The Black Horse in County Durham

We stayed here in our Motorhome in the car park for a night and booked a table in the restaurant. The car park was quiet and had a great view. The restaurant was beautiful inside and out and the food was really great and staff were friendly and welcoming.

Arrived shortly after breakfast had finished but the staff managed bacon sandwiches and tea. Great service.

I was here yesterday for my mams 70th birthday and I can honestly say it was probably the best food I've ever tasted I got the steak pie it was amazing. The man who served us was so helpful and friendly he never stopped bless him. We will all definitely be returning :-)

Arrived here about 2pm in our motorhome, after visiting the open air museum in Beamish. We had seen the Black Horse on the Park4Night app. We booked a table for food in the bar for 5pm and asked if we could sleep overnight in our van in the car park. The girl behind the bar could not have been more pleasant. We parked our van up on a nice flat concrete area in the corner of the car park. The car park had lovely views. We went back into the bar and ordered two pints of lager, which came to £8.40, which I thought was very reasonable. We sat outside in the sun and had 4 more lagers each. Lovely big seating area outside. We went into bar when it got cold and there was an open fire roaring away. We got chatting to a nice couple from Hull. Then we ordered our food. I had the chicken burger and my girlfriend had the beef burger. Both were excellent and well priced. All the staff were polite. Toilets were spotless. Wouldn't hesitate to go back. We left at 8am the next morning. I believe they do breakfast in the pub too? Would definitely recommend.

Fantastic Sunday roast cannot fault it. Setting us beautiful too and very reasonably priced

Hadn't been for a while but nothing has changed, staff standing chatting when they can see you waiting to be served. Thought we'd give them another chance but never again. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Had my baby shower today in the George Ridley room. Amazing day from start to finish! Staff couldn't do enough for us, they were lovely (2 ladies on shift today 19/10/24 in george ridley room, georgina I think sorry and another lady)... The room it's self is beautiful, couldn't of picked a better setting. So cosy. Bar and terrace all to ourselves too. Ipad for music. Afternoon tea was one of the best I've had, delicious everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and the unlimited tea and coffee. Scones lovely and warm. 100% recommend the baby shower package at black horse beamish. Will be back to view the wedding open day as grounds look unreal !

Cheeky service charge introduced

Arrived with a motorhome and asked if we could overnight before Beamish the following day. Not a problem. Restaurant seemed quiet. Ordered my black pudding scotch egg starter along with pork belly, mixed grill and burger. All to arrive at the same time. My scotch egg starter arrived with my wife and sons mains. We were all amazed by the quality of food, it was fantastic. My wife had wine while I tried Theakston Hairy Biker, an amazing pint of beer. After a couple more pints and my wife and son finishing their mains I realised my mixed grill hadn't arrived. I never got a chance to query it before the lady explained there had been a mix up in the system but it was on the way. We were happy to sit and wait as it felt relaxing and welcoming. Next thing we had drinks brought to us courtesy of management for the wait and inconvenience. No inconvenience at all but we happily drank. Usually a mixed grill is the safe option and the same wherever you go but here it was so tender, cooked to perfection, full of flavour, even the grilled tomatoes has herbs and seasoning. We ordered dessert. I had the crumble with custard. I'm not sure if the portion size was correct or for a family of four (but saw me loving the food and felt bad for the slight delay in my main) but I would expect a crumble that size to be divided at 3 if not 4 times. Again it was amazing and I finished the lot. We all left absolutely stuffed and slightly tipsy. Amazing food, friendly staff, great location and tasty beer. Highly recommend.

Fabulous food, staff and atmosphere 😎

Just had a great stay at the Black Horse. Everything was good all the staff could not do enough for you. The server young man was first class. X.

This review is for the restaurant only. The location is excellent with nice views from the conservatory. We had lunch. At this time they serve pub lunch classics, for want of a better term. The food was more than acceptable with relatively generous portions. Sadly the service was not so good. Not the fault of the sole server, he had to serve both the restaurant and bar customers, and the bar was rather busy. This meant I had to catch him at the bar to clear the table and take our desert order. Not his fault but more staffing needed. Price was mid-range for the offering if considered a restaurant, or upper range if a pub.

Lovely Sunday lunch, a little expensive which would be ok if the service was quicker. 45 mins for 2 Sunday dinners

I was visiting for a family wedding and we had an amazing time. The venue was gorgeous and decorated perfectly. The food was amazing and the drinks were well priced. It was really difficult to decide between going to bed early or jumping in that giant bath tub. Overall the staff were polite and friendly, nothing was too much bother for them even though they had been working tirelessly since the early morning preparing for the wedding. I want to thank all of the staff who made the day possible, it was phenomenal. Thank you all so much for everything you did.

We booked The Black Horse based on its listing on the Beamish Living Museum website. It was close to the museum, offered reasonable rates and looked comfortable. However, on arriving, we were immediately impressed by the friendly and helpful reception staff as well as the excellent accommodation, which resembled a traditional street dating from the older nearby villages and Beamish itself. Our room (Sage) was spacious, modern and included a large walk-in shower. Our stay got even better as we found all staff, including waitresses and chefs were friendly chatty and welcoming. The menu was excellent, offering local produce at reasonable prices, especially when considering the large portions. Breakfast, which was included in the rate, was freshly prepared and provided a range of cooked and continental options. All in all, our overnight stay added to our Beamish Museum experience and we will not hesitate to stay there on our next visit. The independent owner should be very proud of his staff who clearly enjoy working there and looking after their guests. It was so much better than staying at a multi national hotel chain.

