The Dispensary Cafe Bar in County Durham

Passing through on way back from holiday. Stopped for morning break. Delicious freshly baked scone and coffee. Lovely and clean quiches looked great. What a great find would recommend.

We went as a group of 6 unannounced and we welcomed with enthusiasm. We were shown to a table that had clearly been cleaned to a high standard. We each ordered a panini which was made fresh and delivered to our table by lovely waitresses. The food was excellent. We enjoyed the atmosphere we went back late afternoon for coffee and homemade cakes. Amazing little gem recommended 5*

After an impulse visit, we fell upon the cafe bar after visiting the Gallery, what a beautiful building. Staff couldn't be more helpful and cheerful we sat outside in the garden we ordered two sandwiches and coffee and cake we were so full that staff kindly wrapped out cake up for takeaway. We will be back, took a leaflet as there is free outdoor entertainment at weekends.

We found this cafe by chance after parking in Morrison’s car park - how lucky for us. Everything about our visit was superb. The Covid precautions on entry were spot on. The coffee & food were both excellent quality and the staff were extremely friendly & helpful. When we next visit Barnard Castle, we’ll be sure to stop in here again. For info, they even allow dogs inside.

Looking for somewhere to eat on a eat out to help out day came across the dispensary on our way from the car park to the main shopping area. Not disappointed at all. The tables were well spaced and cleaned before use. A large enough range of options for lunch including different panini s accompanied by a generous salad garnish and crisps, wish individual pots of salad dressing. Contactless payment available with all staff wearing face covering/visors. So good we stopped for tea and cake before leaving

Great cafe in Witham Art Centre....very dog friendly....great service, fantastic food, all freshly cooked and large portions

Located inside The Witham Hall. Consistently good: some of the most delicious scones I've ever tasted. Tea is usually of the loose variety served properly with a strainer...proper style. Tables usually decorated with real flowers. Staff unfailingly cheerful and obliging. The Dispensary Cafe Bar shows the competition a thing or two and that's why it's the first choice for us when we visit Barnard Castle.

Good homemade wholesome food at reasonable prices in warm bright atmosphere. Friendly service Would recommend the panini served with side salad

My friends and I had a wonderful Afternoon Tea stop at The Dispensary cafe. Plenty of choice of Homemade Cakes all delicious. Friendly efficient Staff and very Clean toilet facilities.

Situated in the Witham centre this is well worth a visit. Nice venue, good food and coffee. Staff very pleasant

We always eat here when we visit Barnard Castle as a lot of the food is sourced locally. My favourite is the three cheese/ham platter with salad. It is made fresh and beautifully presented. It is not always on the menu or on the specials board but just ask for it. Service is always friendly and efficient - special thank you to M and S! And finally, the toilets are spotlessly clean.

After being ignored for 10 mins in a different coffee shop, we ended up here. The staff were really friendly and the place had a lovely atmosphere. Cake was pretty good too!!

We popped into this venue as an alternative to the main high street cafes in Barnard Castle and found a lovely airy space which served excellent coffee and delicious cakes and snacks. Well worth hunting down in the Witham Centre in Barnard Castle.

Housed inside the Witham community arts centre this is a great little cafe with excellent food. Well worth a visit

The cafe has a lovely relaxed feel. I live locally and come here to eat and order get a warm drink. The food is homemade and delicious and the hot chocolate, especially the dark one is amazing, definitely worth a try. The staff are extremely friendly and very helpful. The perfect cafe

I feel upon the Witham whilst out with my family from the front of the building you wouldn't expect what we found, a superb cafe bar serving fresh soups and homemade scones and soda bread the smell alone was enough to die for. Myself and family had a variety of meals from the extensive menu from smoked salmon bagel, paninis, toasted sandwiches and not to mention the homemade soup and soda bread plenty of vegan and gluten free options, some amazing cakes all washed down with amazing coffee. I have found the perfect cafe in Barnard Castle. The staff were brilliant couldn't do enough for us, the whole atmosphere was chilled and relaxing. The Witham dispensary cafe bar is my ultimate choice and recommend highly.Thank you we will be back.

On a bitterly cold day a choice of three hot soups with fresh home made Soda Bread was just the ticket. We chose Pea and Mint. A very generous piping hot bowl soon arrived with an equally generous hunk of bread. Very tasty. No room sadly for the lovely selection of home made goodies - next time.

Terrible bread was sandwich sliced not as described soda or artisan and for £4.90 expensive. Cold outside so local and called in to give a another place in town trade wish I hadn’t bothered.

