House Of Trembling Madness in York

Deceiving because it's a bar upstairs 👌

This used to be the highlight of our trips to York. Have seen the place going down hill after the new owner took over. After today, we won’t be back. 15 minutes in the building, visited three floors, still to find a member of staff. Dirty glasses and plates lying on most tables. A small queue at the ground floor bar waiting for staff to return to serve them. They seemed to be under the impression that the one staff member they had seen was setting up the three function rooms for later that night. Clearly owner is understaffing the venue and expecting customers to put up with it due to the reputation of the place. I’m a venue manager myself, I speak from experience.

Loved this place will definitely return. For the German beer.

The selection of beers here is so impressive with bars on the ground and upper floors. Both the cask and craft ales I had were in perfect condition, poured well and served to the table with efficiency. The steak pie and pea tapas is a steal at £6. So sorry to leave this place but had to visit their other establishment in York.

Had a great private event on the first floor - great space, great beers and staff very accommodating!

Ansbach's nitro? Here in York City centre? In this excellent condition? At £6 a pint? In a proper glad? You'd better believe it!!

We used to love this spot. But the food quality has gone way down. Fine for a pint but don't waste time eating here. Chips weren't fried properly a looked almost raw.

Great vegetarian breakfast and very interesting atmosphere - plenty of seating areas

Had the steak pie, which was absolutely brilliant. Decent pub as well although a gluten free option on the beers would be good, so I had to have the cider, which was decent as well.

Booked on of the top floor rooms. They were so friendly and helpful to what we needed, would absolutely recommend

.. their beer range is not a patch on what it was previously. Despite website claims, there are less specialist craft beers and more lagers. And sadly, the beers that we had were pretty average in quality.

Staff really looked after us, went above and beyond. I could not fault them, thank you for the brilliant customer service.

Went in for lunch. Good selection of real ales. Had a great stew. Don't know many pubs who do stew. Had two different types between us and both were lovely. Would recommend.

Nice place to go to, as long as you don't mind a climb to the toilets. Quirky. Staff weren't brilliantly friendly though.

Loved our experience! The service, food and the vibe were amazing.

Lugar muy encantador - lleno de carácter y gran ambiente. El personal era muy amable y conocedor de las cervezas de oferta - que eran una gama fantástica. Lo recomiendo encarecidamente.

Mala calidad y servicio de cuando el propietario anterior estaba en su lugar; sin atención al detalle, plato muy promedio, no vale la pena devolver

Amazing pub for a few beers in relax

ordered a stew with bread, burger with fries and salad - both were good. Lots of seatings. washrooms are on the top floor.

A shame the upstairs bar didn't open until 5pm and had beers you couldn't get downstairs. Otherwise, great place.

We booked for a family do and, from the moment I booked until we left at the end of the evening, everything was superb. Communication was great, the food fantastic and the staff were exceptional. We will be coming back.

Wonderful bar with a huge selection of cask and keg beer. The decor is fabulous too. An eclectic mix of renaissance and religious art gives the place a quirky atmosphere. Love it for a few beers.

Absolutamente impactante. El guiso de pollo estaba bien. Pero el huevo escocés estaba frío, el huevo negro sobrecocido en el centro y el exterior estaba húmedo y descuidado. La esposa consiguió las bolas de billar de falafel, cómo el chef las envió fuera de la cocina es una desgracia, quemadas y negras y más secas que el serrín con una ensalada patética. Debería avergonzarse de servir comida de tan mala calidad. Totalmente bajando colina desde que fue tomada

Cannot rate the food as we never had any but great selection. Fantastic real Ale bar with a good choice. Also ciders on offer and beer.

Number of peppercorns in 1 Small bowl of stew guess 50 alk fished out #HouseofTremblingMadness first try at food. Might consider a drink NEVER food again. Actually no as no accessible loo: 4 flights of huge stairs. Most ungracious serveuse....especially for my friend's food allergy. Also verboten these days....

Updated review due to recent change in ownership. Tapas has gone, and menu changed a little. Now only ever seems to have 2 cask beers on, still plenty of craft keg.

Good hot pot of tea. Lovely coffee with biscuits. Crazy decor.

More spacious than its older sister up the road, great variety of beers and good value for food.

