Bengal Merchant in County Durham

I came to barnard castle for work, and I had the chance to eat at Bengal Merchant. Very friendly stuff and the food was excellent. I will 100% come back next time I'm in town.

Lovely food , excellent service, and really friendly staff.

The food here gets better and better. The town is lucky enough to have two fantastic curry houses, each individual enough to make space for the other. The methi saag and tandoori chicken really are gorgeous. The food is rich, very well spiced with traditional bold flavours. The service is always friendly and polite. We always get a takeaway and it never disappoints.

Had takeaway whilst on a weekend break curry very good got a few extras chutneys and poppadoms only criticism NaN was a bit doughy.but overall very good

Went with friends for a meal here and the food didn’t disappoint. The mixed starter we had was fabulous the onions and peppers made it, rice and naans were good and the jalfrezi was excellent. Service was first rate, definitely will be visiting again.

Always brilliant food and always great friendly chatty staff. Great Mid week special menu good value

this is an amazing restaurant with amazing staff, have been a few times and have impressed us every time. would highly recommend the bengal merchant!

Friendly staff, excellent quality and variety of food, lovely ambience, and superb value for money. Highly recommend.

Went on a Saturday, there was a problem with the draught beers so only bottles but that was okay. Had a lamb madras which was okay, nothing better. Lacking in spice and for this rather disappointing. The highlight of my meal was the onion rice which had nicely sautéed onions and fluffy rice. I wouldn’t rush back

Hosted a curry quiz night here to raise funds for Barnard Castle Christmas Lights and we have done this for a couple of years now.Always a great atmosphere,top attention to detail by the staff,everyone is looked after so well.Food delicious and served hot and on time.The Naan is especially good 👍 Thank you Team Bengal

Visited this restaurant last night as part of a weekend away with my wife. Service was friendly and efficient, and a pleasant atmosphere in a charming old building. The food was excellent. We had a Chicken Rezalla, a Chicken Tikka Saag Curry, mushroom and plain pilau rice, peshwari naan pops etc and it was all very tasty with generous portions. Strongly recommend and will return here when we are next in the area. Lovely Staff!

Tried the Specials with a friend last night we had the onion bhaji to start, then we chose Lamb Bhuna and Tikka masala pilau rice and the plain naan we shared the main courses and the rice and naan they were amazing Well worth a visit . We will be back soon.

First time we have ordered food from here and we are seriously impressed. The service was friendly and prompt. The food was brilliant, a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

Fantastic food and service as well as amazing value for money. Such friendly staff and a very welcoming atmosphere. Would highly recommend a visit. We will most certainly be back very soon. Thank you for a lovely experience.

Absolutely beautiful you walk into a aroma of beautiful food to be greeted by a friendly guy who then teaches about his glasses how you get a fresh beautiful drink to then get amazing food totally outstanding

Thanks so much brilliant meal these staff can't do enough for you we will be back again the food is cooked to perfection and staff really look after you

The food was amazing tonight and very quick service. Definitely be back soon

Great food and great service as always. The Bengal Merchant is a superb restaurant which never disappoints. The fish dishes are a particular favourite.

Drove up from Sheffield and was a great meal out Highly recommend the Sheek kebabs Great service and really staff Will be back again

Brilliant food and atmosphere ,all Watched over by the owner,fantastic night out, Thank you.

Fabulous freshly cooked food, excellent service and a very warm welcome from the owner as always. Well done!!! !!!.

DELICIOUS food, lovely staff, well priced. Just had a Phal, plenty of sauce, 100% best curry I’ve ever had, onion rice & garlic naan cooked perfectly, plenty of poppadoms too👌🏻

The staff are friendly and helpful and the restraunt was lovely and clean. Food was ok but nothing spacial.

Great place to eat. Good food, good atmosphere. Staff were very attentive....quick service. Nothing negative to say.

Good food nice pint great service thanks

I'm afraid- just bland. London prices but (I suspect) a lot of warmed up food. Shish - tasteless. Briyiani- just about ok but very oily. Poppadoms- stale. Very disappointing as tbe place had been recommended. Won't be back

Great friendly welcome , great prompt service. The meal was very delicious and plentiful. Our favourite Saturday takeaway

Lovely meal with good service. Will be booking again next time we are in Barnard Castle.

Lovely meal , Lovely staff and a nice pint of Cobra , nothing was too much trouble hope to visit again.

We were here on holiday and decided we wanted an Indian. At the Bengal Merchant the staff were friendly the service was good. The meals were really tasty. We would recommend it.

