El Castillo - Spanish Tapas Bar in County Durham

Really enjoyed our first visit to this tapas place, lovely food, gorgeous home baked bread, lovely venue just outside the Palace, great value too!

We came as a family of 5 quite last minute based on other reviews and the great looking menu. The team helped with recommended dishes, all were fantastic and tasty. All the staff were lovely & friendly. Would highly recommend

Virtually empty and cold. Not all the menu available as they had a problem with the gas. The food we had was very good. A bit on the expensive side

lovely little find.food great .sevice fantastic . very affordable. like being abr

Can’t believe we’ve not visited before! Food was absolutely beautiful and plentiful - based on other tapas restaurants we’ve visited, we ordered dishes thinking they’d be small portions - we were very wrong and ended up with far too much! We’ll definitely know for next time. An absolute gem for our little town. The service was fantastic from the moment we walked in to the moment we left, can’t recommend enough.

Excellent food with great friendly service. Lovely to meet the same manager that we saw whilst dining at Kynren.

My friends and I had lunch here last week. We found the staff very helpful in terms of recommendations with a vegetarian and someone avoiding cards. They were also able to advise us on how many dishes we would need for either a light lunch or a more substantial meal. We thoroughly enjoyed our selection, the waitresses were very pleasant and the place was very clean including the loos. A very good selection and very good value for money. Highly recommended and good luck to the chef in his up and coming competition. We will return.

Each dish was brilliant! Beautifully prepared, original and very tasty. Nice glass of wine, good service. Highly recommended!

Recently ate a delicious lunch here following a morning visit to the adjoining Spanish Gallery. Service excellent, thank you Josh. We ordered 3 tapas dishes each, which was plenty. Meatballs, black pudding, bream, salmon fritters, tortilla and patatas bravas...all so very tasty. Have already recommended and we will definitely return.

Fabulous food. Great atmosphere and really good value for money. Attentive staff. Lovely background music and very clean, especially the toilets. Will definitely visit again!

Called in tonight for a couple of drinks and got to sample two dishes, the mussels and the pork belly. The food was delicious and the staff are amazing, so good that we have booked a table for next week, can't wait. ❤️

Delicious food, good service, nice atmosphere and no loud background music so we could talk without shouting. Recommend highly.

Lovely food lovely clean restaurant staff were great

Amazing Tapas, the best we have had in the North East. Very fresh food tasty food and a very nice atmosphere. Service was a little slow, however, considering the number of staff available early in a Sunday lunch service.

Wonderful dining experience. Amazing food, lovely waitresses and great atmosphere. Very reasonably priced, beautifully cooked food. Definitely recommend and planning our next visit.

I was celebrating a friend’s birthday with 5 others - table was booked, and 3 of us arrived a little early but staff were happy for us to sit at the reserved table. Waitress taking orders was very patient and helped us with our choices of tapas. Their coffee is the nicest I’ve ever had. The tapas choices were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Desserts were a bit pricey but delicious. Overall a lovely afternoon and would go again even though not in my area. Have already recommended the place.

Delicious, creative tapas and paella that are light, tasty and celebrate Spanish flavours and local ingredients. This place restored my love for Spanish cuisine that had become jaded from stodgy, greasy cookie cutter tapas in chains. Just a delight and one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time. My only critique is that the wait staff could know the menu a little better so they are more confident.

Excellent meal, lovely staff 😋 big thumbs up 👍 👌 😀 👏

Great tapas bar! The food was so good we could have been in Spain. Staff were friendly and knowledgeable. A real find.

Easily the best restaurant in the area. Great food. Reasonably priced and fast friendly service.

Disappointing meal.We had really been looking forward to eating here after seeing so many good reviews. The Staff were friendly & working hard to manage a full restaurant early evening. Service was slow waiting over 20 minutes to order a drink. Food doesn't arrive together which we hadn't experienced at other Tapas Restaurants. The food was nice & hot but quite bland. It's a nice looking restaurant,very clean & comfortable seating but wouldn't rushback.

Very friendly and modern looking, clean and fresh. Food is fresh slightly on the small side. However, it was very tasty 😋 I would come back and order more dishes, especially if it was an evening meal.

A total gem of a place. Part of the Auckland Project and very delicious to support.

First visit for my daughter's birthday and the chef did a special addition to our desserts for her. Great food, wine, cocktails and Katie our server was lovely. We're going to make this a girls thing monthly at least! A definite 10 out of 10 all round. And, I had no problems due to my food allergies.

