Whisky River Cocktail Bar in County Durham

Lovely cocktail bar with plenty of drinks to choose from. The staff were very friendly and the guy singing live was very good.

Headed to the bar for a cocktail but the bar staff said said they had stopped serving cocktails. However, we were shocked to find a different member staff serving cocktails to people who had just arrived. Not sure if they just couldn’t be bothered… Live music in the venue which was great and had we had not had the issue with cocktails would have been a lovely bar.

Great to see it back to its oldself after the rude male manager they had has gone. we will now return every weekend

Out with a group of friends and decided for a drink by the river, discovered whiskey river and had to try. Great selection of whiskys, bar staff are new but learning quickly and happily made all the cocktails we asked for. 10/10 would come back

Great selection of drinks, brilliant staff and lovely cocktails. Would definitely recommend this bar

this bar is not being done justice! i came here with a few friends and we had the best time ever, cocktails are fun and unique and bar staff are always polite and ready to help no matter how busy it gets!

What a fab night music and service was excellent 👌🎶😁

Unfortunately the bar is suffering from a lack of staff, and the owner is always more drunk than it’s customers… Very sad as it used to be the best bar in Durham

They said sorry it's too busy we can't let you in ! It wasn't busy at all in fact it was a table outside That was empty... I just don't understand it !!!!!!

Lovely location. Expensive, with a limited drink selection. Service was rude and slow.

Ignored at the bar while the staff stood and chatted! Then was told that I should have raised my hand to show that I needed serving!

9 months on, still waiting to be paid. Contacted numerously for payment of handcrafted artisan gin. Continuously ignored our email and calls. Such a shame they would take advantage of small family run business. Would never go there again!

Nice atmosphere/looking place. An expensive rum n coke which I couldn't taste the coke. Liking my whisky I was disappointed to see pretty bog standard whiskies you would find in a supermarket?

The manager James was a legend. One of the best old fashioned I've had. Great night, cheers

Total disgrace, they don’t pay there invoices and are dodging us directly, I’ve been several times to collect payment for stock and they’ve not been open, staff actively avoiding us also!

Lovely staff, good choice of drinks, and a fabulous Latin night on Tuesdays. Allways my favourite night. Open daytimes and evenings.

Shame to witness the bar staff giving their friends free drinks. Lovely little bar but unfortunately let down by the bar staff (who were not the owners of the bar)

This used to be the best bar in Durham but unfortunately it’s gone way down in my estimations the staff sit outside so your left waiting ages to order a drink I think the management red to check there cctv more often to see what there staff are up too …. Like I say it was the best bar in Durham hopefully it will return

Lovely cocktails and drinks! Excellent customer service and this place has a great vibe!

Lovely bar by the river and Emily is a great singer! ❤️

Average selection of whisky for somewhere with whisky in the name, pleasant enough venue though.

The staff at this place need to be trained how to be polite to people. My partner had come back in here as he had lost a personal possession and was left waiting for ages at the bar, with people barging in in front of him being served before him. When he was finally actually seen at the bar they were so dismissive toward him, but he finally got his item.

Popped in on a Monday afternoon and the outside seating area was lovely. Cocktails on offer 2 for £10. Not much available on draught. Bar maid was lovely and welcoming even though she was on her own, she made the time to chat.

A large group for us (26 to be exact) had came to Durham on Saturday afternoon for a 50th birthday celebration. I wasn’t drinking and was feeling a little bit cold, so when I went to the bar asked to buy a hot drink, Others in the bar/cafe who were in our group had been served with coffee before me, I was refused. I was told no we are too busy ….. so I asked to speak with the manager and again she repeated the same thing we are too busy. The customer service was terrible and this I stated. To which I was told “ if you want a warm or soft drink on a Saturday don’t come to a cocktail bar and walked off “ so if your tee total , are the designated driver or simply don’t fancy drinking alcohol they don’t want you money in here apparently…..not the best way to run a business. Safe to say we won’t be returning or recommending.

Possibly the worst bar in Durham, I stood for 45 minutes trying to get served on a not that busy day when an obviously regular walked to bar and nodded at barmaid who had constantly informed me we are busy and will get to yo soon got served asap… at first I let it go but then my camouflage suit obviously kicked in and I was ignored for another 30 min, when I eventually got served I asked to speak to manager and was informed that she was the manager!!! Sorry but you need to sort your staff out asap 0/10

Due to ill health, it had been years since I'd have the pleasure of visiting Whisky River. I'm looking forward to spending more time there again, as it's just as fantastic as I remembered. The staff are extremely friendly, the cocktails are excellent and good value, and the venue itself is immaculate.

We really enjoy our nights in this beautiful bar, delicious cocktails are made by the friendly staff..

Nice bar with good atmosphere and friendly service.

Left after waiting over 30 mins to be served. Would have liked a cocktail but told it was table service when went and asked yet guy serving outside didn't even acknowledge we were there. Rubbish.

Best cocktails in Durham. Staff always friendly and very welcoming. Love this place!

“Excellent Water” - Jonny Lowe. Lovely spot for a coffee. Lovely and very friendly staff who looked after us.

