Tavern & Galley — Restaurant in North Tyneside

We stopped in at the Briar Dene for lunch after a morning on the beach. We waited nearly ten minutes at the door to be seated at 13:05 pm. The hostess apologized and took us to a table in the dining room farthest from the bar and kitchen. We where given menus and asked if we wanted drinks, which where brought to the table promptly and courteously. Ten minutes later making it 13:15 our food order was taken. Then nothing. Our drinks ran dry, no one attended. By 14:00 we where wondering if we should pay for our drinks and leave but decided to give it until 14:15. Still no service no food. My wife got up put her coat on and walked to the bar to pay our drink bill. She was told we could not do that as we ordered food. Ah yes, we did order food over an hour ago that never arrived. My wife politely tried to tell the barman she understood the delay was not his fault. He looked at her and said. I don't care. That pretty much says it all. The staff where either so overworked that they where exhausted, or they truly just did not care. Given that the place was 20 percent full, I vote for the latter. Five minutes later our Nachos and burger was served. Not much to say about the food. My burger tasted nice and the frickle garnish was a nice touch Never mind the young woman who served it basically dropped it on our table and walked away. Since we paid for the food at the bar before it was served we ate and left never hearing a word from any of the staff. I am a very generous tipper but found I could not justify leaving a tip on this occasion. I put this down to terrible management. Clearly the staff have no customer training and for a barman to be able to look at a customer and say I do not care should be a sackable offence. I do not recommend this...

Summary: Utterly terrible service; food fine. Good option during the week, less at weekends.

Firstly, should highlight that I am ex-hospitality industry so have a professional viewpoint. Secondly, visited on an exceedingly busy Sunday around 330pm (traditionally quieter after the lunch time rush but not the case on this visit).

Décor: Newly refurbished with the bar now moved into the centre of the property, décor is modern in dark colours; with lower lighting levels. Lots of high tables for drinkers; and an expanded restaurant seating area. What seems to be lacking in the new décor is any "please wait here to be seated" area.

Food: No real issues, although some of the dishes served up were different from description on the (limited) menu. When it arrived, food was hot and tasted good. Does not appear to be pre-packaged catering compared with fresh food preparation.

Staff: Utter disaster. Nobody is controlling anything, and the staff are poorly trained and we spotted three dressed in tracksuit bottoms, who had zero customer service skills. All the staff just spend all their time apologising. 20 minutes after seating we had to ask for our order to be taken; and 45 minutes later the food arrived; and drinks 10 minutes after that! We didn't risk anything else, as the wait times were too long.

At asking for the bill, they had lost our order and had to ask what we had. It was clearly then entered into the till system and 15 minutes later, our original drinks from two hours earlier arrived (again).

Someone from SJF needs to take this venue, it's staff, and take control and enormously turn around customer service...

Been a few times and always enjoy a good pint and some very good bar snacks - parmesan fries, tomato garlic pizza from the wood oven - really top quality. Went again last night and actually stayed for a meal, and it was exceptional. I think there must be a talented chef in the kitchen with some great ideas, because in amongst the pubfood crowd pleasers (burgers, kebabs, pizzas) there's an amazing and inventive British produce menu hiding in there! Fresh fishcakes, lager 'n' lime onion rings, a pie of the day, and... liver and onions! This is what I ordered, and it's one of the nicest things I've eaten in ages. Two huge and perfectly cooked pieces of lamb's liver, perfect mash (not pureed, not heavy, just proper mash), a delicious charred cabbage wedge which was a genuis addition, all with plenty of the most rich and well made lamb gravy with mint and red wine. It was just lovely. They've got a better than average red wine selection to go with the more "gravy-led" dishes, and if you were going for the fishcakes there are a couple of decent whites too. A lot more interesting than your usual pub wine offering. I couldn't stop saying how much I was enjoying the meal (which must have been a bit irritating for my girlfriend who got the chicken kebab, which I'd say is part of the 'crowd pleaser' menu and was pretty good, nothing special compared to the quality of what I ordered). Not expensive, not cheap, just right. Loved it and can't wait to pick out some more treats from what we're calling the Covert...