Ask Italian in County Durham

Came for a staff night out, food was lush. Service from Alex and Andrew was class x

Amazing lasagne! Great service from Alex and Andrew

Atmosphere is absolutely electric

Pasta is just as good as Newcastle 8 game run banging

Have been dining in this restaurant since it opened and always enjoyed it. We dined there yesterday and what a disappointment. I chose lasagne but it was flat as a pancake, I struggled to find any mince , no cheese or white sauce! And charged £16.95. Come on Ask you can do better than this!

We turned up early at 4pm on the 8th, ASK was one of our go to restaurants. On ordering we noticed the restaurant was cold (-2C outside) and it just got colder. We had to put our coats back on to finish our meal. The only other occupied table was given a heater but we were not offered one. Food came and was over heated, the pasta had gone dry on the top. Meatballs were acceptable but the lasagne was no more than half an inch thick with almost no sauce and two sheets of pasta, would have been poor as a starter and no good as a main. We had a second main for £1 discount code and as requested this was shown to the server who did not bother to put it into our bill so when we paid full price without realising on the table QR as there was no table service visible at all, we ended up paying full price for two very bad mains in a freezing cold restaurant. Also, the expensive wine was the worst I have had in a restaurant for a long time. If you don't have heating, do not accept customers. If you do not have a chef, this is not and excuse to serve reheated pre-prepared food, you are not a takeaway. If your servers are shown a discount code apply it when shown! ASK used to be nice but is now a disgrace.

Ellie served us on New Year’s Eve- she was excellent, all aspects of the evening were fantastic! Great service, the right time between courses, chef skills super, Ellie was very attentive and great fun!

We were met by a great waitress Ellie who showed us to a lovely table, and was very knowledgeable about the menu, she looked after us really good, she was very attentive and lovely, and the chef Josh was immense! He made the dishes exactly to what we wanted, I would say it's one of the best italian meals I've had for a long time, really tasty and presented brilliantly we will definitely be back soon.

Had a wonderful evening at the Ask Italian in Durham. Lee was a wonderful server and was very attentive to all of our needs. As a coeliac the pizza was delicious and extra cake was taken to ensure all my food was suitable for my allergies.

Alex & Lee are fantastic servers and are always friendly and recommend the delicious food!

Food was very nice service was 5* Food presented very well and the chef also added the presentation to the kids dessert. Lee from Newcastle lives in shields works in Durham made our visit that extra special Will defo be back

Fantastic place to celebrate Mum's birthday between Christmas and New Year. Staff really accommodating with Cake and bottle of Fizz! Hope to do it all again next year!!!

Excellent service by Lee. He found as a table despite it being busy. Was kind and attentive and very patient- highly recommend

Thanks for making this family occasion a fabulous experience. The service from Ellie was first class. She is a lovely person. The food was delicious. I am a vegan and Ellie was so well informed of what would be a great meal, she took time to explain what would work well. Thank you so much

Lee was helpful and friendly throughout our meal.

Fantastic birthday meal for family of 6 I was celebrating my 70th birthday Our food selections is not in the food options

Ellie and her team run the Ask restaurant in Durham wonderfully. We were a party of eight, and everything went perfectly. We will definitely return soon! Thank you for making my mother-in-law's 87th birthday exceptional! 🥳

Lovely meal, mushroom Truffle calzone with chicken and salami misti pizza. Biscoff cheesecake and bamboloni sundae and a bottle of red wine 🍷 fantastic service from Lee, works in Durham lives in Shields. Recommend a visit anytime.

Another great meal! Thanks Lee and the team! ❤️

Ellie could not have done more to make us feel welcome and looked after. She was friendly and professional. The place was busy but she was calm under pressure. Good work. Regarding the food, my vegetarian pizza was quite nice. But would like to see a really good veggie calzone on the menu (but not with vegan “cheese” which is a monstrosity🤣) All veggie/vegan choices well signposted.

