Trenchers Whitley Bay — Restaurant in North Tyneside

In a way I'm being generous but quality superceded confusion so no star deducted. We've eaten both in restaurant and takeaway on present visit to Whitley Bay. The restaurant was excellent. Lovely welcome from lady on reception and equally friendly waitresses served us. The large cod and scampi bites with chilli jam, chips and salad matched by excellent linguini of smoked salmon flakes and mussels. Terrific wine sauce. One of us had the trifle,the other was full.

Now for the Takeaway confusion. The up-to-date info says closure at 8.30 but actually closes at 7. Informed takeaway can be done inside the restaurant so not all lost. Here's the fun bit. Told the price would be the same. The price for fish outside is £7 + £2.95 chips separately. However, charged £10.50 x2 as chips included. NOT THE SAME. HOWEVER, when food brought the manager mentioned fork, several vinegar and tartare sachets were inside the collection bag. And then we tasted the haddock. Any annoyance evaporated with each forkful. Superb in all respects and worth every penny either way. Very generous sized portions. I was only going to order 1 chips and probably left a portion but only because full.

I mention the disparity between written and spoken information regarding times and prices as there clearly is confusion but we're not surprised they were country champions in 2020 and...

We used the Trenchers takeaway for tea - people mention it being more expensive, but I thought it was fairly on par to be fair price wise. I was expecting perhaps something out of this world, as we had noticed the 'cooked in beef dripping' on the window.

We ordered just inside and then waited outside for our order. It's cooked fresh, so there is a little wait... Once done, it was boxed up and bought out to us. Unfortunately, it hadn't occurred to me that they wouldn't put salt and vinegar on, and I couldn't remember them asking... thankfully, I had some back at the holiday accommodation.

Now we might have been spoilt by having a different fish and chips a few days earlier, but I found that my fish just wasn't as nice. Chips were OK. My wife had the scampi, which she said was really nice. One of the young 'uns had a kids meal (not sure if it should have come with a drink? We didn't get one if it was supposed to?) and enjoyed the fish bites, but was less interested in the chips!

If I was to try Trenchers again, would perhaps try the restaurant as that's where a lot of the better reviews seem to come from for here. Either way, it was still nice, just not the best that I was perhaps...

Food was lovely but overpriced for what it was. The atmosphere was ok, the pianist was very good but it felt too much for the type of restaurant. The staff initially were attentive and nice, but throughout the evening we found they lacked interest in serving us and we had to wait at least 20 minutes before someone to remove the empty plates and ask us if we wanted desserts, then once they bought the menus it was another 20/25 minutes before my partner had to physically go and get a staff members attention as they kept avoiding our table to take the order. We felt we were shoved up a corner and forgotten about. In the end only the two children had desserts, as it was part of their 3 course meal (which should really have more options than mac and cheese bites for the starter as neither children liked them so a few adults shared them instead). We were fed up of waiting and just wanted to leave. Then they tried to charge us for more meals than we had ordered, so we had to correct them on what we had ordered so the total was correct. Overall, nice food but overpriced. Wouldn’t rush to go again to be honest unless the...