to the kitchen. We placed an order for our drinks and a starter each and wanted more time to select our other dishes. Our starters came after 45 minutes, the sourdough bread was nice however the avocado hummus was average. We then waited another 40 minutes for someone to come and take our order for the mains. We started to get a little frustrated at this point. During this time one of the waitresses was collecting the wine glasses from the shelf above the kitchen window and smashed one of the glasses near our table. We weren’t to bother but there were still glass shards around our table. We didn’t even get offered new drinks in case glass had gotten into them. My friend whos drink was more closer to the incident wanted to ask for a new one again but had to wait 15 minutes to get someone’s attention. We ordered 2 sushi plates and 4 small plates between us. We could see the sushi had been prepared way in advance and was left under the heated light whilst the other food got prepared which did take 50 minutes (so the sushi was sat there for a good 40 minutes). So when we tried the sushi it tasted “dry” probably because it was exposed to the heated light for so long. I had also ordered tacos which looked really pretty but the portion was very small and all i could taste was lime from the guacamole the tacos were sitting in. There was also a lot of greenery on the tacos to decorate them, it looked pretty but i had to dig move it all aside. The truffle fires were really good however my friends standard fries were very oily and salty. We could not get anyone’s attention to try to mention something about the food even though staff were walking past us and looking directly at our table. At this point we just wanted to have our dessert and leave. Our desserts arrived 20 minutes after ordering them. We ordered one of the coffee and vanilla dessert cocktails as a non alcoholic drink and we were told it was part of the 50% sale. Desserts were nice so can’t complain about them. We got our bill which was wrong as the cocktail was not part of the sale and the wrong information was provided otherwise I don’t think we would have ordered a coffee for £9.50. We got this corrected and had to wait 30 minutes for someone to come and take the payment. It was like we were being avoided as a lot of staff walked straight past us despite being near the kitchen area, they would look at us as we were ready with our cards and some staff were just huddled near the kitchen chatting away!! I think we spent a total of 4 hours there and 80% of the time consisted of us waiting around. Overall food was average. Decor was nice. But service and hospitality was very poor unfortunately. It’s not a place i would be recommending to family...

I’ve emailed this to the restaurant, but haven’t had the courtesy of a response

We had a table booked to celebrate a birthday at 19:30 on Saturday 29th July and were all really looking forward to our visit based on the menu and online reviews, but sadly left feeling that our experience didn’t match our expectations.

When we arrived, we were seated at a table directly opposite the kitchen. Admittedly we were a little late for our table due to an issue with our taxi, but I felt very much like we had been shoved on any old table, which was disappointing given that we had specified there was a birthday in our party - I would have hoped for somewhere that would have helped us celebrate properly!

When we arrived, the rude member of the door team told us that we had to give the table back by 21:30. This would have been fine, but the service was so slow that we actually ended up leaving the restaurant at about 22:00 - over two hours for three people to be served a main course and a dessert, whilst basically sitting in the kitchen itself.

After being seated, it took at least 10 minutes for a drinks order to be taken, and at least another 10 minutes after that for them to arrive at the table. After the drinks arrived, there was a further delay before our food order was taken. This included an odd interaction where a member of staff asked us if we were ready to order, and when we told her yes, she walked away and took a different table’s order instead. She then took food to another table, before someone else came to take our order.

When we eventually ordered (half chicken, 2 x truffle fries, mini burgers, popcorn chicken, sushi and chicken skewers), the food didn’t get to our table until at least an hour after we had arrived in the restaurant. This is shoddy, considering the time restraint that had been imposed on us by the welcome team.

No one checked back to make sure our food was okay. It was bland, by the way.

We weren’t offered any further drinks, we had to remind staff about the birthday on our party even though it was on the booking, and overall felt very neglected.

The experience was topped off by being ignored by staff even whilst trying to pay our overly expensive bill.

I don’t feel that the service, food, or drinks that we had were reflected in the £160 bill. We had been looking forward to an amazing experience to celebrate our friends birthday and make it special, but left feeling deflated and underwhelmed by the whole thing.

I won’t be returning, but hope that you can take this feedback on board so that future guests in your restaurant don’t have the...