Great location with lovely views. Good food and facilities.

Called in for an afternoon meal and it was Fantastic. Service was Excellent. Staff so polite friendly and ever so helpful. Chef was amazingly helpful by blending some food due to person unable to eat solid food. The outside area is amazing with stunning views and fantastic outdoor seating area. Can NOT reccomend this establishment any more than i have done. Will definately be visiting this restaurant again and will most certainly be booking accomodation in the future

Amazing place for food. The setting is lovely. And very friendly staff.

We had a birthday party there last night upstairs wow ten mins from me and I didn’t know it was ll there. I would like to say a special thank you and praise to our bar maid who ran the bar single handed running up and down stairs her manner was amazing from us all ❤️👏

Stopped overnight with our campervan nice quiet location.

It's a remote place which beautifully managed with good food, hospitality and well maintain venue. Accessable venue for disabled, friendly venue for pets

Found out tonight that only a 40% share of the tip that you leave actually goes to the staff and the rest goes to the management team. Not somewhere I’ll be going again. Food is bang average as well but the staff are great. Shame they work for scumbags.

Sunday lunch. Table of 6 Initially sat in bar area with one seat right where everyone would be squeezing past. Moved to one of many empty tables in conservatory. Excellent customer service from young Jake but two older female wating staff weren't up to the standard you'd expect, shouting down the dining room, placing food on the table at the wrong setting and expecting us to sort that out ourselves. Parking needs sorting out. Painted bays would get a third more cars in. Sadly not as good as it would like you to think it should be. Felt like that last time too.

We would just like to say what a great night we had 🙌 Yvonne the manager was brilliant 🤩 and also all of the staff. The food was 5 Star 🌟 we had not been for a while and on returning yesterday so nice to see all the staff smiling and offering great service. something that has been forgotten else where. The grounds were immaculate and looked so pretty with amazing views.🙌🙌🎉🎉📸

Four of us visited for dinner on a Thursday evening. We previously had good memories of the Black Horse for the quality of the food - how things have changed. The clientele all evening comprised our four and two other couples, I’ve never seen the Black Horse so empty. My starter was something called Lamb Scrumpets which was presented as a small number of deep-fried breadcrumbed fingers of lamb, for £8 (+10%). On cutting into the first one, I thought it also contained some cheese, but this turned out to be a glistening slab of white fat. The second one was the same and after that I couldn’t bring myself to try any more. When removing the plates the waitress asked what was wrong and I pointed out the presence of fat and absence of meat. This was met with an “Oh!”, but no further action. My wife was served a particularly greasy battered fish, of which she ate half and the belly pork was just a slab of fat and looked quite undercooked. I appreciate belly pork is a fatty cut, but this could have been made into a bar of soap! We decided against desserts and at 9:15pm, in the absence of further customers, the shutters were pulled down on the kitchen hatch. On paying, 10% service charge was added to the bill. I should have refused to pay this, but of course, no one wants a scene, so they get away with charging it. No surprise the restaurant is so quiet.

My partner and I recently had a one night stay at the black horse. On arrival we checked in and were shown to our room . Then we decided after unpacking to go to the bar for a drink, whilst waiting over 10 minutes to be served even though the place was half empty only one member of staff managed to acknowledge us waiting and apologised. After a few drinks we went back to our room and got ready for dinner, we were kindly shown to our table and a few minutes later we were asked if we would like drinks we ordered a bottle of wine which came and was linked on the table with two glasses . We then ordered our starters and mains then waited and waited and waited a little more until I asked a waiter about our starters this was 45 minutes later after a further 15 minutes they came no apology nothing. Then our mains came shortly after but by which time we had been in the restaurant 2 hours I paid the bill which there was some confusion about but they eventually sorted it. The next morning when we checked out I told the supervisor all of this but she just shrugged this off. Then a couple of days later my partner revived a restaurant bill accusing us of not paying and the bill was for more than two people when I looked. So emails have gone back and forth and I think it’s sorted but my partner asked for the complaints procedures to complain about the service , she still hasn’t got it.we will certainly not stay here again the service is atrocious and food barely average at best .

Me and a few friends stayed here at the weekend in our campervans the place is amazing with beautiful views!..food and resturant unreal and the service was second to none staff are amazing!!..cant wait to go back!! Thankyou so very much!!

Received an afternoon tea voucher as a gift so booked to go. Huge amount of food, all really tasty. Had to to box some up to take home. Staff were friendly.

Great place for a spot of lunch

We visited the Black Horse Beamish for the first time for Lunch to be told it was full table service. No one came at all to take orders for drinks I ended up leaving the restaurant area and having to go around to the bar myself not Once but twice. We were seated 5 minutes later another couple were seated then 10 minutes later another couple were sitted at this point we had already order our meals for the 2 of us. Both couples who had arrived after us had not only received there food but had finished it aswell. Then just to rub salt in the wounds when I paid my bill they had the cheek to add a service charge??? Beautiful place in a beautiful location but apart from that the service was dyer never experienced such poor service in all the years I've eaten out. Will we return I'm afraid not my advice save your money and go elsewhere

We called in here after visiting Beamish. The restaurant was quiet but it was late Tuesday afternoon. We can't fault the food we had and the young waiter was so polite and an absolute credit to place. Glad we never read any reviews before coming as we really enjoyed our meal and would thoroughly recommend.