We spent an enjoyable evening here with friends whilst holidaying nearby. The food was very good and we would not hesitate to eat here again or recommend it to others. Our host was extremely friendly and pleasant, and happy to advise us on the menu. A positive experience all round.

We re-visited last night. What a pleasant experience. We had a starter and main courses and draft beer, which were all very nice. The service was good, with the staff being quite attentive. All in all, a thumbs up.

We had dinner here as we were staying nearby and a lot of places don’t open on Mondays. We looked at the menu and the food was traditional. The restaurant is clean and also traditional. We ate poppadums with chutneys and also had onion bhajis and chicken pakora for starters, both of which were delicious and piping hot. We followed this with curries and my partner asked for some variations to the menu which the restaurant were willing to do and ended up recreating a dish we’d had elsewhere. It was delicious and again piping hot. We also had a jalti which is a cross between a Balti and a Jalfrezi and is fantastic. Again the breads were well cooked and the lager was perfectly chilled. The young waiter was attentive and friendly and the manager was the same - eager to please and ensure our experience was perfect. A great meal - fresh, flavourful, hot, well-cooked and reasonably priced. What’s not to like? If we lived locally we’d go regularly.

A great place to eat. Wonderful food and friendly attentive service. A must visit when In Barnard Castle.

Not good, I won’t be going back

After reading the reviews I expected the bengal merchant to be decent. Unfortunately that was not the case. Starting with the pint of cobra that was not cold enough the pickle tray starters and main were all poor. My wife didn’t eat the bahji starter and the waiter noticed this and did take it off the bill. The curries were very bland. Once again the waiter noticed nothing was finished asked what the problem was and excepted our criticism and said he would feed it back to the kitchen. Unfortunately I wouldn’t come back but hope it was just an off night.

Barman never shuts up. Love's chatting with people. Food is amazing.

What can I say only the service is outstanding and so is the food 😋 highly recommend , 👍👍

Good had no flavour definitely worth going somewhere else

Our go to Indian, authentic no gimmicks. Great host

I am a great believer in writing reviews both good and bad we are visiting Barnard Castle and had a takeaway here on Sunday evening the starters were ok at best but the main course was absolutely disgusting as soon as the lids were off the food the smell of stale water hit you and all the curry’s had the same stale water smell I called back and complained and initially had been offered a 20% discount lol. I bagged the meal back up and went back with it for a refund which I received with an apology. Stale water curry is not my gig.

We used to come here years ago when living closer and we wanted to visit again. I checked trip advisor and there were some negative reviews -so we were daunting. BRILLIANT FOOD- please don’t let the reviews put you off. All the food was great. The service was good- there were some new staff learning the ropes but they were attentive and couldn’t do enough for us. Beautiful curry we will be back thank you

What an absolute hidden gem this place is! My friend and I visited barnard castle for a few sociables on a monday evening and decided to dine at the Bengal Merchant. Our experience from beginning to end was a delight! The guy who greeted and served us was so lovely. He was very attentive, but not overly, polite, pleasant, lovely guy. We ordered from the menu and the food was absolutely delicious!! Could not fault a mouthful of it at all. I have had a caravan for quite a number of years near barnard Castle and am so sad I've not discovered this place until now...as I promised the guy in there, I will be back with hubby in tow!

What a wonderful experience. Delicious food and polite and welcoming staff. A traditional restaurant, extremely tasty food, great service. Loved it and will definitely be back.

First Class dining experience! Warm welcome from the lovely young waitress and the owner of the restaurant, who took a great interest in ensuring that we knew what we were ordering, when the meal was different from our usual. Food was excellent, as each of our three dishes were full of flavour and the Peshwari nan was one of the best we`ve ever had. We had been to another Indian restaurant lately where my son had only been served 4 medium sized prawns in his King prawn biryani, whereas he was given a satisfactory amount of freshly made succulent prawns in this restaurant, so compliments to the excellent chef and owner! The overall ambience of the restaurant was very nice and the toilets - which looked as though they`d just been freshly decorated - were spotlessly clean. We went to the Bengal Merchant after visiting the Bowes Museum, and will definitely be back again soon!

We have visited this restaurant twice in the last two years each time it’s got worse. I thought we would try one last time as Barney is limited with choice and we were late bookers. Oily starters, cheese slices in the cheese garlic naan ( tasted like plastic ) and every dish tasted like a veg curry, tough meat and every main dish was not finished. Even the dog would have turned its nose up at this!! It’s ok though because we will take the naan off the bill and give you an extra chocolate. Won’t visit again, if you know anything about food, Indian or otherwise swerve this place like the wind.