A lovely restaurant serving good quality tapas in a perfect location.

Heard lots of good things about the resteraunt so gave it a try. Overall disappointing. We stood for a couple of minutes when we first arrived until someone took us to our table and brought menus. 5 minutes later we ordered then 5 minutes later someone else apologised and brought menus even though we ordered. 10 minutes later food started arriving and we hadn't even got our drinks which I pointed out. 5 plates came out but the bread board I ordered they forgot about or they did it last one if the two. Some of the food was good that being the muscles, Prawns, potatoes and belly pork. The Calamari was awful, hardly any Calamari in the palest tasteless batter. It is common on menus and had it way better in a pub. This place had absolutely no atmosphere, they need to get some music on in the background that you can hear and the staff really need to work together and a smile would be nice. All the staff looked miserable and that they didn't want to be there, it wasn't a good luck. Prices were reasonable and I would go often if there was a bit more about it, it just felt soulless. The other thing is I had to come home and shower and put my clothes in the wash the place stunk like a tray with oil had been left in the oven and had smoked, that was a put off too. All in all I was disappointed

Loved every single dish we had. A special shout out for the prawns & the meatballs which were my favorite. Lovely bottle of red wine to go with it. Staff were lovely, so friendly & showed interest in you. Place was spotless as were the toilets. Lovely atmosphere. Will defo be returning soon.

Look no further and make sure to book! Brilliant, friendly and atmospheric. Fabulous food and staff made us feel so welcome despite there being no tables available (we ate at the counter). We enjoyed every thing we ordered - great to hear about the origin of the ingredients too. So impressed with the whole Auckland project

Friendly service and delicious freshly-made tapas. What more can you say?

Came as a party of 6, three of whom are vegan. Waiting staff were not forthcoming with suggestions on quantities/portion sizes which I feel is helpful when ordering tapas, leaving us to work it out for ourselves. They had not experienced the food themselves and so struggled to answer our questions. I ordered the hummus from the starter which came with very undercooked bread, though the hummus was very nice. I then had the patatas bravas which was listed as vegan, in spite of the garlic aioli, which turned out not to be the case. I also ordered the aubergine fritters which was also listed as vegan in spite of the honey dressing, but was able to come without. These were very unpleasant, unappetising and left me feeling unwell after a couple perhaps from the quantity of oiler batter. 3 of us had ordered these and they would have been much more suitable to share. I feel this is where experienced staff who take an interest in their food would have been able to make valuable suggestions. Overall disappointed, particularly as their vegan options were not vegan at all, without the phrase 'can be made vegan' it was misleading.

We so enjoyed our time here this afternoon. Had we taken too much notice of some of the reviews we would not have discovered this lovely spot. We will be going there again soon.

Amazing food and atmosphere. Staff were great as well

what can I say except for amazing. Food was lovely, drinks were cracking and service can not be faulted. My wife and I went for tapas and we were recommended to have 2-3 per person, this is about right and we chose 6 in total, the belly pork was gorgeous as were the gambas. I have had better pattatas bravas but they were good. we will definitely be back

I popped in for lunch and found the food to be high quality and good value. We really enjoyed our time here and will definitely come back. Service was excellent and much improved over my first visit.

Clean. Good ambience. Very good service, and happy helpful staff. Good wine, especially the garnacha.

Lovely reasonably priced food and friendly staff

Great place .the.menu is starting to get interesting using local suppliers which is always great

Probably the best food in Bishop Auckland. Excellent tapas and an interesting wine list. Friendly and helpful staff. Visit after you have been to the Spanish Gallery which is next door.

Arrived as a party of 7 without booking . This was not a problem and we selected a lot of dishes which must have really tested the chefs but all food was lovely my only criticism would be the charcuterie and cheese boards were a bit mean for the price .Service was good and chefs pulled out all the stops when we returned after visiting the castle for desserts and coffees. We were very pleased that they served us and we look forward to returning in the future .

Faultless. Absolutely beautifully presented, tasty food, lovely atmosphere, beautiful decor and great service. Visited last night for my nieces birthday and everything was perfect. 100% recommend.

Always loved this place but our recent meal may be our last visit, which would be a shame as we live locally and love tapas. Prices have gone up and portions down. Charcuterie board was absolutely pathetic for the money. Apparently according to a member of staff we aren't the first to comment on prices/portions. Two wrong orders given. First time we've spent so much money (over £100) and come away hungry.

