These Things Happen — Restaurant in Sunderland

1/5 stars - A Total Letdown

Today we had the misfortune of dining at These Things Happen, and I'm still trying to process the utter disappointment. The original chef was great, came and sat with us, discussing our needs (we had a gluten free needs in our party) and it all sounded perfect. Then he left .........

The first options we chose, were unavailable, not a huge disaster we chose something else...... So we waited and waited and waited even though the lovely lad on the bar kieron (hope i spelled this correct. Sorry if I havent) had chased up our food a few times and even said it was coming now and one point, and there was still a wait. At this point it was well over an hour we had waited . Eventually it arrived , it looked beautiful and we were starving. 2 of us got the pan fried tuna. .... I cut into the middle of mine and it was raw. Now I know you can eat it like that. But thats not what I ordered . It was actually cold inside. I asked the other person to check his and it was the same and we defo didnt order sashimi. I couldnt believe how long this food had taken and it came undercooked so we sent it back. It had taken that long we didnt want to re order so 2 sat and ate and 2 sat with just a drink.

The Service was so slow, then the chef appeared in the dining area. I thought oh hes came to speak to us.. no he walked straight past us and went to the bar, where he proceeded to chat and drink coffee. I found this so unprofessional and really rude . He finished his conversation and walked towards us again.. but sadly he was going to ignore us again. So I had to stop him and speak to him about the issue, he made lots of excuses and reasons why it wasn't his fault and it wasn't his menu while carrying on drinking his coffee. I'm sorry but..... either you can cook or you can't. It's not about menus, its about being able to cook to a certain standard to be employed as a chef surely??? I also felt his attitude was pretty poor too.. It has definitely put me off wanting to eat their again, even though I was there on my own a few weeks ago and had breakfast and it was amazing ( yes I wrote an amazing review ) I'd also like to add the place was empty so he wasn't rushed off his feet, there was no reasonable explanation for the food quality at all. He also left kieron to front everything himself which was unfair as he was spot on. My advice would be to avoid when this chef is in. I say chef very lightly.... I've included the pictures as to look at it looks really good . But looks can be deceiving. Well done kieron keep...

Really not a pleasant experience today. Turned up 3 adults & 3 kids and ordered food & drinks within 5 minutes. Had to ask for our drinks after 15/20 minutes, to then be told they need to go change the pump for an alcoholic drink, but there was only one of them, the other drinks were soft drinks.

After half an hour no food had arrived, so we pleasantly asked for an update to be told it’s on its way. Another 10 minutes had passed and they’d brought out one adult meal. We then asked should all the food not be brought out together? Another 15 minutes had passed and they brought the remaining 2 adult meals and 3 kids meals. By that time the hunger had passed and didn’t enjoy the meals due to the experience. We weren’t brought any cutlery so had to ask for them when the food had already came. They also served 2 of the kids meals on one plate.

It was 2 of the kids birthdays, so in advance I asked 20/30 mins before leaving if they could prepare 3 brownies & candles for the kids and they couldn’t even get that out on time and we had to leave the restaurant.

At around the 40 minute waiting time, I asked was there an event upstairs, to be told there was a baby shower, but they had started the events meals even though we had turned up half hour before them, we could of been told before we ordered that we should expect a wait time and then we could of decided if we wanted to stay.

The staff were very apologetic at the end and did give a discount (which would be expected due to the long wait), but the damage was already done.

Overall very disappointed as we heard great things about...

I went for a full English breakfast at These things happen last week. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos but have to say unimpressed with it. I asked for well done black pudding so expected it to be crispy on the outside, unfortunately it was very soft all the way through. The sausage was only browned in one line down its length so that tells me that the chef didn't look after them and turn them enough all round. The portion of beans wouldn't have fed my 16 month old daughter it was that small. Literally a small steel container that I thought resembled an oversized thimble 🤔. My coffee came and was a black Americano. On first tasting it I could literally smell the perfume or lipstick on the rim of the coffee cup. I took it back, informed the manageress who immediately exchanged it for another cup. Unfortunately this one too smelled of perfume. I informed them again and was told that it was maybe the coffee I could smell. It was not. On paying the bill at the end the manageress apologised and said that the previous evening there had been a ladies 60th Birthday party and that these cups had been brought from upstairs where this function was held. So I was right. However after I left and checked my bill she still charged me £3 for the coffee. All in all £12 for the breakfast that wasn't fantastic and £3 for coffee in an unclean cup. I don't think I will be back. There's better value and quality breakfast out there. For this price it should be top notch. It wasn't. Never mind onwards...