The meals were fine, and some of the Medieval pictures were, um, interesting, but my spouse did comment that some picture in the Ladies she would rather not have seen. I have marked down accordingly.

Food definitely not as good as previous visits. Tables not cleared even though the bar was not busy

We come every couple of weeks for board games meet up and always have a wonderful time, thank you :)

waited half an hour for our full english breakfast order & when it arrived it was awful, the toast was so hard & cold the butter didn’t melt it was inedible as it was rock hard . The sausages were not cooked through & all of the meal was cold . I would say AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Visited during Restaurant Week to sample the stew. LOADS of chicken and extremely tasty. We will be back to sample the others! Service was quick and the staff were attentive

Instant unwelcoming vibes from the barmaid almost made me walk straight out. I should have listened to my intuition. Maybe she knew that the two mediocre burgers and very salty fries we were about to order would take over an hour to come out. The beer was ok (but not on an empty stomach), and a lot of other customers were only there for drinks. Only in York for one night, we’d unfortunately chosen here over Valhalla - looks like a good choice as a quirky bar for something to eat - or Fat Hippo for tasty looking burgers.

Fantastic place, nice atmosphere, good service and great beers

Sadly didn't get a chance to taste the food - which we originally came in for - and the menus were summarily whisked away before we had a chance to order! Beers are EXCELLENT but the service was a bit mardy. Try to smile, girls!

Great atmosphere and excellent lunch

The place is amazing, there’s so much to take in from the artwork and decor. This time I had lemon and garlic chicken salad which highly recommend, previously we’ve had the pies and stew which are excellent. The staff very friendly and welcoming thank you.

Shame, they need a deep clean as there is an odd smell. Which is off putting as the drinks selection and food is great. The staff are friendly. The art and decor is incredible. A few touches up and this is a must destination for anyone visiting York.

We had such a lovely evening last night. The staff are so friendly and the drinks are fabulous! The atmosphere is great and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Unfortunately I mislaid my handbag last night and we were getting a bit desperate looking for it, but it turns out someone had handed it in to staff and they kept it safe. I’m so grateful to them, thank you. Fabulous all round!

The Big Brother of the original, massive bar compared to Stonegate. Great choice of beer and loads of tables and chairs

I loved this place when I lived in York a couple of years back! I’d bring all my friends that visited. I ate there (Lendal) last Friday while back in town, so eager to be back! but was so disappointed. They ran out of the vegan platter so I ordered a vegan burger. What did I get? 2 patties (they were tasty though), a soggy leaf of lettuce and some radish in between the patties that had all absorbed. Nothing else, just a half a leaf of lettuce. It came w vegan coleslaw and chips, but the burger itself was a sad experience.

Beautiful food was absolutely delicious. Definitely would recommend the burgers. The atmosphere was lovely and the staff are very friendly

Called in a good variety of drinks!lots of seating .over few floors. Great atmosphere .

Very nice hot chocolate, thanks Jasmine! Service was above and beyond.

Mouthwateringly delicious hot chocolate warmed my soul. Thanks jasmine for the amazing service

Delicious beer and hot chocolate! To add to this, Jasmine was incredibly kind and made our night very enjoyable, thank you!!

Most fabby dabby hot choccie ever. My soul got warmed - shout out to Jasmine who served us!

We called here on a Thursday lunchtime and the place was pretty busy but we managed to get a table for two on the ground floor. This was our first visit and the artwork was a little unsettling but I can see why some would like it. For drinks, I had “Steady Rolling Man” and then “A Little Faith” - both reliable hazy beers. For food my wife had falafel salad and I had the daily special stew which was ham jerk. My wife wasn’t keen on the vegan feta but the staff did warn her! My stew - served with bread - actually tasted and looked like a very hot curry. In fact the spice was a little overwhelming and made it difficult to finish. The service was good and the prices were reasonable for the area.

Some of the friendliest staff ever! They had some crowds at certain times and were so friendly and helpful even though I'm sure they were stressed! We ate and had a couple drinks - the food was pretty basic but in a really great way (sometimes all you need is bangers and mash!) and the drinks selection was excellent.

Art meets exquisite beverages in the center of York. Beer aficionados will have a hard time deciding on the perfect drink. That's why you may need to go twice and do a tasting of the local and foreign offerings. Rooms are just fantastic with the perfect atmosphere for a celebration or a break after work.