It’s so disappointing, the food all the tasted the same greasy and bland. It’s the worst Indian food I have ever had and it’s such a shame with such a limited choice in Barnard castle that doesn’t give them the opportunity for them to serve poor quality bland food which is tasteless and poorly executed because there is no competition. If this was in any other town it would be long gone! I would not recommend to eat here!

Ella folwell deserves a raise best food every made deserves a raise.

Great food nice ambiance and good value.

Excellent restaurant, excellent service, excellent value, highly recommended

Had a great meal here! Lost track of time & called in at about 9pm expecting to be told they were no longer serving dine-in customers, but we were very pleasantly surprised that they were happy to accommodate us. The service was friendly & efficient, the food arrived quickly & was very tasty. I would say that the dishes we had were on the milder side spice-wise, but were very tasty nonetheless.

Excellent service great food and friendly staff highly recommended

We walked in at 7.15 last Friday , on the off chance we might get a table. There only seemed to be 2 people waiting on. They were both really helpful and welcoming. The food was tasty. Will definitely be back when next in Barnard Castle. Thankyou.

Had an excellent meal tonight We shared the signature chicken wedding dish which was more than enough for two. The starters and side dishes where well cooked The service was attentive and quick We will be back

Went for a meal at the bungalows merchant not very good the starter was tasteless not a lot of chicken in the curry not going agen very poor

We had an excellent meal here tonight We shared the signature chicken wedding dish which was delicious. The starters and side dishes where expertly cooked The service was attentive and quick We will be back

We usually go to the fabulous Babul’s in Barnard Castle, but thought we would give the other Indian restaurant in town a try… I have a dairy intolerance. Indian restaurants are usually really accommodating, replacing ghee butter with oil. Despite an extensive menu here, I...

Not the best Indian food I've tasted, the sauce had nothing in it apart from meat....and not really much spice.... disappointed

We had a lovely meal here on Thursday night. The food was excellent and we got well looked after by the owner and staff. All the food was excellent including the Tarka Dhal! I would definitely recommend if you are in Barnard Castle for the evening.

Excellent evening meal on a Thursday. We were recommended to visit here as our one night accommodation didn’t serve food. Food was fresh and excellent quality. Staff very friendly and attentive.

Best Indian meal I have ever tasted and I don't say that lightly Service is incredibly quick and efficient and Staff very friendly Definite 5 out of 5

Best Indian meal I have ever tasted and I don't say that lightly Service is incredibly quick and efficient and Staff very friendly Definate 5 out of 5

We called in quiet Saturday night for a dinner for four. Friendly service found us a table in the window. We had the traditional meal choices. We were served up with tasty generous food. We were allowed to spice up the dishes we ordered to...

Can't fault the food, it was delicious. Service was excellent. Marked atmosphere as 3 stars as the decor would benefit from an update.

Ate here alone whilst travelling for work - had a really good chat with owner who was really inviting. Food was very good and sensibly priced. Will visit again and recommend to others

First time using this place for a takeaway, staff very pleasant and helpful. Takes about 30 mins for your food to collect so ring your order in . Gave us double the quantity of poppadoms we ordered- extras were free . I had the mixed grill , my wife had Chilli Chicken - with one rice and one nan bread . The quantity of meat in the dishes was endless- we both only ate half and saved the rest for next day - it was beautiful. I would 100% recommend eating here - do not go elsewhere.

One of the best you'll come across. Food and customer service 5/5.

Had dinner on Monday night. Food exceptional. Service outstanding. Staff very attentive and caring, exceedingly friendly without being too overpowering. Left the restaurant feeling very full. Would certainly recommend a visit. If we are ever back in the area would certainly visit again.

Don’t serve caviar absolute outrage

Had a lovely takeaway while staying on a campsite in the area, fantastic food and great service

Great service, nothing was too much trouble - we were a large family group with several young children. The food was delicious and plentiful and the staff was pleasant, helpful and friendly. Really couldn’t fault this restaurant.

Coming up from London on a hot Sunday the A1 was closed off because of an accident and, along with hundreds of others, we parked up for an hour or so while the road was cleared. As a result we got to our Barnard Castle...

Couldn't do enough for us. We walked in with no booking as a family of 5 which isn't always easy no problem at all. They created a curry which wasn't on the menu, everything was delicious. The attitude of the staff was refreshing really Happy in their jobs and nothing was too much trouble. Would recommend to everyone.