Amazing spacious rooms and great restaurant service also good excellent

What a fabulous place this is..the staff are absolutely amazing, the place is just fantastic..we stayed 3 nights, a wedding in between and stopped on for an extra night..lovage is fantastic, very clean! they cant do enough for you and are so down to earth, the bar manager is absolutely class nothing was a bother for him, also amanda and anne were just lovely. To be honest they all were. I defo plan on going back, dont understand bad reviews about the food as for three days we ate there and was all lovely, was busy on sunday and still everything ran smoothly, was a young lad serving was spot on, so polite and attentive..the wedding was absolutely perfect, i was maid of honour the bride and groom really didnt have a worry, cant fault this place at all! A brilliant bunch and even lovely when i was being a jeager queen lol! Well done the black horse 🙌🏻🙌🏻

Excellent pub, really nice seeing and very well priced. They were very busy today due to a wedding and several other parties, however we still had a good time and the food was excellent. Would 100% recommend.

Went with friends for a drink, we had a lovely evening, nice atmosphere. Staff were friendly, will try having a meal next time.

Meal was a disappointment. I had Chicken red Thai curry and the sauce was like water and oil with a few pieces of chicken,peppers and onion.Lots of rice ,which I couldn't taste any "fragrance as advertised. My friends ordered sticky toffee pudding and it was frozen in the middle,lots of sauce and tiny spoon if ice cream.They had to send them back.Service was brilliant,but very disappointed in meal,which wasn't cheap!Always had good food at Black Horse so don't know what happened on Friday!!!!

Beautiful location with great views. I had the fish and chips. Excellent tartar sauce and mushy peas 👌

Went for Sunday lunch beef was fatty not nice Waited awhile to be seated Staff looked unorganized Over priced for what we had Will not return.

A lovely meal in a very picturesque location. Very friendly and attentive staff.

Lovely location and space that we stayed in for a wedding weekend. Really close to the venue. Lovely, top tier breakfast both days. Beautiful rooms, and open plan kitchen. 10/10 would recommend to anyone.

A really beautiful pub with a four star hotel and a very large area to enjoy and linger! Unfortunately you can only give 5*, but for Paul there is an additional 5*!!! Thank you for the warm hospitality!!! You can park your motorhome/camper van here wonderfully!!! We can only warmly recommend this beautiful place!!! A really beautiful pub with a four-star hotel and a very large area to enjoy and linger! Unfortunately, you can only award 5*, but for Paul there is also 5*!!! Thank you very much for the warm hospitality!!! You can stand here wonderfully with the motorhome/camper van!!! We can only warmly recommend this beautiful place!!!

We booked a last minute table for lunch for ten people + a dog, and the Black Horse Beamish were so accommodating. Originally, I was told that we would be sat in the bar area across a couple of tables, however, they surprised us with one long table for all of our group (which was much appreciated). The service was amazing, with the food not taking long to arrive at all. More, the food was a hit with everyone which is a no small feat considering our allergies (gluten free & fod-map diet) - we all enjoyed our Sunday roasts! Additionally, the desserts were some of the best we’ve had and so fresh. We will definitely be back. Thank you Black Horse Beamish!

What a really lovely birthday meal tonight. Such beautiful surroundings. The gardens and grounds are gorgeous. The meal was made special because of Leo our waiter, he attended to everything from serving our drinks, helping with the menu and being super efficient. We sat in the Orangery which looks out on the grounds. The food was excellent, well presented and piping hot. Recommend the Fish pie. I can't believe we have never been to this gem before, will certainly be back.

Lovely food and great outdoor space for the kids. Very dog friendly too. A popular wedding venue for good reason!

Blatantly mis-managed. Over stretched staff, an hour wait for food, which was missing a meal (although quickly resolved). My impression is that they make more money on the weddings they hold and everything else is secondary. The sandwiches were mediocre with brown side salad, and the chips were limp and oily. Such a shame as it could really be a gem of a place.

This is a lovely hotel/restaurant in a beautiful setting, but unfortunately our visit was spoilt by slow service and substandard food. 40 minutes for starters, then another 30 for mains. The steak and ale pie’s pastry was so hard, as to be inedible and the graveyard was salty. The burger was dry as though it had been too long under the warming lamp. The ploughman’s platter was very nice (difficult to get that wrong). The lady that served us, did apologise for the food and wait, blaming agency staff! Until they sort out their problems, I think they should remove the 10% service charge!

The black horse is a beautiful property in a stunning location. However, there are issues. We booked a table online in advance for our party of 6 to celebrate a special occasion. We didn’t get off to a great start. On arrival an approached the bar and an irritation bar man glared at me. I said we had a booking and he said “well you’ll have to go over there”. So I went “over there”. This welcome was nicer and we were shown to a table. It went downhill from here. Eventually we had our drinks order then we ordered our food. The starters took a long time in arriving. The soup was ok but had twigs in it and really felt like it was just leftovers blended. The accompanying bread was nice. The lamb starter was greasy. Our mains never arrived. We sat for 2hrs. When we heard a waitress ask the kitchen staff about the mains for table 9 and he laughed and shrugged we knew it was time to leave. We paid for what we had had and left. Such a disappointment. We ordered pizza on the way home.