Loved the tapas, there were 3 of us and we all loved each dish. We will definitely visit again

Lovely place and food, will go again hopefully with friends. Delicious Tapas. A+++

We love this place, it is a nice addition to the town and compliments the beautiful Spanish gallery wonderfully. The decor is nice and slick and the service is good, drinks lovely. We were pleased to see they have recently expanded the menu to have more dishes that you would expect to have on a Tapas menu as standard rather than their previous more limited seasonal menu which whilst lovely, lacked variety and was quite restrictive to choice especially if you had specific dietary needs and did stop us going as frequently as we would have liked especially as it is quite pricey to be so limited. We hope to visit much more now. I think occasional offers/ events might entice more people in and make it more accessible. As with all the good things in the town, I hope this is here for a long time to come!

Unusual dining experience for this part of the world

Superb, fresh, authentic and delicious. Had a beautiful afternoon lunch where we sampled several of the dishes on offer. Really great attentive service and would thoroughly recommend a visit.

Had a meal here tonight. Very small portions. Prawns came with shells on in batter not the best. Didn't find value for money.

We had a great lunch. Staff were friendly and attentive and all the dishes we tried were excellent, particularly the prawns and the bream. We thought it was very good value for money and would definitely visit again.

I had a fabulous meal here last night. Lovely decor -stylish and modern with hints of Spain . Excellently made Negroni to begin then each tapas dish we chose was superb. The staff were great too - really friendly , helpful and professional.

Called in Saturday tea time. 2nd time visiting. Friendly service. Wonderful food. Bread, olives, tomatos/toast starter, bread is absolutely beautiful. Prawns, sea bream, citrus chicken mains, all very good. Citrus & Almond cake dessert. So so good. Definitely be back.

Imaginative and delicious food, beautifully presented. Even the bread was amazing. Staff were friendly and helpful.

Beautifully presented, freshly cooked, tasty tapas. We went for a family meal for a birthday and had a great lunch. We tried everything on the menu and all of it was presented, cooked and tasted great. Would highly recommend the Chorizo y Fig a la Sidra, as well as the Valencian Carrots and the bread board which had a tasty selection of breads and gorgeous cultured buttter

This was my second time visiting here and it did not disappoint. I live locally and this is the perfect place for a wine and dine night with the girls. We ordered cocktails and shared 4 courses, the hummus, pollo citrico, besugo go-go and pan con tomate. The food was incredible and the bread was so fresh and tasty! I would definitely recommend ✨

The room was freezing no atmosphere to match the cold room. Choice was really poor far too little choice Decor was nice Food was not great very bland and overpriced Really disappointed as been looking forward to going for a long time Get a decent menu and turn up the heat

Super tasty food and fast efficient and every so friendly service. Highly recommended if you're visiting Bishop Auckland Castle and Faith Centre nearby. Highly recommend Ed.

Excellent Tapas place in Bish Vegas marketplace. Really impressed with the quality of the tapas - we really rated the carrot dish and the bravas. Also had pudding. Yum the tarte Santiago was delicious!

Very limited food menu, a shame when compared to venues in Darlington. Nicely cooked and lovely staff.

The food was excellent. We had 6 tapas dishes between 2 of us which was probably one too many. My favourite was the beetroot as it was a work of art. I also loved the fish and the croquettes dishes. It's light and airy atmosphere with good quality glasses and crockery. I would recommend booking but you can sit at the bar if there are no tables available. We plan to go again as the food was so lovely.

It’s great food and I felt relaxed the staff were very nice and I enjoyed my lunch there. Is so smart and nice and comfortable.

This is a lovely, bright, welcoming restaurant. Every dish we had was first class. The Gambas and the calamari were particularly good. Efficient friendly staff rounded off an enjoyable afternoon.

First visit to this friendly restaurant Good choice of fresh flavoursome food Helpful waiting staff Modern, bright & clean premises Good value Complements the cultural developments of Auckland Project

Beautiful and authentic tapas, a feel of real Spain in an unexpected setting. Well worth the visit and will go again

This a 5 out of 5 for food and staff but loses a star due to lack of ambience in the restaurant. The food was excellent - the staff were friendly and helpful. We had almost every dish on the menu to share and there wasn't one we wouldnt order again.. tasty, filling and a good variety. But....We felt the area was stark and uninviting even as it filled up ... needs plants or something as it lacks 'warmth'. The lighting was very bright and harsh. But the food was very good value and wd enjoyed our meal.

