Stable Hearth in Darlington

I know that this place gets a lot of praise and awards, so I already had high expectations before my visit... However, those expectations were surpassed! The whole experience starts with the super friendly and efficient staff, making you feel very welcome. Following that, you get a glimpse of the exceptional and varied wine list which has some proper gems on there from all over Italy. I tried a couple of different ones, and both were exceptional. I should also pause at this point and reflect on the wonderful, rustic surroundings. Lots of natural wood and plants plus the lovely warming glow of the giant pizza oven. Now, onto the main event...the pizzas! Just one look at the menu and you know that they aren't messing around. Loads of choice of exceptional sounding pizzas. Nothing novelty or gimmicky, just quality traditional Italian pizzas. My wife had a marinara and I had a garlic mushroom, ham and ricotta number. Both of these were off the chart delicious! Two things I look for in a good pizza are a super stretchy and glutenous base and simple, exceptional tomato sauce and these were absolutely nailed! The toppings were simple and of the best quality. Honestly, this was a pizza to remember. We'll definitely be back. This place is worth all the awards it gets. Highly, highly recommended!

Both our pizza's tasted ok,but we're just a Sogy mess,would not return after paying nearly £60

Phenomenal Italian pizza. The pilsner is extremely good. Haven’t been for a long time but will be back very soon

Came with a group of friends. Service very slow, had to ask a few times for drinks. Food was good, pizzas all nice although they could be a bit more generous with the tomato base to make them less dry.

Delicious pizza, excellent service

Great honest pizzas served by a super friendly team! I will be back!

Absolutely amazing Pizza!!! The staff is so friendly and welcoming.. we have been there 3 times already and would certainly keep revisiting xxx

We shared a great selection of between five of us. Jane and the team were fantastic.

Lovely staff and loads of them, which is unusual to see. However, the quality of the pizza is pretty poor. The dough is nice but the good news ends there. Toppings are non existent and the pizza is greasy. Pretty surprising as most places can whip up a decent pizza

An absolute gem of a place. I can guarantee you won’t find pizza this good anywhere else for 150 miles. Not just that, the whole team are amazing. Even if the food was a 5/10 (which it wasn’t, full on 12/10) these guys made it amazing. Food was banging, I’m a pain and ask questions, change toppings etc etc & nothing was too much. The chef came out and told me which kind of mushrooms would be on my pizza and the owner (really sorry I forgot your name) tried to find me a nice Italian red based on what I told him I liked. The only issue I have is that I forgot to leave a tip! I have been kicking myself all day about it. Oh and the Tiramisu, the Tiramisu. Flipping outstanding. Until I found what I’m now calling “the stable” I thought that there was no hope for Darlo. I’m going to have to come back again now. Full on in love with the passion you guys have. Thank you!

Simply the best Neopolitan Pizza menu I've ever seen. Try Stable Hearth, you will not regret it.

Wonderful food and a beautiful restaurant with a great atmosphere.

Amazing real Italian style pizzas

Heard lots of good things from people and tried it for the first time today. Genuinely the nicest pizza I’ve ever had! Staff were friendly as well and a fair price for a good quality meal and service.

Amazing pizzas at a reasonable price, £15-20 per pizza, with a large selection. All pizzas are Neapolitan, hence only have a thin crust, but if you like a wood fired pizza with a thin base then this may be for you. Lovely atmosphere, dined here three times and the table placement was great each time, good space and didn't feel cramped. Only complaint would be that in table next to the large window at the front has a very weak sofa which I worried was going to break with two adults sat on it, luckily it didn't, but it was an unneeded worry every time someone got up. The table was sticky, though I'm sure we could have asked a waiter to wipe it down, but we didn't, so that is on us. Service is quick, no complaints, and they accommodated for food allergies. Very excited to return and continue to try the extensive menu, this is the best wood fired pizza I have had with quality tasting ingredients. Highly recommend.