Friendly and fast service, perfect place♥️

Lovely place for a dinner!! always a treat :)

Lee who is from the toon, lives in Shields and works in Durham was outstanding in every level!!!! Thank you 🤩

Lovely waitresses. Very friendly, chatty and helpful.

Fab night for my birthday and our server, Lee was brilliant. Thanks for a great night

Lee went above and beyond for the whole visit. Thanks you.

Lovely meal with family great food and excellent service

Ellie was great!! Excellent customer service! The food was incredible, too!

Lovley Waitress really friendly

A good evening with excellent, friendly service from Ellie.

Was a great venue for a Christmas night out with friends... w were well looked after and the food/drink was lovely.

Andrew was helpful . Pasta too small and lacked meat.

Another great Christmas party at Ask Durham. Lee & Alex were great hosts, thank you

Lovely staff Christmas lunch this week Lee was fabulous

The experience was a letdown. Was at a work Christmas meal with my wife. It was a set menu so knew what was having. The starters came out cold, the main; pizza came out cold and the dessert was cold too. Given the price would have been nice if one of the courses was

Food was lovely, customer service was beyond extraordinary

servers are absolutely lovley and go out of their way to make ur experience!! food is always quick and well presented :)

Booked in for a meal on Saturday night and served by Mia! Great service and lovely food. We had the 3 course and a Prosecco although it was great value the pudding tipped us over the edge and totally filled us up!

The food was amazing and the staff were so polite. One of our dishes was wrong and they immediately came over and apologised and sorted it out at the end for us.

We had a lovely festive lunch in Durham restaurant. Ellie was our server, she was very helpful. The other staff were all very friendly too.

Food and staff were lovely. Mocktails were also very tasty. Our server was Ellie at the Durham restaurant.

No es una buena experiencia. Menú caro. Pedí pappardelle con vino tinto ragu de ternera y tomates ruborizados. Lo que tengo es pasta demasiado cocida pegada a sí misma con la salsa no revuelta. Sabía a pasta de niño en un pub. Era sólo un pechuga de ternera estofada en salsa de tomate. Ni siquiera cerca de un ragu. Sin condimento, sin vino, sin hierbas, sin sabor. Pagó 18 libras. Nunca más.

Wonderful evening shared by twelve of us. Peroni went well with Great food and taste from the show kitchen.Complimentary Limone drink was a nice addition. Supported by efficient staff especially the lovely Ellie completing the night with her charming and nothing was a bother attitude.

Ellie was absolutely fantastic and gave an excellent service, thank you much Ellie!

Great food and service as always.

The service was impeccable, Ella and Andrew who served up were nothing but welcoming and helpful. The food was out of this world. Me and my partner will be returning very shorty. Round of applause to Ask Italian!

El servicio fue impecable. Ella y Andrew proporcionaron un servicio brillante, eran muy acogedores y serviciales. La comida era espectacular! Volveremos muy pronto. Excelente de Ask Italian.

Such a lovely meal - Ellie was great; charismatic and made our experience very enjoyable. Thank you!! :)

The service was great and amazing and the food slayed so hard

Lee and Alex really went above and beyond, caring about our allergy issues and making sure that out meal was perfect. Really friendly atmosphere, will definitely be going back again. The food was delicious. 10 out of 10

Fantastic as always tonight. Alex really looked after us and Josh made an extra spicy Carne Piccante pizza which was amazing. We always have a great experience in ask Durham and it's our go to place. Highly recommend

Sad to write this Me and my partner love this particular AI as it’s in a great location in Durham Car park is a lift ride away and is cheap on a night time Decided to take my partner and parents this evening and done nothing but big up AI but when I wanted it to shine it sadly didn’t Even though we had booked a table for the 4 of us we had to wait in a door way with the doors pinned open so it was freezing cold for us standing waiting for nearly 10 mins until staff dressed our table We ordered our food which took around 25 mins which wasn’t bad but our drinks we ordered when we first came in arrived shortly after our food No one came to check on us to ask if we had any issues with our meals and it took them a good 20 mins to take our finished plates away We also wanted a desert which no one came to take our order so I decided to order them on my phone using the QR code on the table 2 mins later a server came and told us one of the deserts wasn’t available so my parter had to choose something else No big deal Until we ordered something else to replace it Which again they didn’t have So ordered something And guess what They didn’t have it We just decided to cancel our deserts as we had other Arrangements and time was ticking To which the server made a fuss about having to cancel them but then decided to cancel them and didn’t even apologies We then asked for the bill which they didn’t seem to get sorted for us So I again used the QR code on the table and paid and we left We walked passed 3 members of staff and not one of them apologised or even said thank you and goodbye Think this will be the last for us coming to AI in Durham which is a big shame if I’m honest