Madness is right, obviously very popular and full of charm and queens. Good range of drinks and the food looked good from what we could see and the prices reasonably good.

Went with my wife for a couple of drinks and a bit of food to share. The food was terrible. I have been coming for many years and has always been great food but since new ownership it is evidently clear that the once great ingredients have been replaced with the worst they could possibly find (based on the taste). Even the once wonderful olives now taste horrendous and out a tin that's been left in the back of your grandparents cupboard! Food was awful

Honestly I was so disappointed. After spending maybe 20 minutes wandering around looking at menus because I wasn't sure what I was in the mood for, we reached this place, had a quick look at the menu outside and thought it looked good. Went in, went upstairs to find a table, after a couple of minutes, we cleared a table which was the right height to actually sit and eat at (some were too small for 2 people, some were quite low down) no matter. Had a look over the menu, decided what we wanted and my partner went down and put the order in - 40 minutes wait for food. Seemed a bit excessive given it wasn't busy but we had nowhere else to be so were happy to wait. 40 minutes came and went, no food. At the hour mark, we asked for an update, "well it's about a 45 minute wait for food" ok, but we're past that now. Server goes and checks, comes back is 'next on the ticket'. Great stuff. A few minutes later, sure enough, we get our food. I think my first criticism (second if we count the absurd waiting time) would be that they really need to have description on the burgers. I was not expecting black cheese with my burger. Turns out charcoal cheese is a thing, I just thought charcoal kickass cheddar was a catchy name. Don't get me wrong, absolutely delicious, would highly recommend. Given that we had already waited over an hour for food, we would have expected it to turn up piping hot and have to leave it to cool down. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Burger gone within 5 minutes and the chips weren't eaten because they were hard and cold. I would have loved to have been able to recommend this place but given that it was 1pm and not busy, with a waiting time of an hour, I dread to think what it would be like on a weekend or an evening at what would actually be considered a busy hour. I will say the cold platters looked delicious and I wish I had ordered them because other than the same waiting time, it would have been fine if it wasn't warm.

Breakfast on way to station to catch our train home. Lovely building, friendly staff and good menu. And really good quality biscuits with the hot drinks

Cant fault it. The guy behind the bar couldn't have been more helpful. Craft dtuff was spot on.

Love this place super, always great food and friendly staff.

Would have given it 5 stars for the food but the soup was warm it's a lovely pub tho Would go again

This was our first visit to the house of trembling madness, and we were very impressed. There is a wide variety of beers, larger and cider, including hand-pulled cask conditioned real ales and a wide choice of craft ales. The beers we sampled were excellent. Even though it was very busy, there were plenty of seats as it is a massive pub. Spread over four floors, there are lots of cosy rooms with interesting art and taxidermy around the place. The staff were very friendly and welcoming. it is a unique place with great beer. Next visit we will try the food.

What a shame! Started with really great beer in a nice, interesting building but finished with some of the worst food I’ve had! The kind of food that gives the UK a terrible reputation abroad. Quite simply I would be ashamed to serve the junk that came out. Ashamed and embarrassed. Especially as the wait was nigh on an hour!

Regular visitor several times a year when in York. A favourite of the family. Dog friendly Thanks again

Once outstanding Now merely good Used to be one of the best bar/pubs in the country Since new owners beer choice has gotten a little worse, food has gotten a little worse, tapas dishes have disappeared, music has gotten a little louder It's still decent enough but just another "good" bar now The love has gone

