Allard's - Monkseaton — Restaurant in North Tyneside

I came here with my family yesterday (Easter sunday). We had a table booked for 1 o'clock for 7 people. As we were booking ourselves in we were told our table was needed again at 2.20 so we had to vacate our table by then! Not a great start.

We were shown to our table. The restaurant was absolutely lovely. Nice, bright and airy. The tables weren't crammed together which was a nice change and it wasn't overly busy, just a steady flow of customers, making it much more comfortable. Once sat down we realised the table was only set for 6 so we asked staff for more cutlery. But WE had to move the table along to fit the 7th person on it at the end.

Looking at the menu the food sounded delicious....if you eat meat. There were 2 vegetarian options, 1 being vegan, a sweet potato and lentil bake, or margarita pizza. (This is a Sunday lunch menu so no other menu was available, obviously).

4 of the group had starters. 2 prawn cocktail, 2 meatballs, and thoroughly enjoyed them. The 4 who had starters obviously used their cutlery (the settings only had cutlery for one course?) so we asked for more.

I opted for the sweet potato dish...the others had meat roasts, one had fish and chips. All the roasts came out at 1.55 and the plates were full to the brim! They looked delicious. Apart from the very dark brown/black extremely crispy, but HUGE, Yorkshire puddings. I think everyone ate the bottom of them but had to leave the rest....but nobody was too fussed as their plates were full of other delicious food. The fish was huge, the chips even bigger! And was, again, tasty. We had to ask again for the 4 sets of cutlery though, after the meals were served. Then I waited for mine. It came out 5 minutes later, bearing in mind we had to vacate our table by 2.20! So, out came my meal. A piece of sweet potato and lentil bake with a spoonful of green veg which included, green beans, sugar snap peas, cabbage. That was it! It wasn't a spoonful of each of the veg, it was 1 spoonful. I queried the lack of veg, potatoes etc and I was told they weren't vegetarian/vegan! Why? You only offer ONE vegan dish and don't serve it with a variety of veg? Potatoes at that!? Then unexpectedly, a few minutes later, someone came with a dish of 'roasted' potatoes in oil. They definately had oil on them and were possibly threatened with being roasted....but roasted they definitely were not! They were tasteless and rock hard! And they come out after my meal was served? Needless to say I wasn't very happy.

If you only offer one vegan/vegetarian meal (pizza isn't really a sunday lunch meal) why isn't the veg prepped/par cooked to cater for that ONE vegan/vegetarian option? When you clearly do that for your roasties done in beef dripping, mash done in butter.... It's not a difficult thing to think of and definitely not any more difficult to cook!!! To be fair. My small, lonely piece of sweet potato and lentil bake was quite tasty and my spoonful of veg, again, quite tasty, but come on. £14 for 2 (small) food items on your plate is a bit shameful.

Obviously we were nowhere near finished our meal at 2.20. But well done to the staff they didn't ask us to move. Once we'd all finished eating we asked if we could take our drinks to another table to finish (we were very conscious of another group waiting for the table). We moved into the bar area, which again was a pleasant area to have our drinks. It was obviously a lot busier through there but still pleasant.

All in all it was a lovely place, good atmosphere, nice staff. Food for meat eaters is great. Food for vegan/vegetarian is diabolical and very shameful to the establishment. So, after paying just under £200, that was just for the restaurant side (we also had a couple of drinks in the bar afterwards) , I felt extremely underwhelmed and most definitely very disappointed. I did mention to a member of staff how disappointed I was with my meal.....it was kind of dismissed with a 'tilt of her head, a 'sad look' and 'ah sorry you didn't enjoy it!!!??? I'm undecided as to whether I'd...

We visited after Allards Monkseaton was recommended to us...........really wish I hadn't. We were seated after I ducked the ridiculous plastic orange tree that fills both walkways to get to our table...maybe my fault for being 6ft 1. Young gentleman turned up to take drinks orders, no Bacardi so had to settle for another white rum with coke but with no ice. It turned up with enough ice to sink the Titanic. Ordered our food, 2 tapas and 2 main meals. Waited not to long and all the food turned up at once! Not enough space on the table for everything so I asked them to take back the mains which they did. After finishing the tapas our mains reappeared and to their credit they had recooked them. Margarita pizza advertised as being served with basil and oilve oil both missing and the fish and chips advertised as being served with mushy peas and chunky chips. Peas were normal garden peas and the whilst chunky chips were chunky they also had their skins on and were borderline cremated. Spoke to the manager on the way out and got a half mumbled apology. We don't eat out that often and definitely will not be returning. £57.00 for one of the worst and...

I was really excited to have Allards on our doorstep but unfortunately over time the standard of food has proved too erratic for me. Previously I have had the flatbread with beetroot, humus tzatziki. Absolutely amazing, so tasty I raved about it to friends. Last night same dish dreadful. Flatbread itself looked anaemic, with lots of beetroot and a few dots of tzatziki. No resemblance to my previous flatbread at all. After sending back twice I eventually got a fresh flatbread which was only just OK (second attempt same flatbread smothered in humus). We've tried the fish & chips for lunch which arrived looking delicious. In reality the chips were the best I've ever had but the fish was absolutely tasteless. Because we live local and Allards are dog friendly we called in one morning for breakfast. We ordered two Eggs Benedict but only one arrived. On serving we were asked if we were sharing! Really? We have visited many times often with family or friends and know the food can be really good but it needs to be good...