Staff very nice, restaurant bright and clean. They recommend you chose three items each which we did and I reckon all four of us were disappointed. Quality of food only ok ,quantity very small, could have eaten it all again and not been stuffed. 2 beers an orange and coffee for the wife £72 per couple and still hungry

Had lunch here and ordered several dishes. Chorizo and morcilla, chicken skewers, croquettes, calamari, mixed carrots and maybe another - can't remember - all were delicious. We had crema Catalan which was wonderful. The staff were friendly. Would return if I was ever up there again

Excellent food, good negronis, efficient and friendly staff. Recommended.

After visiting the Spanish Gallery, we came here for a lateish lunch. The tapas menu was comprehensive and well-priced. The food was excellent and the staff were friendly and attentive. Everything you would want from a tapas bar. Loved it. (And I didn't get the hot padron pepper!)

Glorious! Fabulous food - the chorizo and black pudding is superb - charming and super speedy service, and a really remarkably good house white. The only tiny thing they could improve is the lighting - it’s a little bright and “cold” for an autumn evening - but this is trivial when everything else is so lovely. Five stars!

This was our first visit. The food was excellent - we loved every dish we tried. And the wine was very good too. We’ll definitely go back again.

Myself and a friend were visiting the town(Thurs 7th Sept) and really wanted to try the tapas...we had 2 dogs and it was a nice day. Only two tables outside which were occupied and the restaurant was completely EMPTY. We got a poor reaction to our request for a couple of chairs outside so we could order. Understand it may not have been an easy task but a little more courtesy would have been appreciated. We had to move on elsewhere. Otherwise Bishop Auckland Castle/grounds/gallery etc is magic.

We visited El Castillo for the first time as a family of 5. Loved the clean cool decor. We were greeted warmly by the staff. Food was delicious and perfectly cooked and was well-timed in the service of several different dishes ie, it came in stages and not all at once. Very authentic Spanish tapas - we will come again !

After fantastic visit to the Spanish gallery went for a lovely meal . Paella followed by almond cake ! Felt like we were in Spain Food and service excellent

Really terrific food. Nice interior decor. Their tagline is Spanish flavours infused with Northern spirit". Oddly my wife said almost exactly this about it without having seen their tagline. So it does what it says!

We ate here a week ago Saturday, we had a table booked at 7.30. We were the last people to be seated, as there were 3 of us we ordered about 9 tapas, unfortunately from what is generally quite a limited menu 5 or 6 of the dishes we ordered were not available so in fact we had very little choice. The food is good but it came out so fast I had to ask them to slow down as everything would get cold, we felt that the kitchen just wanted to finish early The 3 stars for food was because of lack of choice not quality. Same happened with dessert, either not available or not as described on the menu, they did give us a discount so servers were great. Probably won't go back though as no real choice of food and tapas should be leisurely, not being put on your table in the space of about 5 minutes. They will not get busier unless they sort this out

We really enjoyed our meal here. The decor is attractive and the staff were efficient and friendly. We have tapas quite regularly and thought the El Castillo menu was good. Dishes arrived promptly but, happily, not all at once. We ordered two dishes each and...

Really nice tapas...good selection...use locally grown produce from Auckland Castle garden.

Service was friendly. Food was delicious particularly liked the whitebait, prawns. broccoli and the meatballs. With 4 of us we decided to have one of each of the dishes. Bread came a bit later but was good to soak up the sauces. Puddings took a...

After the poor reviews we were a little nervous about retaining our booking. However after a mornings wander around town we found few alternatives. Tapas are never a cheap meal; and they always come as and when ready…. I really enjoyed them, my husband thought...

Disappointed Service slow food mediocre expensive. Need staff training on how to take orders. Dishes came out in very random fashion. Cold dry bread served at end of meal. Restaurant not busy so no excuse Shame because the setting and decor very nice PS price adjustment made

Last minute decision and they did squeeze us in .. But honestly guys..the food just wasn't as nice as the first time we came ..no real taste apart from the broccoli that was lush.the bread was over toasted so very tough. We did get our...

Gosh it was beyond bad . Having read poor reviews we decided to Rey it and judge for ourselves. We had a table booked at 7 and the restaurant looks beautiful. However we ordered drinks and food and the food came within two mins. It...

Always had excellent food unfortunately on our last visit the majority of dishes overcooked and didn’t seem to be fresh produce. Service and atmosphere always excellent must have been unlucky with the meal that night.

