The Orangery Restaurant in Darlington

Afternoon tea absolutely amazing

Fabulous experience in the Orangery in Rockliffe yesterday! Went for afternoon tea which was a faultless experience from friendly greeting to farewell. Wonderful service and delicious food beautifully presented.

Took my fiancé here for her birthday for a spa day at the Rockliffe Hotel. The restaurant serves food at Michelin star prices but food doesn't quite cut it. Service is fine and brought up allergy note on reservation at the beginning of meal, but staff should try to smile a bit more and try to be more engaging. More annoyed than anything else as the restaurant engaged in the age old sin of set menu/taster menu sized dishes on the à la carte menu. As expected left feeling extremely hungry despite spending over £250 for two three "course" meals and a bottle of wine, left the hotel premises a couple hours later to get McDonald's. As for the food itself, okay, but just didn't quite cut it. Lamb was bland, the risotto nothing to shout about (unoriginal), and nothing that I couldn't get at a French Bistro in Edinburgh or Newcastle for half the price and twice the quantity. Bakewell tart for desert was somewhat redeeming. @Chef check out l'escargot bleu in Edinburgh for three courses done right, or do what Hjem in Northumberland does and get rid of the à la carte menu so people know not to come if they don't want to sit through 8-10 courses. Not sure about the mix of English and French dishes either, local ingredients but no local inspiration. Feel free to invite me back when you've fixed this, and please fix this as you are obviously quite talented.

Fantastic! Great food great wine. Very attentive and knowledgeable staff.

Interesting food but painfully slow service. From start to finish dinner lasted over 3 hours, most of it spent waiting in a less than comfortable dining area. The Orangery produces excellent food but the experience is mired by style over substance and an under delivery on core comforts. Would hesitate to recommend.

Outstanding cuisine preceded by very good cocktails in the bar. The hotel deserves all the plaudits it gets. Particularly impressive that standards have been maintained at this time of chef and staff shortages. Lovely reception staff too. The original building has a real wow factor too.

Nice atmosphere, good food and great wine. Recommend the wine pairing option.

The Gary Duff eating experience, get yourself along to it, the mans a genius. The tasting menu’s are complete works of art, completely littered with taste bombs that will blow you away.

Amazing food off the A La cart menu. Wonderful 2 night stay !!

Beautiful modern food in a relaxing atmosphere. Watch out for the cheeseboard though, lol. Order it and you'll see what I mean. Love this place as the staff are also warm and friendly too. Memorable evening and more to come here. We will definitely return 👍

Had a fantastic meal - opted for the 10 course taster menu (vegetarian as I’m not a huge fish fan, of which there was plenty on the non vegetarian menu) the maître d’ suggested if we were to return we could customise next time which is something to bare in mind. Customised menus with our names on were also a nice touch - the food was excellent and the staff were very attentive - without being intrusive - only gripe was the length of the meal - we were there 3 hours with only three other tables in the restaurant, which felt excessive, but was totally outweighed by the food quality and service. Thank you for a great evening

Richard Allen is a gastronomic genius, my husband is a picky eater and loved every mouthful, exclaiming 'that's so clever' throughout our meal. The service surpassed a 3 star Michellin restaurant we visited in Barcelona. Dan the someliar is a wine genius, we love desert wine and he introduced us to the most sublime 'Sticky Mickey' which we are now addicted to, his knowledge and passion is infectious- the perfect foil to chefs culinary prowess

I had a lovely meal experience. On business in the area I opted for the four course menu. Service was excellent and fast. All courses were very well presented and tasty.

Sometimes it's a 4 or 5 and very good, sometimes it's a 2 and we have to wait 45 minutes for someone to check if we want cheese and/or coffee...It took nearly 4 hours from start to finish on Saturday...it's close to being very good, that's the frustrating thing, and at Michelin Star prices it needs to sort the flaws.

Just put a review on the main hotel, but thought i would add one here too, came for a wedding, but stopped another ight & had dinner in the orangery. Was great, loved the dining room & the food. Service was good too. The live pianist was great and unusual to have!