The Scullery — Restaurant in Sunderland

No Atmosphere, No Food, No Manners… plenty of Attitude

Party of 9 booked for a birthday party treat, and were sitting down for 7pm.

After initial seating of 3 people from the party at 6.45pm, the rest of the party arrived at 7pm. It was immediately apparent that there was no music what so ever playing in the background, which gave no Atmosphere to the restaurant at all.

Drinks orders were taken and shortly afterwards of the drinks being delivered, starters and mains were taken.

When we arrived, the other guests were all ordering SeaBass with Mussels for their main course, and the Sea bass itself was a very nice portion of Fish. 4 of the party decided this was their choice, but were immediately told that there was only one portion left. As there was a second dish with sea bass, one of the party asked if that was available. As the second dish did not have the Mussels and was on a bed of something else, it was assumed that it may have been the Mussels that were missing and not the SeaBass. The response was “well it’s still SeaBass”.

Other mains were off the menu. Luckily 1 x chicken Kiev was available, but was the last one…..so other meals had to be chosen. The chicken with prawns were ordered for the other two guests, but to be honest, the prawns were good, but the chicken was more like a Joke Shop variety, as it was so tough to cut through, it resembled rubber. One of the guests left her chicken, as it was so tough it was just in-edible.

When the SeaBass arrived, we realised why it was the last one, as the portion size was minuscule compared to what had been served to guests in the Bistro side.

During the meal, one of the guests asked if it was possible to get two glasses of wine, to which the response was, “well as you can see, I’m serving food at the moment”….. a simple “yes no problem” would have sufficed.

After the meal, deserts and coffee orders were taken. One of the guests asked if the cappuccino ordered could be extra hot, to be told “well it’s out of a machine”….. could it have been micro waved perhaps just to bring the temperature up ?…..

To add insult to injury, the restaurant staff were sweeping the floor and clearing up while we were still eating desert, and at one one point, it was asked if we were ready to pay, while we were still eating.Afterall it was after 9pm and the doors close at 9.30….

I know that this will be dismissed, after all the amount of 5 stars this restaurant has been given will counteract anything I write here, but it comes down to this; I have been writing reviews now for over 35 years, and although I was not asked to give comments regarding this restaurant, I feel the need to share my experience as to be perfectly honest, the level of customer service and positive customer experience was non existent.

A restaurant experience encompasses the entirety of a customers interaction with a dining establishment, from the initial booking to the final farewell. It’s not just about the food, it includes the atmosphere, service, and overall ambiance. Factors like a welcoming atmosphere, attentive staff and a memorable meal all contribute to a positive restaurant experience…

At least we now know not to re book for...

Sorry to say (and I am not in the habit of writing poor reviews) after being recommended to visit The Scullery, our experience was wholly disappointing. On arrival having not been before we entered the building via some back steps from the car park, through an empty room and then into the daytime ‘cafe’ area. We were greeted by one smiley staff member, whilst another barked from behind the bar ‘oh right did you ring the bell? Did you ring it to get in cos I’m wondering if it’s working???’ Bizarre… maybe we entered via a wrong entrance, but even so, the door was open and to be honest I would never have expected to have to ring a bell and wait to enter a restaurant?? We were seated by the nicer lady and looked at menus, while we sat for 15 minutes with no drinks or order there appeared to be 3/4 staff behind the bar busy with other things. The older lady behind the bar was constantly rubbing her face and nose whilst making up drinks. The surroundings, although nicely fitted out , felt run down and grubby. Dusty surfaces next to us, the bottoms of table legs sticky and covered in crumbs and filthy, stained menus. The music booms making it hard to enjoy a chilled out daytime chat over a brew. Eventually our order was taken with an apology for the delay, drinks arrived and food just after. The ‘homemade’ meatball sandwich was awful. Rock hard, barely warm, rubbery meatballs, with a strange cheap meat taste and barely a drizzle of the Italian sauce suggested on the menu. The ciabattas the sandwiches come in aren’t the Italian light, air filled bread you’d expect, but more like a squashed flat, toasted panini. The ‘griddled’ wrap bread for another sandwich showed no sign of griddling at all. The ‘Club sandwich’ was some warm chicken, anemic looking rubbery bacon with a thick white fat, Mayo and a bit of slimy salad leaf… no tomato as stated on menu. The only nice bit on the plate was the coleslaw and potato skins. I had asked if it was possible to upgrade to chips with it, was told they don’t do changes to the menu, not a problem, so I ordered a portion of chips as well. They never actually came. In fairness to the smiley staff member she queried us leaving our food when our plates were eventually cleared, then removed items from the bill, stating the head chef (who’s day off it was) would be mortified. This place was rated so highly, i honestly can not see why based on our visit for a lunch which looked and tasted like it had been produced purely from a microwave. Sorry guys this sadly was our experience which I really wanted to love while...

I organised a surprise 70th birthday here and while the bar area itself was lovely (apart from a piece of wood that kept falling off the back one of the booths?) the overall experience on the day was very disappointing.

Upon booking I was told there would be someone at the bar, serving guests so they could buy drinks as and when they pleased, which is exactly what I wanted.

The staff were really helpful leading up to the event, they even took the cakes in on the morning and set them out on the table for me. However, on the day, I was met by a young girl who seemed slightly out of her depth. She was mostly alone and I felt quite sorry for her. She told me that there was no one to serve at the bar and it would be table service only and we would get a bill at the end. This wasn’t what I was told when I booked and really didn’t work for us as there was around 30 people and it meant we all had to sit at the end and split the bill and naturally, some people left earlier than others, before the bill came.

When I suggested bringing the card machine to the table so guests could pay as their order was taken, she told me she did that at first but then she got wrong off her boss for it🤷🏻‍♀️ I asked if we could use the bar through the other room to go and be served and I was told no.

I felt I’d been deceived when booking and had I known there would be no one at the bar, I would’ve gone elsewhere.

The food was also very disappointing. There were no ham sandwiches (an absolute staple in my opinion) there was just cheese and onion, egg and tuna. The samosas and spring rolls were soggy, the quiche was dry, the ‘rolled ham and beef slices with a creamy coleslaw filling’ was missing the coleslaw, the crudité platter was dry and the ‘selection of crisps’ consisted of two trays of just some cheap form of Doritos. The gluten free sandwich I requested for a relative with celiac disease was literally just two slices of dry bread with a slice of ham slapped in the middle. I expected a lot better for the amount of money I paid.

Overall, we didn’t let this spoil the experience as it was more about the people who were there, however, lots of guests made comments about the ridiculous bar tab and the service we experienced was very...