Great place, great food and great service.

Booked a table for my mams birthday. Very disappointed. Food was average at best, service was very poor. Slow to take order, waited ages for food, plates not cleared after, not offered any more drinks once, left table to pay bill and leave as no one bothered coming to the table.

Service in the restaurant at breakfast is dismal

We have previously been for Sunday lunch and it was lovely, however after today's visit we will not be back. We were there for a family occasion and the food was OK but nothing to write home about, but the biggest issue was the service. It was shocking. It took us 2.5 hours to be served with dinner and pudding. I future we will be sticking to the South Causey.

What a find. We stumbled upon this place and decided to stop for a light lunch. We opted for the ploughman's for 2 and we'd get a portion of chips to go with, that was totally unnecessary. The platter was great to look at and absolutely stacked. Every single thing was delicous on it, it way exceeded our expectations. Stuffed to gills, greed got yhe better and we had desert. Never before have I had a crumble like it. It was delicous. I would highly reccomend the Black Horse. The staff are lovely, the food fabulous, prices not to bad at all, considering the venue and amazing views. Will drfinately return

Visited for a family lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Black horse is situated in beautiful countryside and the grounds are immaculately kept even the outside seating area has the most amazing hanging baskets and planters. The staff were friendly and helpful as we were shown to a table in the conservatory. The food was delicious I had tandoori chicken in flatbread with mint yogurt salad and fries. I would highly recommend!

Poor service, there was clearly an issue with staff in the kitchen which we weren’t told about when being seated. All tables in were complaining about the waiting times for food. It took over an hour for a salad and mixed grill…and the salad (salmon nicoise) was quite honestly the blandest salad I’ve ever tasted. Not quite sure how you get a salad wrong, but they did! Mixed grill was ok. It was our wedding anniversary and just wanted a really nice pub meal, but this was a total disappointment and I wouldn’t return. They automatically added a 10% service charge too. Not the way to retain customers.

Just had a fantastic stay at Red Row , the room was amazing with a massive copper bath. Very clean and had everything you could need. A bottle of prosecco when we arrived was just perfect. Staff were polite and so friendly. Dinner was amazing and large portions. Breakfast was out of this world all with excellent service . We will be definitely staying there again soon.

Went for an anniversary meal The service was terrible for what we paid Warm wine (that did get changed ) paper napkins no side plates A charge for bread on the table and a service charge added Young staff who did their best but were obviously not trained ! Food fine but no background music no atmosphere and no interaction between staff and customers Two starters I asked for were not available Going to have to get their act together to get repeat customers

Nice place for a drink or food professional staff nice setting rooms are beautiful

Went for lunch. Staff were lovely but the food not so much.

Great experience on arrival & met with welcome drinks & staff were great, only thing that let it down was a sound limiter for the disco in the marque. Dj tried his best to keep it low but when there is a hundred odd leavers wanting to sing out loud & dance to a song & it goes dead & cuts off because we were too loud. Might as well bring your own Bluetooth speaker ! Dance floor was dead but scenery lovely &spent most of the night outside

The food was absolutely unreal, as good as a Sunday dinner gets, other than the braised red cabbage which was a bit too powerful and couldn't eat it. Service was first class. The table wasn't the best, wedged under the stairs so couldn't move my chair properly and the chair was too high for the table so legs were wedged under the table. I suppose we only booked a table a few days before so got the last one.

Fantastic place! Stayed in The Ash room/cottage and everything was perfect. Staff all very polite and friendly and the food in the restaurant was excellent. Made even better with the beautiful weather which allowed us to sit outside. Will definitely return in future! Keep up the good work.

Absolutely lovely food. The staff all very friendly, the grounds are beautiful with stunning views.

What a hidden gem, this place is hidden down a country lane, it’s a beautiful building and the rooms are lovely, the food is amazing, I had the pork cutlets and I can honestly say I would happily have that meal again, it was so tasty. Great place

One of the first meals I've had where I couldn't fault a thing. Perfect.

Firstly this is a lovely restaurant with great food and decor, the way the food was presented was amazing! However, we arrived during the lunch time menu (12:00 - 17:00) and were given such. We ordered off the lunch time menu and due to the wait time despite there only being 2 or 3 parties in by the time we’d finished our deserts it had switched onto the evening time and so the bill came and we had been charged for the larger items despite ordering just fish and chips x2 When we disputed this we were told we should have ordered the half portion size, this was not on the lunch menu but on the evening menu we had not been given and told we had to pay the bill. It seems your bill is done from the time you finish and not when you order so benefits them to take their time. Very cheeky to assume by me saying “I’ll have the fish and chips mate” they automatically assume i want the larger more expensive option. If I had wanted that I would have specifically said the "Whale Fish and Chips" *picture of the menu we was provided with to which i ordered just a fish and chips

Amazing views, lovely and helpful staff, great location

Stayed here for the lazy Sunday stay, ans we was going to visit the beamish museum on Monday, and all we can say is wow it was amazing. The room was fantastic and we are looking to book again. Clean and tidy and the cleaners are great women with such a happy go attitude. Amanda at check in and out extremely helpful. The views are breathtaking and location is perfect. The service in the restaurant is great, not a long waiting time at all. I must admit I didn’t enjoy the Sunday lunch but I still wouldn’t drop it down a star, because in the morning I had eggs Benedict and it’s the best one I’ve had out of all the hotels I’ve stayed in. All credit to the chef for that. This place is absolutely fantastic and I would recommend to anyone to go and stay. We can’t wait to go back ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Needed some where nice for Dinner after visiting Beamish museum. So impressed with this place. Food and service excellent with amazing views will be back xx

A delicious Sunday roast, not cheap but worth it given the location.