When people ask where to go for an amazing pizza this is always my suggestion. Incredible variety. The pizza with the pumpkin base is my favourite 😍 Sides are also really tasty. Perfect date spot and staff are spot on.

Always exceptionally good would highly recommend to everyone that visits darlington pizza and tirimasu to die for!!

As ever, amazing food from a great chef. We shared a fab starter and then got 4 different pizzas. All were excellent and cooked fresh. The waitresses were lovely 🤩

This is what a £4 focaccia from an award-winning pizzeria in the UK looks like. They packed it in torn foil, didn't put it in a bag, and their attitude was, 'Here's your focaccia, you can go now.' I understand that my bill wasn't £50 this time because I just wanted to quickly stop by and take away some focaccia to try. I wish I hadn't tried it, it tasted like regular bread with olive oil — nothing to justify the price, very disappointing. Pizza is delicious, I won't deny it, but remember the saying 'one drop of tar can spoil a whole barrel of honey. I have attached two images: one illustrating how focaccia should not look, and the other showing the ideal appearance. Perhaps Stable Heart management can learn from these examples.

Best place for pizza and lovely food . Quick service and delicious food. Thank you

The country's best pizza place multiple times over, and there's no doubt it's earned it. Great to get fantastic vegan options too.

This is a fantastic place to get traditional pizza cooked in a wood pizza oven. Really good quality food. They also do gluten free dough. Make sure you order in advance if you want gluten free.

If you close your eyes it seems like you are in Naples, exceptional aromas and flavors, excellent quality raw materials.

Excellent food and great service .

Great early evening venue with family atmosphere. Best pizzas ever.

The pizza I had in the In Stable Hearth was of exceptional quality and stands out as one of the best I have ever tasted.

Been here a few times now,still good food

Been here 5 or 6 times. Every time has been excellent. I'd definitely recommend the stable hearth seasoned chips. Also the apple cider is excellent.

Pizza was fantastic and the best we have tasted outside of Italy. Wine list was great and extensive. Staff were attentive but not over the top. We had a lovely night.

Nice place to visit. Staff was ok but needs to be more attentive. When I arrive and asked for a table that had been booked I was set upstairs, where there was no one; when I asked for a clean glass to get some wine from a bottle at our table, I was served with another full glass of wine, that by the way took ages to arrive because they were washing it off. Get more glasses maybe?

Best pizza in the Northeast, and now it's just won another award! Go. Eat. Enjoy.

Amazing food, huge portions, and excellent customer service!

Great selection of pizzas & great quality, served in a multi floor restaurant with a great vibe.

Great restaurant, fantastic staff. Nice food, would go again.

Never had a bad experience or a bad pizza. Friendly staff and a regular haunt of mine.

For Bullicciu this and more thanks again excellent place!

Unbelievable pizza's. Can't recommend this place enough

Honesty worst food service that i have ever experienced. Overbooked tables and kitchen can not cope, why not mention this when booking ??? Over 45 minutes to take orders as kitchen was to busy !!! But restaurant had loads of free tables ? Lad who served us was great but only good takeaway. Shocking experience.

Everyone I know recommended me this place and finally trying it out I now understand the hype! Great selection of toppings, the BEST garlic bread I’ve ever had, and excellent service. The bears garlic bread is a must try :)

From the minute we walked in, we were made to feel very welcome. We were greeted by every single member of staff, including the chef. Everyone was super friendly and we had a fantastic window table. We ate early doors as our booking was last minute. Despite this, the restaurant was buzzing for our 4:30 booking. Went for a family members birthday in this attractive restaurant with perfect ambience. The restaurant had an extensive pizza menu (including G.F options which I believe you have to phone in advance for) and fantastic starters. Garlic bread and arancini were stunning and the pizza is to die for. Great selection of wine and decent draught beer on tap. We didn’t have any dessert as we could not squeeze any more food in. I will 100% be going back! Well done Stable Hearth.