While running round in a hurry, looking for a curry, I stumbled upon Barnard Castle’s finest takeaway. In fact, to call it a takeaway seems to detract from the immeasurable quality of the delicious, authentic food which transported me on a journey to the very heart of South Asia itself. With every mouthful I was cast adrift on a sea of culinary delight the likes of which I’ve never experience before nor since. And failure to mention the friendliness and hospitality of the staff would be abhorrent of me. So if you want an authentic mouthful of flavour that tantalises the tastebuds and transports you across the globe right here at home, quit wasting time on inferior quality curry houses and get down to Bengal Merchant.

Lovely food provided. Meat was cooked really well. Great menu variety.

Is one of the best curry houses i have been to in a long time.

One of the best Indian meals I have ever the pleasure of eating. The food was amazing. So fresh and flavoursome. The staff so friendly and the atmosphere was lovely. I would highly recommend this restaurant and look forward to returning. Thank you :)

Fantastic Indian cuisine really tasty food, for someone who eats out weekly at all kinds of restaurants this is up there 👆 Also have to complement the draft cobra beer best I’ve had in 35 years 👍👍👍👍 Service was very good too ! Don’t use...

Friendly and helpful owner and staff. We had a couple of traditional curries. Tasted good. Washed down with Cobra. Left happy.

I have eaten all over the world and this is Indian cuisine at its best . I honestly couldn't belive the standard of food from this restaurant. Will be calling again for sure . Great staff and very good value for money

I was on holiday in Barnard Castle for a week and tried the Bengal Merchant for my meal one evening. It was a carry out as we stayed nearby. The dish was a Chicken Jalfrezi. I have had many Indian meals over the years and...

First time we have been here, we have just moved to area. Had a great meal. Chad and staff were very friendly and helpful. We will definitely be back.

Wonderfully friendly service with excellent food. We visited with friends during a week’s stay at Barnard Castle. Great ambience and although busy, the food arrived promptly. Really tasty. Highly recommended.

Great food at great price and with an award winning chef you cant go wrong

I'm really sorry about this rating, if they take a booking for 8pm you arrive and they tell you they close at 9pm, that should be a red flag. No one said when we booked, however we sat down to receive the starters Salmon tika looked like plastic strips deep fried, swimming in oily onions Sent it back, The poppadoms were the only item that didn't fail hence the 1 star. We had sheek kebab also deep fried, which should have been grilled, very oily !! Absolutely awful.. The dips came served up in plastic tupperware pots with plastic spoons. Are we at a picnic or a restaurant I ask myself....?? The curry's all looked the same apart from added chilli or sugar. Nothing special. We had to remind the owner to give us serviettes, cutlery etc, I had to ask for ice in my Gin and Tonic, really!! We were practically the only people there... What a disappointing experience this was. I think there was no chef on that night a young lad working in the kitchen putting food either in the deep fat fryer or microwave. The owner was obviously lacking in staff, he was moaning on and on about all his woes about covid, staff problems etc . At this point I was looking around for sharp objects to poke my eyes out with !! I'm sorry it is not your customers problem. What a complete depressing experience this was, the food was nothing to write home about to be honest... so for £104 ...it a big NO from me. The owner did not charge us for the salmon starter to be fair.

Great food and Cobra. Staff really pleasant and talkative.

Food good. Atmosphere not as good

Very nice food friendly staff definitely go back

Polite friendly staff, great service and delicious food cooked to perfection. We shall be back !

Really good tasty food helpful staff and reasonably priced ,premises don't do it justice, but most of Barnard Castle looks neglected anyway.

Excellent food, great people and good value.

Excellent meal and service. Very pleasant staff. Not too hurried. Just enough time between courses. We will be back soon

The interior is a bit outdated, but I liked some elements of it. The food is excellent! The portion sizes are just right, not too much but you won't stay hungry. I don't think they add thickeners to their food, as some indian restaurants do. The owner is very friendly, although we've got a recommendation of another place that we already visited but did not like. Maybe it means we need to visit again, maybe.

Beautifully cooked food ,great service and interesting menu

Fantastic food, Mufti and his staff are brilliant and the restaurant is modern and very clean

Great food and excellent atmosphere x

Had a real good tasty Indian curry. The staff were brilliant and couldn't be more helpful. A lovely friendly atmosphere. Would definitely recommend the Bengal Merchant.

Very good service. And good food

SPICYYYYYYY 😎 great food, great staff, nice atmosphere. Just remember that if you want crab you have to let them know a day in advance! I wanted crab and didn't know this rule, was disappointed when they said they had none in, but still, it gives me something to look forward to next time 🙂👍 Thanks for a delicious food coma Bengal Merchant!

Really good meal. Staff attentive and helpful. Will return when in Barney again.