I can't remember ever given a negative review for any establishment let alone a pub but unfortunately this one deserves it. We came to York for the weekend before New year's and I had a list of pubs that I was looking forward to visiting. I was looking forward to visiting the house of trembling madness as I'd seen it on a couple of youtube craft beer channels and the selection looked really good. We went to the pub (the Lendal one) with our friends and our teenage children to finish off a busy day sightseeing with a ghost walk (the deathly dark tour was excellent by the way) on the Sunday evening (29/12/24). I spoke to the bar man to check that kids were allowed, and he said they were. The rest of the party (7 of us in total) came into the pub and went to find a seat upstairs (there weren't any downstairs), it was 9.45pm. I went up, dropped my coat off and asked what everyone wanted and returned downstairs to the bar. I queued up behind a couple of people who were being served and asked for a pint only not be told by the same barman that he had just called time and the person in front of me was the last person he was serving. He had said not 5 mins before that kids were allowed and watched us all come in and go upstairs to get seated without saying a word before announcing it was time at 9.55pm? I said he could have told us this, but he arrogantly ignored me and carried on busying himself behind the bar with his co-worker who was just sitting on a stool at the bar repeating that he had called time (obviously while I was upstairs). I have never known a pub that calls time before 10pm even if it was 10.30 closing (it actually says 11pm on the website) We had no choice but to go back upstairs and tell everyone that we couldn't get served and left. As we were outside, we saw the barman topping up someone's beer who was already in there, so his time announcement was obviously selective. I've never been treated in this way in any pub I've visited and can now see why there are a lot of negative comments about staff on trip advisor. There are some fantastic pubs in York, the golden fleece, Guy Fawkes in and Valhalla being three and how a competitor can be so poor compared to them is unfathomable. Unfortunately, the previous negative comments are all fully deserved. They seriously need to look at who runs their bars, we certainly won't be returning.

I really like this place. Great beer selection, some nice food, and unique decor.

Delicious mulled wine and comfy seats

Beer good choice, although ran out of 2 beers we wanted. Food looked nice but limited choice.

Lovely pints! Fantastic food and great service. A really interesting setting with lots of cool art to look at. A must visit in Jorvik ✌️

Cracking bar with a great selection of crafty beverages! Interesting decor which works!

Great quirky bar in the heart of the city. Some very weird stuffed heads in this bar and some lovely craft ales as well. Great city great bar

One of the best pubs ever. Kieran was great

Nice surroundings, good atmosphere and dog friendly. Little bit expensive (two G n T's was £23.60) so would not go too often but nice for a change.

Lovely bar with great decor and location. Good choice of drinks but we sat in the upstairs bar and the girl serving was unhelpful bordering on ignorant or it would have been a 5 star review.

An amazing venue, great beer, great atmosphere, great music playlist 😁

Wow this venue has really changed. Poor beer choice. Std beers on both floor taps. Food - basic dry served on wooden platters not easy to sterilise. Music not background. Tables not cleared, A shadow of its former self

Lovely spot for drinks and good but I would recommend getting here early - we parked on our first floor table at around 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon and it was already busy at that point and never really quietened down which must be the sign of a popular place! Ended up staying for some food as well which was very nice for the price and came really quick - would 100% recommend, and some of the below negative reviews have surprised me as we didn't check on here before going so had a unbiased initial view.

Hoped for a chilled drink on a Sunday lunchtime but the bar person upstairs must have been having a bad day. Bottles thrown loudly into the bottle bin, cutlery also thrown loudly into the sink. Couldn't stand the noise so left after 1 drink. Please have a bit of consideration for your customers!

Sorry but editing my review from my latest visit. Eaten here previously and the food was amazing. On return last weekend we were disappointed. According to the staff member, the pub has new owners. Well shame on them. They have ruined what was a brilliant menu ! Come on guys, at what point did you sit down and think that a chicken schnitzel goes with mashed potato ? To make things worse , gravy ? Gravy ? Come on now, stop it ! Platters used to be beautiful and worthy of being called a sharer. It's now like something that belongs on the kids menu. Disappointed! Whoever revised the menu these ' new owners ' is in desperate need of some personal revision. Ridiculous.

21/11/24 First time I have visited these premises. I didn't realise there are three floors, two rooms on each floor, that you can have a drink in. Recommended

food was good. the gents' toilet was especially nice

Visited on a Monday at about 12 midday. The food tasted fine however was served on a cold plate so was only luke warm. We had already waited about 40 minutes for it so just tried to eat it quickly and finished half. We did tell a staff member and the owner who said they would inform the kitchen staff but didn't seem that bothered. Overheard that they had run out of 2 items on the menu (sausages and steak pie) by 12.30! However they still allowed new customers to sit down with a menu to browse, only telling them they hadn't got those items when they returned to the bar to order. Disappointing.

Good bar, staff friendly and polite. Seating a bit limited, but overall a great bar.