A lovely airy cafe in the Witham,a beautiful Historic building, overlooking a meadow but in the centre of Barnard Castle. Wheelchair friendly and easy to access with outside seating weather permitting. Top quality home cooked food, great soups and quiche's and specials, good vegetarian and vegan options, delicious coffee and drinks and lovely welcoming staff. And by eating here, you are also helping to support a wonderful arts centre, which is a focus and meeting place for the community in this lovely medieval market town.

Friendly and helpful staff serving tasty coffee and cakes. Great central place for coffee and cake or lunch.

A very special place where you feel more like a family member rather than a customer. I recommend the soups to warm you in cold winter.

Good quality food and drinks served by friendly and helpful staff. Enjoyed our visit and will be back!

Whilst visiting Barnard Castle we wanted a quick cuppa and called in the Dispensary Cafe the staff were very friendly and welcoming. After a walk round the town we decided to go for lunch at the dispensary. the welcome was just the same as the first time I'd give it a thumbs up everytime

What a beautiful light space to enjoy a great locally produced lunch, the service was fantastic and the service was faultless. 😁

The cakes here are always delicious, the coffee is excellent, and the staff are welcoming and friendly. Today the sun shone so you could sit outside. Fab!!

What can i say....Suzanne saved me! I popped in on the off chance off getting something vegan for lunch and i was offered chickpea curry, carrot & coriander soup or lentil & rosemary soup. I opted for the latter and i can say, hand on heart, it was the best lentil soup i have ever had. It was delicious along with my coffee made with almond milk. Although they didn't have a huge variety to offer me, the staff certainly made up for it with impecible service. Well done guys. You get a 5☆ rating from me

This is a very modern venue at the rear of the art centre. We had coffee and scones which were nice if not the very best.

Returned to this cafe following a very successful first visit in September 2017. The first visit the food , service and choice were exceptional. Today (05/03/18) the winter menu was on offer - much more limited choice,however despite my hoped for sandwich to go with my soup no longer being on the menu decided to stick with it. We both ordered soup and a sandwich, both soups were lovely however the portions were noticeably of a different size and the second soup was lukewarm at best. This was reheated after we returned it to the servers. The sandwiches were however disappointing the filling was described as thick cut ham with pease pudding - the filling was meagre compared to the last visit and also despite the menu stating you got your choice of soup with your choice of sandwich served with some salad and crisps neither were forthcoming although they had been provided in the earlier visit. This was a disappointing return and as we are regular commuters between the North East and North West of England may have to find a different venue for lunch in future.

We were looking for a midday snack on a Saturday but all the street front cafes seemed full. We found the Dispensary and were delighted not just to get seated but to have some lovely food served by friendly and efficient staff. Really excellent soda bread came with the soup and we had cake to follow including a wonderfully moist, lemon drizzle cake. Will definitely return as the quality and pleasant light setting leaves the other cafes in Barnard Castle behind.

Sólo tomé café y chocolate frambuesa flapjack pero realmente el mejor café de Barnard y uno de los mejores que he tenido flapjacks.

Popped in for a snack & loved the food. My daughter chose goats cheese, spinach & caramelised onion quiche with salad whilst I sampled the corned beef pie. We were both very happy with our food.

Really good coffee and love the loyalty card. Such a nice old meets new location. Really good service.

El bar cafetería ofrece comida sabrosa y beber en cualquier momento del día. Como madre de dos niños pequeños es para niños en su ambiente y menú. Visitar por la noche allí, ofrece la perfecta disposición de buen vino, selección de cervezas y increíble chocolate caliente! Haciendo actualmente seca que probé el enero' sin alcohol cerveza de jengibre durante el intervalo de teatro y era tan agradable! El personal es siempre muy servicial y amable.

Este es mi favorito pop local en una copa o una comida ligera. La enfermería está situado en la zona de reciente desarrollo de este edificio histórico, y debido a esto tiene una gran calidad de luz y se siente muy bien ventilada. En los meses de verano es posible sentarse en el jardín de flores silvestres.

Un estupendo lugar, una verdadera alegría en el centro de Castillo barnard. El personal es increíblemente amable. El desempeña un tour de force. Verdaderamente la joya artística de Castillo barnard. Algo del arte allí compramos lágrimas de mis ojos.

Disfrutamos de una cena excelente y saludable con amigos antes de ver una banda en vivo en el Witham. El menú incluye una variedad de pollo o verduras curry, (ambos eran deliciosos), con naan, popadoms y una copa de vino seguido de postre. Se atienden...