Lovely friendly stopover with great food and drink....whats not to like....just around the corner from Beamish museum

Ideal Motorhome stopover to visit the Beamish museum Excellent Sunday Roast, cooked to perfection with fresh vegetables Excellent friendly service !!

Anne and Georgiana I cannot find the words to thank your for making our wedding day perfect. The whole team worked together to make sure everything ran smoothly and our guests commented how the food was amazing. I did have concerns as we had many different coordinators from when we booked the wedding and had read a few bad reviews however everything from the weekend was perfect. From the checking in process on the Friday, our wedding on the Saturday and then our lazy Sunday lunch stay over. The waitress in the resteraunt is so lovely and nothing is an issue, we have met her on a few occasions when we have visited and she served us amazing breakfast and the biggest fish and chips I've ever seen... Thank you so much for everything!

Best ever Lazy Sunday with Friends. May I firstly say don't listen to the harsh reviews on here. I think people who moaned about the Black Horse Beamish moan for the sake of moaning. We have just got back after a deal we saw for the Lazy Sunday. Evening meal and breakfast included. It did not disappoint. Omg not even sure where to start. Check in: Amanda was fabulous she showed us to our Rooms. Enormous and everything you needed was there. Bathroom amazing with a free standing round swimming pool lol. We then went to the Bar, Staff again incredibly friendly and nothing was too much bother. Whatever we asked for we where given if it was an extra glass of Ice, ice bucket glasses ect ect. Not a problem. There was 8 of us. Evening Meal omg amazing. We all had different Meals and all where hot and tasted delicious 😋. Starters where amazing and plentiful. Massive compliment to the Chef and his team. This morning we had a wonderful Breakfast again Staff where fabulous. They work a hard shift yesterday Easter Sunday was rather busy with events inside and outside. Not a sour face around. The staff just couldn't do enough. Thanks also to Yvonne ,Laura and the rest of the team. We definitely will return in the not to distant future. Please don't be put off, give it a try and see for yourself . Regards John and Lotty.

Very pleased did not expect the level of quality for the price pleasently surprised only stopped one night as were visiting beamish museum the location is stunning would loved to have stopped longer will definitely use again.

This is such a lovely cosy pub - used to be my 'haunt' many moons ago and it has just got better with age. Plus there is a very easy on the eye barman who made the most delicious honey margarita - it was charming (so was he ha ha)

Had a wonderful experience here for breakfast with friends. The food was amazing and the service was second to none. The staff were very attentive and friendly; nothing was too much trouble. We were well taken care of without being rushed, will definitely be back and will recommend to everyone.

This place used to be fabulous .Certainly can't say that now. Our room needed a good clean , definitely not of the standard we have had in the past. The service in the restaurant was really poor and had to try to catch the attention of staff as they had no interest in paying customers. Our food was just ok, nothing special . Definitely won't return.

Party of 8+2 children aged 11.we were seated at a previously reserved table for a 60th birthday party. Eventually drinks order was taken while we studied the menu. Some drinks eventually appeared. Another pause for 5 minutes. The children had ordered Mocktails as had 2 of the drivers. We waited again, and waited yet again, until one of our party actually went to the bar and asked if he could take them off the bar where they had been while the waitresses had a very animated conference, no idea what it was about. Food started appearing in fits and starts. The fried fish was beautifully cooked and very large and well presented. . That was the highlight of the night. Unfortunately my bacon chop came out next. Supposed to be served with curried beans, and bread. What I got was a well done bacon slab, very nice, sitting on an indeterminate brown vindaloo sludge. Too many chillies made that inedible. Our table(s) was in the gloomiest corner available. Probably just as well. The bill was the final insult. A charge had already been added for service and gratuities. ( Needless to say we deleted those items). Overall opinion to quote Shakespeare, "Quoth the Raven".

Arrived at desk slightly early for Sunday lunch at 3.15 pm and ignored by staff . Eventually got our table upstairs. Had to ask for drinks and waited quite a while for menus Lunch took quite a while to come and was sparse and lukewarm I had one tiny piece of curly kale cabbage and very little other veg. Have had far better Sunday Linch elsewhere. Place felt grubby and un cared for . It felt too busy for the staff and they avoided eye contact. Will not return .