Amazing food, definitely the best pizzas outside of Napoli! Great wine selection and service too.

Service was a little slow for a quiet shift but the pizzas were amazing.

Pizza’s were as tasty as in Naples. Place nice and quiet. Service was spot on. Perfect place for a perfect pizza!

The absolute best pizza and loveliest staff by a country mile! Try it, you'll love it!

Excellent food, great service. Prepared a lovely gluten free pizza for me. It was so nice. Will definitely go again when in Darlington.

Went there with my family. It was my third visit. Even though it was early evening, there were a lot of customers there, so it’s best to book. The pizzas were fabulous and large and there was a good range on the menu. The staff were friendly and helpful. If you can’t eat it all, ask for a ‘doggy bag’. The only slight disappointment was the time it took to get the bill as my grandchildren were getting a little restless. If it were not for this I’d have given 5 stars all round.

Food was excellent, they were very busy so service was a little slower but nothing significant. Nice cosy atmosphere. Not too expensive either

Lovely pizza as always, nice house pilsner too.

My friend and I have been twice, first time was lovely, the food was perfect service was fine. We went last night and had a totally different experience the service was terrible, we had to ask to order food as we were left, the order was wrong we told the waiting staff who tried to rectify it but got the order wrong again. Pizzas were lovely but the chips were burnt. Soft drinks are massively over priced don’t think we’ll go again.

Don't order the pizza with onion, literally 4 onions and when ask to change you get told no complaints! Also they block you on Facebook if you complain

Didn't book but got a table ,this place is very popular, the food is amazing and a good choice of food ,

Turned up on the off chance they had a table. They managed to squeeze us in. Brilliant service, all the staff were friendly and acknowledged us. Pizza was gorgeous, we both had the Antonia with figs. Lovely evening, fantastic restaurant. Keep coming back.

If you have to choose 1 place - Go to the Stable Hearth Award winning pizza. What does this mean? Fantastic flavour, crafmanship and service. Great selecion of ingredients, wine list and desserts. Friendly staff and open kitchen. 5 stars, would give more if I had the option.

E collect pizza, friendly staff

The best pizza that I tried in UK, also fantastic service. Well recommended

I love it here! One of my favourite pace pizza are so flavour full and crispy. Good selection drinks from Beer to wine

Great food. Absolutely recommended. The place serves the best pizzas I've ever had

Great if you are a pizza lover. No other choice on the menu

Son and girlfriend have just been in, table booked 18:30 , 16 year old didn't get served until 19:40 poor service and paid nearly £50 hard earned money , all because party of 20 in after them ! Won't ever set foot there again disgusted.

La pizza es buena, muy buena atención y buen ambiente!!!!

Service very slow, well over 1 hour to be served 4 pizzas. We ended up having the pizzas ‘to-go’ as the noise levels in the room upstairs was intolerable. Staff were very polite and apologetic (although not their fault). Pizzas were ok when we eventually ate then at home!

This place is a hidden gem. Menu, staff, environment everything is great.

Incredible pizza. Reasonably priced. What more could you ask for?

Food was really nice, service was OK but it was really busy.

Booked a table for 6 people and was taken aback at having to pay a £5 deposit per person, non-refundable if anyone did not turn up. I understand the need to protect against no-shows but that seems over the top, particularly as we found we were squeezed around a table for 4 people. We were in an upstairs corner, on a busy night when the restaurant was way understaffed, so service was extremely slow. We had been there an hour by the time the starters arrived and would have had at least 2 more rounds of drinks if we could have attracted the attention of a waitress. The food was good but the slow service made it hard work and not the enjoyable experience we’ve had there in the past.