Truly awful. Avoid. Very very disappointed. We had had a magnificent visit to the Spanish Gallery and the Castle and were looking forward to an authentic tapas lunch. We ordered 4 plates, three of which were truly awful. The calamari were rubbery and served in...

Delightful tapas! Short menu plus a special option in lively, modern surroundings. Good service and reasonable value for quality food. After lunch, take in the Spanish Gallery or stroll around the walled garden at the Palace.

If Wetherspoons did tapas was the title and if they did…Although to be fair that is being a bit rude to Wetherspoons. Really sorry to report that El Castillo Tapas bar in Bishop Auckland missed the mark. We live in Durham and have been crying...

I had high hopes for this place having heard glowing reviews but unfortunately it fell far short of my expectations. The service was appallingly slow, from the front of house to the kitchen. Waiting staff were unprofessional, food was good but took more than an...

Following on from 10+ years in Andalucia I, in particular, missed Tapa as a concept, to this end we have tried several. El Castillo staff were good but are in need of training in the concept of Tapa. We visited to enjoy a long social...

Food was nice enough but each dish was served at 10 mins intervals, at one point we were given a bowl of potatoes bravas on its own🤷 it was around 2 pm on a Friday and we were told, after we'd ordered drinks and food, that they had no bread I did point out that a very good bakery is literally next door however the waitress said she needed to speak to two of her bosses to get permission to go and get bread, what happened to common sense🤷 wouldn't go back and wouldn't recommend - shame as it could easily have been a very different experience.( they did knock £3.50 off the bill due to the delay of the dishes coming out🤷)

Lovely food, way better in quality than most of the standard tapas chains. Chilled atmosphere and very attentive service.

Today we had a delicious lunch at El Castillo tapas restaurant. All the tapas we ordered were delicious. For dessert I had the delightful almond tarta de Santiago with St James’s cross (la cruz de Santiago) on top of it. Very apt, given that Bishop Auckland is on the Camino Inglés (the English strand of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, which the cake is historically linked to). My friend had the Basque cheesecake, which he also enjoyed. The coffee was really good and our server Kate was friendly and professional. Highly recommended.

Today we had a delicious lunch at El Castillo tapas restaurant. All the tapas we ordered were delicious. For dessert I had the delightful almond tarta de Santiago with St James’s cross (la cruz de Santiago) on top of it. Very apt, given that Bishop...

We've eaten here several times now since the venue opened. We love how the menu varies on each occasion and is usually very tasty although there is a tendency for variable seasoning and some dishes can be a bit overcooked for our liking. It is definitely the best tapas we have tasted outside of Spain, reasonably priced and delivered with good service. Definitely recommended.

Delicious food, we left feeling very happy. Very reasonable prices for food that has so much flavour. Also loved how different the menu was. The staff were lovely and friendly. We will definitely be visiting again.

Couples dining. Easy to access venue. Great decor and atmosphere in this venue. Menu felt quite limited, with a Land, Sea and Earth theme to the dishes with around 4-5 in each. Specials on offer were cocktails and paella for Thursday night - nothing for...

Some items unavailable from menu but great food and location.

1st time here, decor lovely, staff lovely & excellent food. Every dish was excellent, so fresh, hot & tasty. Not one complaint about anything. The brocolli dish was amazing, who would have thought brocolli could be that good. Red wine was excellent to. Looking forward...

We had popped in a few weeks ago just for a few drinks at the bar and saw the food coming out of the kitchen which looked abs smelled fantastic so we decided to come in for food one evening ourselves. We were not disappointed!...

Fabulous tapas. Great service. Love the decor. The fish on offer was excellent. The hake in a tomato stew was a meal in itself. The mackerel delicious. Every dish was a favourite but a shout to the broccoli (who would have thought) which combined some...

Visited El Castillo for the first time. We had lovely food, great service and a really enjoyable experience. The menu was great, the size of the portions were excellent and I couldn’t fault the quality. The staff were super, however the only fault I would mention is that El Castillo’s payment system stopped me from leaving a tip when I paid electronically, I had no cash on me so my sincere apologies to the staff. Can I suggest the owners/managers rectify this. Overall we had a great night and will definitely eat here again.

The food was exceptional, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend what was the best tapas experience I've had for a long time. We had 6 dishes between 2 of us in addition to olives and Padron peppers. We didn't regret any of our choices but the highlight was the chargrilled broccoli with salted almonds.