This was the first in a new series of supper clubs, offering a meal before the evening concert ( in our case Heidi Talbot & band who were fab ). Supper club was held in the gallery area so we had interesting art to view, and for only £12 we had homemade lasagne with fresh salads and garlic bread, plus a large glass of wine and a scone with jam and cream. Everything was good quality and service was attentive. Barbara the cafe manager was keen to hear if we had any suggestions as this was the first event - I suggested reserved seating at the concert so that we could enjoy our meal and drinks without rushing to join the queue - she immediately followed up this suggestion and we had front row seats reserved for us. She also took orders for interval drinks which we had back in the gallery, another nice touch. Supper club is a great idea, I hope it will be a great success, we will certainly try it again.

Llamamos para una taza de té y nos saludó un aroma de fresca para hornear.. delante de mí había una bandeja de quebradiza directamente del horno esperando a ser comido y en el gabinete casero döbling dedos. Pedimos té, y el dedos quebradiza Los dedos se derretía en su boca y la quebradiza todavía cálido... fantástico. Lástima que era nuestro último día cuando encontramos este lugar.. muy recomendable para todos los que quieren un rush de azúcar

Positioned in the centre of the town with wheelchair access, and car parking close by. I found it expensive for what was on offer. It was the worst cup of coffee I have ever been served. I cannot recommend this establishment.

A great little cafe in the wonderful Witham which we always visit when in the area. It's located at the rear of the building in a light, spacious area with an uncomplicated menu using local ingredients. The lunch menu is always interesting, and there are yummy cakes & cream teas and, most importantly, leaf tea in pots! I'm sure a lot of visitors to Barney are unaware that the cafe exists so perhaps there should be a signboard outside the Witham's main entrance.

We nipped in for a light lunch, and really enjoyed the local savoury tarts, mackerel pate and cheese on toast, all with interesting salads. The menu was a bit different, the drinks selection interesting, the staff were friendly, and I felt the price was appropriate for what we got. If I'm in the area I would definitely go again.

We stopped for lunch at about 12:30 pm. The cafe was about half full and appeared to be staff by two people - one producing the food and one waiting at table. We had soup of the day (carrot and coriander) and a platter to share. We were asked if we wanted the soup first(!) which we did. The soup took quite some time to arrive - while waiting we observed another person (manager?) come down the stairs and enter the food preparation area, proceed to eat some bread and make herself a coffee. Perhaps she could have helped the two staff who were working hard though she was probably not qualified judging by her actions. The soup was rather thin and had the appearance of a packet soup - not impressed. The platter to share, which arrived quite soon after we finished the soup, was very good and excellent value. The cafe is light and airy and with the Witham's facilities has lots of potential but currently needs more consistency.

My husband and I visited The Witham today in order to see the the exhibitors at The Designer Makers Market. We have had a drink and cake before but today we ordered lunch of a platter to share. Well it was absolutely delicious!!! The platter comprised of salad, beetroot, 2 slices of very tasty ham, couscous with peppers, bite size pieces of pork pie and sausage rolls, chutney, 3 cheeses, wholemeal bread and oatmeal crackers, pickled onions, coleslaw... I think that is everything. To be honest I don't recall us ever ordering a platter to share before now but we loved it. Husband had a latte and just had a tap water. The Dispensary Cafe was bright and airy and tables were clean and quickly cleared. There were 9 tables and they were all full. We saw savoury pancakes being served as well as soup. The environment was very relaxed. My husband is in a wheelchair and the lift was used s number of times whilst we were sat there. Toilets were clean and roomy. A lovely touch to see bunches of daffodils in clear 'jars'. We live local and this was a very pleasant visit for us. If you do visit, access is either from Morrisons car park or the Market Place and don't forget to pop into the shop and the gallery. My only regret is that neither or us had room for cake. Barnard Castle has some fantastic places to eat and this is one of them. We told staff that our meal was absolutely lovely.

I visited this with my mum last Saturday. We'd not spotted it on previous visits to Barnard Castle but were told about the Witham Community Arts Centre by a shopkeeper. The café is at the back, if you enter from the main shopping street. It's beautiful - so light & airy and clean, plus when we went the tables all had vases of fresh daffodils, a nice touch which added to the lovely atmosphere. The tea was lovely, the lemon & poppy seed cake was divine, and my mum said her scone was delicious. They serve café-style light meals, including, unusually, pancakes! And prices are reasonable too. It's well worth seeking out. I wish I lived nearer so I could visit more often!