We went for a meal here tonight and we are extremely disappointed. Our table was booked for 7pm. We ordered 1 glass of fizz and 1 glass of red wine. About 20 minutes later we received 3 glasses of wine so we pointed out we only ordered 2 (given that there were only 2 of us we thought this would be obvious). My ‘fizz’ wasn’t fizzy and I therefore queried whether it was the correct drink. The waitress said it wasn’t fizzy and that she would replace it with another one. We asked twice to order food but were ignored meaning we didn’t get to order until about 7:30pm. The starter was lovely as were the pizzas but they took ages to arrive. We didn’t receive our pizzas until 8:20pm and we weren’t asked how our food was. We asked for the bill which, again, took ages to arrive. When we received it we were charged for the 3 drinks so we explained what had happened even though it was the same waitress who dealt with the issue in the first place. They took the bill away and brought it back 10 minutes later. We commented that the service had been very slow and that we were very disappointed; she agreed and said she would speak to her manager. The manager came over 10 minutes later and said ‘you wanted to speak to me’ (?!). We explained what had happened and he tried to make excuses, for example blaming the fact that they didn’t receive our order until about 7:30pm - as if that is our fault?! He said he was sorry we felt the way we did but he was not able to do anything about the bill. The money wasn’t the issue, we enjoyed the food but the terrible service let it down completely. When we finally managed to pay at 9:05pm (after having to walk to the bar), the manager didn’t apologise nor did he thank us. Very poor service, a real shame and we won’t be returning.

What to say of the best pizza place on UK since 2018? Stunning atmosphere, unbelievable flavours in a box with crunchy dough, staff is lovely, friendly and always happy to smile and help. Spotless place and beautiful decorations. Highly recommend!

Dodgy table by the bar which kept wobbling. Got a move to a nice window table. Service was a bit slow but the pizza was good. Can't really do a bad one to be honest. Paid by card and was a bit put off by the asking for a percentage tip which I find very offending. As a result of that I declined the request and didn't leave a tip at all. I thought £80 plus for 3 people with wine was more than enough. Not good enough to go back. I know there are overheads etc but being a pensioner I felt a bit ripped off to be honest. We'll not be back.

Amazing food. True Napolitano pizza.

We went for our works doo, we will definitely be going back as the food was lovely and service to a high standard

Great pizza, the service is good and its a warm atmosphere. Good wine list and a huge list of choices for food and drink.

The best pizza I've had in the country, amazing dough and an absolutely unbelievable range of high quality toppings and choices. Would have been 5 stars across the board but the wait for food was quite awhile with no explanation but not too much of an issue when the food is that good!

Super accommodating to allergies and friendly staff!

Stable Hearth are a top restaurant / pizza takeaway in town if not the North East. All of the awards it his speaks for itself. This is what I would call a classy pizza, if your after a takeaway style pizza like dominos this won't be your bag but if you want a pizza traditionally made with quality ingredients. I couldn't recommend it more! Staff are friendly and polite, know the menu well enough to make suggestions if you can't choose. Gluten free option is available but thr staff will be able to take you through the disclaimer. Tasty crust and just as nice as the regular crust. Keep doing what your doing!

Best pizza anywhere outside of Italy

Lovely atmosphere and great pizzas. Wine good quality at a fair price. Will definitely be back

We had excellent meals, after visiting relatives and coming here for a meal before we left. The pizzas were delicious and the service great

Best pizza amazing atmosphere the ingredients are extremely high quality.

Really nice meal out with delicious pizza and a relaxing and friendly atmosphere

Cosy pizzeria. Excellent pizza's and drinks. Nice helpful staff.

Great pizza and wonderful service. Only downside is you can't add a tip to the bill so you have to have cash to tip the staff.

Absolutely loved the pizzas here. Great base and well assembled with good quality ingredients.

Incredible value for the quality of food you get. We had to wait a little while for food as they were busy but it was worth the wait as always! I recommend the following pizza's based on multiple visits: Nell Emilia The Mafioso Three little pigs

Only been once, and looking at the reviews, they must have had a bad night. My pizza was dry, overcooked, brittle and hardly no topping that made it taste like cardboard! So I can't justify going back.

