Bowburn Chop in County Durham

Food is amazing staff treat you like family very friendly

Now called the Charcoa Carvery since its refurb recently and I was impressed with the new decor which was luxurious and classy. The staff were pleasant and eager to assist and for all it was Sunday lunchtime there was no queu to get served and plenty of choice re seating arrangements for all we had not booked. I chose the turkey which was perfect and my family all had beef which they enjoyed. There was a good selection of vegetables (even salad if we had wanted it) but I did find it difficult to access the veges as there is nowhere to put your plate down and you need one hand to open the lid and another to serve the veges. Also the containers at the back of the vegetable servery were very inaccessible - this must have been designed by a very tall person with no regard for shorter customers and anyone with a disability or only able to use one hand would have been at a severe disadvantage. Also we never discovered the sauces until we returned to select our dessert as the sauces are set aside from the actual carvery and vegetable area. In the past you paid at the end and it was all the same price. Now you buy a ticket at the beginning but the meals are more expensive than the carvery selection so how do you know what you actually want until you are at the servery and by then its too late - you have either paid for carvery or paid for a meal so that is a strange set up I found. BUT getting back to the food and that was good, plentiful and hot. It is described as the 'ultimate carvery' and I think that is rather optimistic - its tasty and the ambience is lovely but a few practical tweaks in my opinion are needed. at the vegetable servery and make customers aware that the sauces are available. I enjoyed my trio of mini desserts and the assistant brought the hot drinks to the table when she had made them. A pleasant afternoon while the piano man played in the background.

Ordered two 'Croque Monsieur' and what arrived was two ham and cheese toasties lathered in poor quality English mustard? Why English Mustard? With stale crisps and wilted lettuce. Very poor and given the price quite surprising, especially given that there are numerous much nicer cafés in the city. Staff rather surly as well.

Toppings should go on top of the cheese not under it. tomato sauce was hardly detectable, base stodgy and spongy. the base was like a cake despite being billed as thin and crusty. if you don't know how to make a pizza, which really isn't difficult, then you shouldn't call yourself a pizzeria

Me and my mum and my 3rd nana Dawn went here, we ordered our food and i got some Fanta orange to drink and then our food came. I had cod bites and mam and Dawn had chips with gravy, and we enjoyed it. Will be coming back.