Service was very slow food was just average never even got offered any dessert so paid the bill and left, it was also not very warm in there so won't be in a hurry to go back

Visited here with a close friend for her birthday after booking,as required, in advance for afternoon tea. When we arrived we were asked if we wanted tea or coffee then seated. There were only another 3 tables occupied so we assumed our pre-booked afternoon tea would be served soon… 25 minutes after our pot of tea the cake stand of food arrives so I ordered a glass of Prosecco each as the tea was then cold. The Prosecco was priced on the menu at £6 per glass. The afternoon tea I must say was average at best. The bread was quite stale and the fruit scone burnt! I would have brought this to their attention if anyone had bothered to come back to the table to ask if all was ok! In fact we didn’t see another waitress for the next 40 minutes until I had to go looking for someone to ask for a box to take the leftover cakes away in ( they tasted average too once home) . We then went to pay the bill only to be charged £13.90 for the 2 glasses of Prosecco! When I confronted the waitress she insisted the price was £6.95 and NOT £6 per glass, even seeking confirmation from her supervisor. Not wanting to be embarrassed any further I paid the amount but because I was so annoyed at how we had been treated I stopped on the way out and checked the menu again only to see that I was right! It said £6… I went back in and told her when she and her supervisor both insisted that “it’s always been £6.95”! So once again I pointed out the error on the menu and she said “ok then I see what you mean , I will refund the £1.90” She also said they were getting new menus printed in the near future! Future customers need to be aware of this and check their bills thoroughly as they must be overcharging many people. It was a very disappointing experience and I definitely wouldn’t return. I have reviewed hundreds of venues and if you check my reviews on trip advisor you can see that I rarely leave a bad review but this one was certainly needed!

This place used to be amazing, what’s happened? It’s my first time back in the area since moving away in 2018 and I was so excited to visit. Firstly we were ignored by two staff members at the bar then eventually got seated our cutlery were dirty and then had to ask for menus. Food arrived and I was so disappointed, bland and underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong the grounds were beautiful as ever but that’s it, please whoever owns this place please put it back to it was 10 years ago.

We have stop here before on our route home from Scotland in our motorhome. Yet again great all round service from the whole team. With a special mention to Peter head groundsman who again came over to just check everything was A-ok. There is water but no EHU or toilet besides in the pub. We eat in the pub at night and the food was very good at a fair price. Well worth a visit.

Went here for the Wedding fair yesterday. Decided to have Sunday lunch. Food is fantastic, great portion of meat and all very tasty. Not the cheapest Sunday lunch but very worth it for a treat on a day out. Desserts as expensive as other places, at least the portion size were pretty good here. I'm still puzzled why desserts have increased by such a high % since covid and in most cases the portion has decreased along with the quality. However the portion sizes are the Black Horse were decent, although I refuse to pay £8 for a dessert makes no sense, but if you want to indulge they were a good size.

I was going to give this place a 5 star review, as the title suggests. Don't get me wrong, the food is amazing, the room was fantastic. We booked the lazy Sunday package, which is brilliant value for money. Everything is absolutely brilliant, until we got an email 6 days later. Saying that after we left the room, 2 bedside lamps had been damaged, and we were being billed £390. So a word of warning, to anyone that stays here, take pictures of the room before you leave. I did call them, and Amanda was brilliant, and said don't worry, we will sort this out and speak to house keeping. But we are booked in again in a few weeks time, and it's left a bit of bad feeling. So not really looking forward to it. But we will go. We will take photos when we leave. Just to show the room is fine when we left it I really wanted to give a 2 star review on here. But it came up as poor. It certainly wasn't poor. In fact it was amazing, until I got the email. I'm still absolutely fuming about this. We were going to go for Sunday lunch today at the Black Horse, because the food is amazing. But we are so annoyed at this email, we can't face going there. As I said we are staying in a couple of weeks I might revise my review, depending how we are treated.

We were late in booking. The lady who took the call was really helpful and welcoming. Everyone we encountered after what had obviously been a hectic lunch (we got there about 3pm) was friendly and helpful. We got a table quickly in this beautiful room with a fabulous view. I did without a starter and had the Lamb dinner which was exquisite, my other half had the Beef which was as good. The New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wasn’t available so we had the South African which was gorgeous. My dessert, passion fruit cheese cake was lovely. I’ve had some lovely meals in restaurants around the north over the last few weeks and I don’t rush to print. What singled out today’s experience was the top quality food but the attitude and abilities of a superb staff. They all really seemed to be determined to make the experience memorable, for the right reasons. And they succeeded magnificently. I can’t wait to go back

Was very disappointed with my recent visit , with friends, for lunch. Firstly, I was ignored by the barman, we were in the pub side. I was standing with my friend, she got served, he then walked off, even though I was stood there with my purse in my hand. He wandered around the other side of the bar, and was fiddling with something. It took several minutes, before he decided to serve me. The service was really slow for ordering, and serving the food too, I had ordered The Bombardier steak pie, I was told they’d run out of mashed potato - this was about 1p.m, and I was offered chips as an alternative, I asked for a small portion. when it arrived after a long wait, I had a full portion of chips which I didn’t ask for, and they were lukewarm warm and tasteless. There was no mayonnaise, which I also asked for, but it never arrived. My dining companions were also underwhelmed by their cool chips and meals. We all thought it was poor and very bad value for money. We did better with the sweets, as the sticky toffee pudding was nice, but again not hot. I don’t know what has happened to this pub, but previously the Bombardier steak and ale pie in the past was served with lovely seasonal veg, and greens. And was always an outstanding meal. Now it comes served with unappealing diced veg, which you can’t even tell ,what the vegetables are! . I had no idea what was on my plate. The meal presentation made it look bland and un-appetising. I’ve been visiting this pub for over 20 years, and have been disappointed with my previous visit too, but thought I’d give it another go. Sadly it did not redeem itself this time. Come on Black Horse - what’s happened to the great pub you were ! Poor service and poor food, my group of friends, have vowed not to return here.

