Sambuca Forest Hall — Restaurant in North Tyneside

My Granddaughter's 6th birthday is approaching. As we have often taken our Grandchildren to Sambuca in Forest Hall my wife and daughter decided to take our Grandaughter and 15 of her little friends here after school. On arrival when my daughter order 8 pizzas between the 5 year olds she encountered a pretty unfriendly response, the waiter making it very clear he was expecting a considerably larger order. The service thereafter was bordering on surly. The low point came when the children began to sing a Christmas song. One of the staff came over claiming some of the other customers were complaining and asked them to stop singing. My wife could see no evidence of any of the few other customers in there complaining and believes it was simply because the staff were unhappy that they weren't selling enough. (The last time I was in there the staff were themselves continually loud, shouting across the restaurant and singing various out of tune songs, but nobody complained, mind you there were quite a lot of people in there that time spending a fair bit on food and alcohol, so the staff were putting on their 'friendly' act). However my wife and daughter didn't want to upset the children so didn't challenge the waiter. From the moment that the staff considered the order wasn't lucrative enough for them they were unwelcoming and brusque. A few 5 year old little girls in there for one hour are not going to be swilling wine and scoffing huge amounts of pasta. 8 pizzas and soft drinks is not unreasonable in a half empty establishment. The behaviour of the staff on this occasion means that none of my family will be returning to this particular establishment. The staff set a very poor example to the children but fortunately my wife and daughter managed to ensure the kids had as much fun as they could, despite the charmless behaviour of the staff. Interesting how the false smiles quickly disappear if they don't think you are spending enough. Oh, and they didn't...

Came here because we heard from multiple people that this was the best sambucas in Newcastle. When we arrived we were seated quickly which was nice. But upon arrival to our table we noticed the booth seat was in desperate need of sorting out. Half of the leather was off and most of the foam underneath was popping out. Our waitress came and took our drinks order nice and quickly and was very polite. But then it got strange as we ended up with multiple servers who didn’t seem to know what the table had ordered. We waited a while for the mains to come out and noticed that the table next to us was given our food. We were annoyed but let it slide as mistakes happen. Only for when our food arrived we noticed that one of the bowls of pasta had a very small portion. We asked the other table if they had received a small portion as well only to be told that they requested a small portion for their child. So it was very obvious that when they had given them our food they brought the small portion to our table that was meant for the child on the other table! They didn’t even try and fix it or add any more pasta in. We tried to complain but suddenly there was no staff members around to help us. After about 10mins we gave up as the food was getting cold and we were all very hungry. I would understand if they were busy but there was a lot of empty tables. We then had to wait a good 10-15 mins after eating for a staff member to appear so we could order dessert and have our plates taken away. And then after dessert we waited another 15mins for a staff member to appear just to get the bill! Although the staff were polite it would have been nice to see them more often. I don’t think we will be coming back as we were...

My husband and I have been here a many times at different times of the day and usually we have nothing bad to say. But today we weren't too happy with the service..as we arrived we were asked how many people and we said just two.. "take a seat there" and procedeed to point to the velvet chair..Then when a table came available the waitress said " you two follow me" . We were just about to get seated and she said "what are you wanting to drink".. our arses hadn't even touched the seat! We said could you give us a couple minutes and she went okay and walked away.. no drinks menu offered?? So hubby decided just to get a diet coke and I asked for a lime and soda.. when we finally got our drinks my drink was wrong.. was given lime and lemonade, can't stomach lemonade.. so I went to bar and a different young girl did change it no bother.. and she did apologize..but I heard the waitress say to the girl "what's up" and young bar girl said "I gave the lady lemonade instead of soda". We got our starters and our food put on table in a abrupt manner by a young lad like he didn't want to be there.. my potato skins were on the burnt side 🙁 I always have this as a starter, so I expected to get what I normally get.. the pizza was nice but we didn't bother stopping for a pudding and another drink.. and unfortunately no tip was given.. Such a shame as we really like this particular Sambuca restaurant, as it usually has a lovely ambiance and a friendly feel, but don't think we will be going back too soon.. Will seek other places to eat out. Some of the staff need to have better social skills and to make the customer...