Rudest waitress we have come across in a LONG time.........!! Having ordered-(and ,unfortunately, paid for on arrival....)-only three Cappuccinos, we waited ..and waited. Thinking we had perhaps been forgotten, my friend -perfectly politely- went up to enquire- expecting a...."Sorry,won't be long...." Some chance. But a few minutes later,the drinks arrived- with a surly, sarcastic....-"We DO have other coffees to make-and my colleague was on her own....." The three of us looked at each other in disbelief-we've all been waitresses,- and we would have apologised for the delay without reservation. Shame we had pre-paid-or we would have left immediately.But we won't be returning...Shame,as the coffee was quite good !

Amazingly weird art. The barman was a really nice guy, however, why he's serving drinks and not walking down a catwalk or something, I don't know.

You will be trembling and mad when you leave this abysmal pub.

The actual place itself is easy on the eye and comfortable, it’s just a shame the staff have to be so rude, allowing people to push in at the bar and being very abrupt when asked about particular beers, poor attitude from both behind the bar who seemed to be competing for the award for worst attitude, they should take a leaf from their namesake around the corner who have a much better work ethic, first and last visit here…. Not impressed at all !

Great place, great food, great decor. Only down side was a piss up man fell backwards of his stool directly behind my mates seat and the 3 girls behind the bar didn’t say ought to him … the pregnant waitress came over and told them to drink up and leave. Thought it was odd the girls stood at the bar closest to him didn’t say ought and woulda let him stay most likely. A - why was there still being served? Clearly needed to go home a while back B - why did it have to take the pregnant ladies to come over and move them on? Maybe train the other girls up more? This was about 5pm October 30th

Good beer selection, more of a classic pub vibe than the original one

A coolpub in a good location. Love the interior. Great range of drinks and looked like food was good. Definitely eill revisit when return to York.

Great drinks and atmosphere, it’s nice the music is in the background which is not overpowering. They also offers food with Daily Specials. Currently it’s the ‘Bangers - Pork & Apple’ and ‘Taps’ with 3 dishes: Beef & Chorizo, Beer Sausage Stew and Cauliflower Curry.

We were on a family break to York and noticed the Octoberfest advertised in the pub window. As all four of us love German beer from Munich we decided to have lunch there. Noticing that Bratwurst was on the menu and that is my German sausage of choice I ordered it along with a pint of Hofbrau. Imagine my disappointment when my Bratwurst tuned out to be some kind of Bockwurst in a soggy roll filed with something that i think might have been saurkraut. If you cant get Bratwurst please dont advertise them on your menu. The sausage was nice as was the beer. The roll and filling..ugh

Excellent ale and atmosphere - but a lot of steps as it is over several floors.

Terrible service waited 35 minutes for food which was delivered by waitress who had spent her time picking her nose. Customers who ordered after us were served 10 minutes before our food arrived. We paid but didn't eat anything 🤯

Good selection of beer, live a cherry one 😋

We liked the service and vibes here but let's say that the food and beer looked better than they tasted. Perhaps it's just a matter of taste preferences.

I have been coming to this pub at least once a week for a year and have always loved it with no issues. When they had an offer for York restaurant week, me and my girlfriend booked the time off work to have a meal at our favourite pub - seemed like a no brainer with a meal for a tenner. However when we arrived at 7 we were told that they didn’t have enough customers and had shut the kitchen early. We called earlier in the day and this wasn’t even communicated as an option. We were both left disappointed. The staff were apologetic, but at this point our plans were ruined. A real shame.

Don’t eat here. The food is awful. Feels like a tourist trap compared to the smaller pub above the bottle shop. Very disappointed.

2 fantastic venues each with their own vibe. From a cosy version of a Munich beer hall to a spacious 3 level venue with a stately home feel. Nice beer on tap and friendly staff. A must visit venue in York. And try the warm pretzel when you can! Can't wait to come back early morning for their breakfast offerings!

Lovely beer, but toilets a higher climb than everest, don't go unless you are fully fit

Another great find and quirky place to have a drink. Spread over 4 floors with quirky and interesting decor, this place is well worth a visit. Be prepared for an x-rated visit to the gents loo !! Again let down by some of the staff who clearly struggle with working in hospitality and can’t be bothered with a simple friendly welcome. I hope it’s just not rife across the rest of the staff as the place has a lot to offer.

What a great place, super quirky and the artwork definitely gives you something to talk about. Drinks were good, staff very helpful with lots of info about the beers. Would definitely return next time I'm in York.