Our Christmas day experience, We were booked in to have christmas lunch with you at The Black Horse Beamish. Our party consisted of four adults, two paying children and one baby. Upon arrival we were told to stand within the bar area which was very overcrowded. It was very uncomfortable to be packed into that area carrying children, there was still other diners eating and we were basically crowded around their tables. We were stood like this for around 30 minutes until we asked if we could be seated. There was also no prosecco on arrival which was advertised as part of the meal package. When we were seated we did notice that our table had no christmas crackers so we had to ask for these, they were brough very quickly in fairness to the staff but most tables around us already had them on. Our starters were brought very promptly after being seated, one of the childrens starter was wrong but was replaced quickly, our starters were very nice although I would estimate that my bowl had around 6 soup spoonfuls of soup within it although the soup was very nice and hot it would of been nice for the portion to be more considerable, never the less our starters were very nice. After the starters we were sat for around 45 minutes before being served sorbets. We, and the tables around us apart from one table with a couple on then waited another 45 minutes for our main course, we had to go and speak with a member of staff to ask for our main courses to be served as the children were getting really restless and hungry as were we as well by this time. The main course was served, after asking twice for my daughters to be served without gravy it was served with gravy, although when I notified the waiter he did replace it very quickly. The main course tasted lovely, although the puddings were stone cold and the gravy luke warm. Our main courses did come without the ingredients that you would expect from a christmas lunch. It consisted of two brussel sprouts cut in half, no parsnips at all, no stuffing and no cabbage. The portion size of the dinner was very small. We sat for around one hour after the main course until eventually our desserts were served. I had the cheesecake which was very nice, the other adults went for the cheese board which they were disgusted by, a couple of small pieces of cheese with some soggy crackers was not what we expected from a christmas lunch cheese board. After desserts we requested the advertised coffee and mince pies for around 30 minutes before they were eventually brought to us. Upon receiving these we also requested the drinks bill which should of been 2x Pepsi and 1x ½ Pepsi. The bill showed bottles of wine and other alcohol to the sum of around £50; that was the cherry on the cake. To summarise we spent around four hours of our christmas day here, the staff were frantic and the setup was a mess. Whether the bar had been oversold or the food under estimated there was some huge failings in the christmas day service and all this for a handsome sum of money which was taken in advance luckily for the bar as I really think a lot of people would of upped and left had it not been for this. I also had a table of friends who had the same experience as us and left before their desserts were served. We arranged this because it was our daughters first birthday on christmas day so we wanted to make the day special for her. We requested her birthday cake back from the bar staff as it was such a stressful experience and we just wanted to get home after it. We would like to add that we have been to the bar for sunday lunch four times previous to christmas dinner and always had a really good experience with much better quality of service and food. This was really dissapointing and left a bad feeling about a day which should of been filled with joy for our daughters first birthday but couldnt help leaving the bar feeling stressed and bothered, most of all feeling robbed.

The Black Horse is in a beautiful country location and the venue is lovely inside and out. (cleanest toilets I've ever seen in a pub) We've had dinner here and enjoyed a summer drink outside but this is the first time we've been for Sunday lunch. We both had featherblade beef - the food was just gorgeous with melting beef, delicious veg and good-sized Yorkshires. Dearer than the average Sunday roast but well worth the extra money and the service was excellent. Definitely recommended.

Had an excellent meal with my son, daughter in law and grandson. The food was delicious and the service 1st rate and the staff were really good and friendly. The location was in a lovely spot, I look forward to going there again.

Very good service thank you very much

Gorgeous food any day of the week. Pre booking recommended

Went for Sunday lunch. Booked ahead Once seated, we had order taken quite promptly but then waited over 20mins to be served, we accepted this as it was full and busy After we had finished mains we requested dessert menu, after waiting over 25min we gave up and approached bar to settle bill At no point during our (approx) 2hr stay were we approached and asked if we need anything / more drinks etc Quality of food very good but service poor

We were married here recently. The venue was absolutely beautiful and all our guests enjoyed the day. It seems they’ve got a fairly high staff turnover, at least on the wedding coordinator side, and unfortunately that meant there were loads of miscommunications, and many of our requests went unmet after initially being told they could happen. As I say, our guests loved every minute, so I can’t be too critical, but my husband and I were disappointed by a few aspects.