Very nice food, wine a little expensive as you can't buy a bottle so 4 glasses of wine instead of a bottle works out at £32. Good service.

Just had an amazing meal with my daughters and their friends at Stable Hearth. Our waitress was Jane made the whole experience 1 million times better Jane was friendly and always making sure we have everything we needed.

Atrocious service spoiled genuinely fabulous food. We ordered drinks for 4 and shared starters which were very good. Unfortunately the remainder of the evening went downhill with the chips being missed off the main order, followed by repeated requests for garlic mayo which finally arrived after we had finished our respective pizzas. The owner offered a lemon liqueur as compensation for the failing service but we had already explained to the waitress that we were all driving and so declined the offer. We then had to ask to pay the bill on numerous occasions and finally walked to the bar in an attempt to find someone to pay. The female member of staff acknowledged the poor service stating that she was currently training new starters and that she had not supervised them correctly. She then emphasised that we had eaten the food and therefore she would not be able to offer any form of compensation despite our order being satisfactorily delivered with a lack of chips and dips. I would not return due to the chaotic mismanagement and service which is a shame as the food was excellent.

Best Pizza in town. Cooked in brick oven, authentic taste. Highly recommended.

Proper neopolitan base. You won't be hungry when you're done. Get the nduja

Faultless! The best pizza I've ever eaten, fabulous amount of choice. Starters were perfect too, all with very good, friendly service. Will become a regular now we've found it.

Excellent selection of pizza's. I had the vegetarian, plus slices of other people's 😁, a side of coleslaw (made their) which was really good. I think it's a good sign when places make the effort like that. Tiramisu dessert was fantastic, nailing the balance of flavours. I would give it 5 stars if not for the poor seating, and unfortunately poor suggestion of a non spicy pizza for my sister who was given a pizza covered in spicy pepperoni. Which I'm sure many wouldn't say is not spicy, but tolerance of spicy foods varies person to person. I like spicy food and when I tried it, I wouldn't recommend it to someone with a low tolerance. Definitely worth going or ordering takeaway from.

Best pizza in the area by a mile! I run a wood fired pizza business and ordered from here whilst on a short holiday. All the pizzas are really nice and reasonably light. The dips are tasty too. If you’re in the area or further afield it’s worth a trip for delicious pizza! Seemed pretty busy so worth booking / pre-ordering in advance.

Stable Hearth is my favourite restaurant, takeaway and all round food place. I love it so much.

First time we have had a takeout the meal was amazing, thankyou you are a great team x

Best pizza I've ever eaten. Great menu selection and very reasonable prices.

The best pizza I have had. Better than any takeaway in the North East or chain restaurant. Lovely staff just great.

Atmosphere was really nice and the staff were really welcoming, friendly and knowledgeable, and very accommodating to my friend who had her young baby with her. Points for being baby friendly and having a changing table in the toilet! It was very busy and there only seemed to be 1 server so service was a bit slow, but we didn't mind too much. Food was very tasty and full of flavour, I was a little disappointed with just how much oil was on the pizza though. Between the olive oil and the oil released from the melting cheese it was just a bit too much. Which was a shame as the flavours were lush. And dessert was amazing and the gelato to die for! We had the bergamot and gin cake with pistachio gelato. And it was lush! Would definitely recommend you go, it would have been 5 stars had there been a little less oil on the pizza.

Took over an hour for pizzas to arrive, 45 minutes for desserts which just involves putting a slice of cake on a plate. Toppings and dressings were missed off dishes. Not one apology from the staff.

This was my third visit to stable hearth and it has been great every time. Staff are really friendly and helpful, food is amazing. Staff were all wearing masks which I think is good to see at the minute. Would definitely come back again.

Nice looking place, staff friendly enough. Decent enough price and nice food. Not a lot to dislike really.