The staff were so friendly and were so attentive , notably Lee for his excellent customer service . Will be back soon for sure !!

Friendly and accommodating staff. It was my friends birthday meal and a staff member gave us a complimentary bottle of Prosecco. Food was quick and lovely.

Love it, carbonara isnt supposed to have cream tho!

Lee- absolutely amazing! such a great host

Cuando llegamos, a las 5. 30 pm. El restaurante estaba bastante frío, tuve que sentarme con el abrigo puesto. El camarero era muy amable y tomó nuestra orden. Finalmente tuvimos que preguntar dónde estaba nuestra comida ya que habíamos esperado bastante tiempo. Elegí el tagliatelle de volantes con gambas y cangrejos de río. Llegó con 1 cangrejo de río pequeño y tuve que buscar los langostinos que eran pequeños y pocos y lejanos entre ellos. Era la pasta lo peor. Nunca he probado la pasta tan mal. Era tan grueso y robusto y me cobraron casi £ 18 por el privilegio. No volveré a este restaurante.

Ellie was a great server and the food was amazing

Ellie was great, very friendly, knowledgeable and a great waitress.

Molly was a great server, very friendly and provided amazing service.

Molly is AMAZINGGGG!!! The service is great~~~~ totally coming again

Stopping through Durham for work and needed an easy dinner. Was pleasantly surprised how tasty this was. Was served by Molly and she was so lovely. Very friendly, funny and fast! :) Had the bruschetta and Buratta Carbonara. Both great 😊

Absolutely lovely night! Molly was absolutely brilliant and made the whole night x

Fantastic experience with excellent service. Definitely come here again.

Had amazing service from Molly today! Lovely food and atmosphere too.

Had a lovely dinner at ASK Italian today and amazing service from Molly!

Great service and very friendly staff ,food was good

Lee was a pleasure! He is such an engaging presence and did an amazing job

Lee at Ask Italian was absolutely fabulous, super knowledgeable about the menu and was lovely to chat with!! Would recommend to anyone looking for great food, vibes, and service!!

Served by Lee who was amazing!! Great service and great chat, such a lovely waiter would deffo return.

FantStic service from Lee. Warm, friendly and really made us enjoy our visit.

Ellie out server was lovely, explained everything clearly and offered options when first choice wasn't available. Loved the food, which came out much quicker than expected. Definitely recommend and return.

Really great service from Ellie and Lee. Thanks very much!

Lee was absolutely brilliant - friendly, genuinely wanted to make sure we had a great time. Thank you!

A super lovely dining experience - came here with my little boy and we were SO well looked after by Ellie and Lee - absolute starts, thank you xx

Went to Durham branch. Molly is a fantastic waitress. Excellent service. Very kind, attentive and professional. A credit to ASK. Highly recommended. A+++++++++

Visited as part of a large group, including children of varying ages, and we were looked after by Lee. He was fantastic: attentive, patient, and efficient. We'd sent our orders over in advance, and everything worked very smoothly when the food arrived. Thank you Lee!

Lee and Ellie were very helpful from the start to finish , great food would highly recommend

This was an amazing dinner. After trying a beef regularly, which was excellent, I sa9d the Hannah, our server, that i fancied a cheese platter, even though it wasn't on the menu. Hannah rustled up the dish shown, wh9ch was exactly what we wanted. Hannah was an absolute inspiration in that she listened to what we wanted, then went away, came up with a suggestion at a price that worked for ASK, then upsold us a 500 ml of wine. Hannah is one to watch. In 40 years, she should be CEO, if ASK can hang on to her. People, ASK Durham shows how it can be done! What an excellent place!

