Washington Arms — Restaurant in Sunderland

We visited this place as hadn’t booked and tried to get in Over the road but was full. We went in asked for Sunday lunch and was told yes no problem. We ordered drinks and told we can sit at the back (dining room) or in bar area, we chose dining room. We were informed that menus are on the tables however when we got to tables these were bare so I went and asked for menus. I was given two menus got back to table to find wrong menu with no Sunday lunches on, again went back to bar and guy rummaged through a cupboard and gave me the menu. once we decided I went to bar to order and stood and stood a bit more while young man was texting on his phone behind bar. I ordered 2 x triple meats Beef, Pork and Turkey The food arrived quite briskly. Meat, Yorkshire pudding, veg as standard. Veg was old and soggy Broccoli, discoloured Cauliflower and definitely not fresh cabbage , garden peas fresh however not quite cooked. Mash potato bland no seasoning no butter no taste would compare it to smash. Turkey was nice, pork on my plate almost non existent and my partner was yet to find any Beef! All in all bland and tasteless, at one point I did go off to find salt and pepper which I found on the dumb waiter over in the corner. We ate what we could and decided just pay bill and leave. (Not like me) We Went to the bar and a young lady was there with her back to customers playing on phone , she turned and said what can I get ya? Baring in mind 5 tables in whole place! We explained we had eaten and just wanted to pay bill. Then she asked for a key, we didn’t understand that and said we didn’t have one so she giggled. We paid £35 and left disappointed never to visit again. Times are difficult for businesses and I spend my career outlining savings and improvements across different sectors a company can make to be viable and have longevity. I think the first change I would make is ban staff from using mobile phones whilst at work and the second would be to ensure all ingredients are fresh and introduce seasoning to the chef. Pubs are closing on a daily basis and when you can eat better at home they wonder why it is empty. Sunday lunch one of the simplest yet seems most difficult menu to provide at a...

Nice pub & location but a serious problem with lack of staff theres always a queue at the bar & after yesterdays dissapointing events i felt i had to say something. We had a table booked for weeks for 2pm for a surprise birthday 15 people there & 3 of us turning up with the birthday girl only to find table had just been cleared & the 15 were just getting settled around the table when we walked in so completely ruined the surprise also the balloons & banners that were dropped off along with the cake at 11.15am were nowhere to be seen. However we made the most of it got sat then a woman came along & just dumped the balloons & banners on us still in the bags so.put balloons on table but didnt bother with the banners as didnt see the point plus we had nothing to.put them up with cus we thought the pub would do this. Just kept getting told they were very busy but when table had been booked for weeks it was dissapointing. Was getting told from rest of party via texts that table wasnt ready but when table booked at 2 we couldnt hold the birthday lady back...

You know thing are only going to get worse when the waitress comes with an apology for the starter being late. So from ordering to getting the starter to getting the main course 2 hours pass this is after speaking to the assistant manager who gave me what felt like a thousand apologies I was offered a choice the food I ordered or a refund I chose the food as I had my wife and kids with me who were hungry and by this point tired. Ten minutes pass after speaking to the assistant manager food arrived now here the best bit my order was not quite what I ordered so I asked to speak with the assistant manager again who didn't do what any other pub restaurant offer some thing for free or a discount I was told as I had eaten some of it the only thing she could was to take my number and get the manager to phone me in the morning will I go back I think not that being said the food was nice apart from the ice crystals in my wife's lasagne if you read this and work there consider what I have said tonight was not...