We had our wedding here back in November 2023, after booking back in 2021. Prior to the wedding, our wedding co-ordinator changed at the very least 5 times, with either poor record keeping/little communication between the leaving co-ordinator and their replacement, which led to us having to explain what we needed over and over again to the new co-ordinator. I’d recommend a more robust CRM database to save any of this issues in the future. The last change came about a week before the actual date, with again, poor record keeping coming to the surface. Luckily the new co-ordinator Donna was on the ball and got this under control and you could tell she wanted us to have the best possible day, texting and calling me in the days leading up to the big day to answer any queries we had and to reassure any doubts we had. We had our day in the Orchard Marquee. When I arrived at the venue at about 11am, there was still lots of paraphernalia from the evening befores wedding - which I myself was still finding around the marquee about 30 mins before our ceremony. There was a breakdown in communication between guests and staff when they were asked to take their seats - guests were asked to go outside and walk around the marquee itself rather than through the marquee. Not a massive deal in the summer, but in the middle of autumn seems strange. When arriving at the other end, those with drinks were then told to walk back around the marquee and leave them at the other end. The bride was waiting in the car outside at the point of the guests walking around to take their seats, so had to hide in the back of the car not to be seen. The wedding breakfast was delicious but admittedly a bit cold when served so might be something to work on (getting the food out quicker). The buffet on the evening was well received when asking the rest of the guests. Shout outs in particular to Beth, Finn and Anne in the marquee whose service was fantastic - we loved seeing the staff enjoying themselves when the band were on, having a little dance behind the bar!! Our room was fantastic and felt very luxurious when returning for a breather/going to bed after a full day on your feet. Breakfast was delivered to our room which was very accommodating due to personal circumstances so this was a nice touch. All in all, we had a brilliant (if not ever so slightly chaotic) experience. I believe with Donna and her team at the helm, this should be better for the future. A note to the owners - having a beautiful venue in a wonderful location is not enough nowadays - you need to invest not just money into your systems and facilities, but time into your staff as well. Give your teams the best possible environment to succeed and deliver amazing experiences and they’ll pay you back tenfold.

We booked Christmas lunch for 6 adults, back in June. At the time of booking, we were told the dinner would be served in The marquee which we were pleased about as we had dined in there Christmas 2019 and had been extremely pleased with the setting, the meal and the service which had all been amazing. Upon arrival at 11:30 we were told that our meal would be in the restaurant, not the marquee. They showed us to our table, which was a table with space for 4 adults comfortably but with 6 places set up all squashed in. Really annoying bearing in mind we specifically asked upon booking where it would be. None of our group were happy about the table allocated so we asked if we could sit in the orangery instead, to be told no as other people had requested that area. How could we have requested that area when we were told it was to be in the marquee? We eventually moved to another table however that wasn't much better and the seats were super uncomfortable and we were all crammed in. We got served our starters which were all disappointing. I had seafood cocktail but there was very little prawns and the presentation was awful, it was just served on a normal side plate, no thought had gone into the presentation whatsoever. My main was the turkey and I felt very underwhelmed when it was served, it was a tiny portion with only 2 tiny roast potatoes. Dessert was also a let down so I left most of that. The whole meal was just awful from start to finish. The last part of the menu was supposed to be tea/coffee, petit fours and mince pies but we never got offered any of that. £90 a head, what a total waste of money. I will certainly not be returning to The Black Horse which is a shame as I was a regular visitor for food and the odd drink. Never again. I have emailed a complaint but had no reply but that does not surprise me.

We were booked for the 3-3.30pm sitting on Christmas Day. On arrival we were told to go to marquee for 3,we did and after standing about for 10 mins no one attended or even looked at us so we headed back over to pub and told to stand near bar as we were going to be seated upstairs. We stood around for over 30 minutes in way of the staff rushing about. Once seated upstairs which was nice and cosy we had lack of cutlery on our table for the starter and had to ask staff for prosecco that was stated you would get on arrival. Then it was nearly 2 hours before we were served Christmas lunch which was barely warm and quite small compared to photos i had seen from people who had the first sitting. People were wondering what was going on and staff did not seem to want to engage and seemed stressed out. We had a small child with us who was getting tired and hungry and some of us had taxis booked that could not be rebooked so in the end we had to leave with desserts in a box and very disappointed considering we paid £495.00 for 5 adults and 1 child. You expect a lot more for that amount of money and CHRISTMAS DAY! We feel robbed! We all felt let down as this was our first time we decided to eat out for Christmas Lunch so we had been looking forward to this for months. I have also emailed my complaint but no reply as of yet.

Visited New Year’s Eve lunch time for a 60 th birthday 17 of us Service was excellent Food was absolutely fantastic Pauline and girls where fab Location is just fabulous Will definitely be visiting again very soon And I know a Few from the party will Be back also

We had Christmas lunch second sitting here we sat down at 4pm to eat a prawn cocktail it would have fed two people it was more than enough and was delicious, main course traditional turkey and stuffing that was beautiful with gorgeous vegetables, roasties, yorkshire pudding again more than enough, dessert we were extremely full of food at this point but of course Christmas pudding with brandy custard (yummy) needs to be eaten! At Christmas! My daughter well actually all of us had the best time it we eat out every year decor, very very Christmassy and traditional everywhere fab classy decorations twinkling, superb atmosphere if I was being extra picky (I a booking asap for next Christmas) !!! We had 29 mins to be seated ! But it was hectic with loads of atmosphere and the food more than compensated for that. The staff were brilliant nothing was a problem!🎄❄️they were rushed off there feet 😃😃😃😃🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Restaurant was lovely. We also stayed overnight. Room was amazing and even though we had a small issue in the room, it was quickly sorted out. Staff were very helpful.