Hannah was amazing, brilliant knowledge on food options and superb service.

our waitress, ellie, was so friendly and helpful even though it was only her third day on the job! food was lovely and service was great

Served by Leah and Lee both really polite and great staff. Shout out to Chef Jordan who is more than open to looking after your preferences.

Our server Molly was very attentive and gave my daughter a load of parmesan which made her super happy. She boxed up our leftovers and included a little pot of parmesan in the box. It's the little touches that mean a lot xx

Simply great service and food . Molly, our waitress was excellent and very helpful

We had the lovely molly serving us and not only was the food delicious, molly made the experience even better!

Great restaurant fab food lovely staff thanks 😊

Lee was so friendly and amazing from the moment we walked in! Had the best sit down experience with great food thanks to Lee! Wishing you all the best Lee and hope to be back soon! Thank you for making us feel so welcome

Attentive servers. Good atmosphere. Delicious food.

I thought there was supposed to be mince in Lasagne and 6 meatballs size of walnuts. NOT value, overpriced for miserable meals. Worst Italian had. Won't be back. Bill£50 - unbelievable.

Vine para una comida con un grupo de mis amigos y tuvo una experiencia fabulosa. El servicio fue fantástico. Todo el personal era muy encantador y servicial, y nos hizo sentir muy cómodos como un par de nosotros tienen alergias alimentarias. La comida salió antes de que nos dimos cuenta, y estaba delicioso! Fue tan bueno que ni siquiera tomamos fotos. Sin duda volveré pronto!

Pregunte en Durham nunca deje de impresionar que vamos al menos una vez al mes, ya que tengo 2 niños quisquillosos con TEA y encontrar comida que les gusta a ambos siempre es difícil, pero preguntar nunca es un problema el personal va más allá para asegurarse de que la comida es correcta. El pesebre Lee siempre dice hola y hace reír a los niños que es un verdadero crédito para la tienda. Personal amable y siempre 5 estrellas de nosotros.

I went here for lunch with 6 of my other friends for one of their BIRTHDAYS so you think the service would be good but NO. The food was average but the service is what really made this a bad experience. The male waiter was rude multiple times shouting at us for no reason. Tried to overcharge us for something we did not order and tried to blame it on us when really it was his fault. Overall bad experience and won’t be heading back there any time soon.

SO me and my friends went out for lunch for her birthday. as always the food was good but one waiter ruined it. he was extremely rude and shouted at my friend on her BIRTHDAY and really upset her as she is shy. honestly the worst customer service i’ve had in a whole it really upset us a grown man shouting at a 15 year old girl is disrespectful and disgusting. i won’t be coming back

Hannah our server was amazing, smiley and really friendly.

Food was amazing and Andrew our server was fabulous. He made our night even more special, couldn’t do enough for us and was so pleasant and funny 🤍

The garlic bread was tasty but was almost cold, the carbonara was cold, tasteless and any sauce that was on the dish was gone! Really expensive for the portions too, I’m still hungry the portions were that small do not recommend

We used to choose this ASK over other chains as the food was good and the atmosphere nice. But it's really gone downhill. We were very surprised and disappointed. Very slow. 40 minutes after ordering I had to chase our food with a rather terse manager who didn't apologize or smile, and was very dismissive of us having somewhere else to be. Pizza was very poor, they used to be great. Minimal toppings, very dry, so different from previously. Really no better than a cheap home freezer one. There was an offer on which wasn't taken off our bill and had to be queried. Overall a poor experience and markedly different from before in terms of both food and service.

Lovely food and venue. Lee was a fantastic host and very accommodating.

Child spilt water and staff couldn't do enough to help. Brilliant customer service from all. Thanks guys for making eating out with kids carefree. X

My server Lee is really friendly and helpful. Great service