Staff are the highlight of this place, super helpful and very friendly. Really made us all feel welcome. Prices are good too, not too expensive, especially for wine. Some really lovely cocktails on offer as well.

My boyfriend & I came here for drinks during our trip away to Durham and we absolutely loved it. The servers were all so lovely and welcoming, I wish I could have caught the guys' names who were serving us so we could've gave them a shoutout. The drink selection was incredible, everything just tasted amazing. You all completely made our evening! We will definitely be making the trip back and recommend anyone debating coming here to definitely do so xx

Staff great, great choice of spirits to drink unlike many other Durham bars, nice location but a few stairs to get there. Lovely seating and decor was very nice. Best bar we went to in the city.

My boyfriend and I popped in here on a trip to Durham spur of the moment, we didn’t have a booking but they found us a seat with no problem. The drinks menu is really varied which is great and the service was fantastic. Will...

First outing since the lift of restrictions had absolutely amazing service from a lovely waitress called Jessica so friendly and welcoming! Will definitely come again and she really made our night 😊 you are fantastic at your job!!!!

Came here with my mate, first outside drinks of 2021. Everywhere what you'd expect. But we came here, straight off the bat we get Jessica going the extra mile, offering a laugh as well as the menu, more your friend than your server. Stayed the...

I'm not a person who writes reviews, but I just felt like I have to do it this time. We went to Durham for a day just to walk around and see the city sights and after a few hour we got quite tired and decided to look for a nice place for some refreshments when we stumbled upon Whisky River. Not gonna lie, we found this place pretty great! Coctail menu is simple and easy for somebody who has little knowledge about coctails and the staff were more than helpful. After choosing a few myself I asked for a recommendation based on my taste and what I got was way better that I expected, also the service was quite fast and staff paid attention if we wanted anything else before our drinks were gone. All in all really cozy place by the river with great staff and not overpriced drinks.

Always a pleasure coming here. Friendly staff, lovely location and fantastic refreshing cocktails

Lovely cocktail bar, friendly staff. Great Riverside location. Highly recommended the porn star martini. Will definitely be back

Good bar ,with a very helpful barman.really nice guy. Finn the barman top lad.

Nice location near the river, good cocktails to boot. Sat outside, recommend a visit

Durham Riverside bar, nice beer and cocktails.

Cocktails some of the best I've ever had, to die for. Bar staff were amazing, Sophie and another guy, had a great time chatting with them last night. Proper chill atmosphere! Highly recommend

Great drinks, cool music and chill atmosphere

Trendy Chic Bar serving Fantastic Champagne

Lovely little bar, great choice lovely staff. Will be back soon.

New Years Welcome. When no-one was going to let us in with our pleasant puppy to see in the New Year the lovely folk at Whisky River were so hospitable! A great atmosphere and such amazingly friendly service from bar to security staff. Good whiskey...

Very good range of whiskey's, busy night out

Limited drink options, poor lager draught choices, peroni flat (probably due to the glasses). Cocktails overpriced. Also premium prices which are unjustified. DJ was good but the sound kept dipping in and out.

Booked the function area for 25 guests for a graduation party. Despite not doing catering, they managed to arrange food for us anyway at a very reasonable price. Staff were very friendly and accommodating, and also understanding with us despite the young children and dogs...

Nice bar. Could have been a better range of whisky

First visit. Very nice.very nice indeed.

Lovely place serving excellent cocktails

Great staff.great cocktails. Dog friendly.

Friendly helpful reasonable. Tell me why Whisky River. Count the bottles of whisky on the shelve. Theeir is More beers and cocktails. Get more of a selection. Go to a fin bar, shelves full of bottles. Still a nice lounge bar to visit. (or crawl)

Nice little bar beside the river. Worth a visit.

Nice location , nice to sit outside with the dog after a walk by the river

Beautiful quaint little bar by the river

excellent and really cheap beers prices and quality drinks friendly amazing staff nice door staff and clean toilets

Great place to chill with a drink

Been coming here for years with my friends and we love the place! A great outside seating area right by the river is great for summer afternoons! A wide range of cocktails to match everyone’s taste and really friendly staff! Love the live music on...

Dropped in here for a quick early evening ( well late afternoon) cocktail, nice efficient staff and they make a mean white Russian.

Prices are quite high but a good selection of drinks and cocktails. Live music on some nights.

Quite overpriced in terms of other bars in the area, however you get what you pay for. A great quality establishment with great quality staff.

Bar staff are knowledgeable and friendly, door staff great and cocktails superb xxx

Was here Easter Sunday afternoon with my wife. This place was busy inside & outside. I stood at the bar for almost 10 minutes without being served. Decided to leave. We went elsewhere. If it’s busy like this again, we will avoid completely.

A nice bar with friendly staff However the evening was spoiled by the choice of music playing. It was a quiet Sunday evening and there were only a few people in the bar. Heavy rap music blasting just wasn’t appropriate and not really fitting with...

Excellent cocktails and selection of bourbons

Had a morning coffee. Bent over backwards to serve us. Very large! Cosy seating area views over river. Sheltered and accommodating to dogs. Only downside was their huge yummy looking muffins, too big to eat there and then, but they didn't have a bag so...

Decent place.nice cocktail menu and nice atmosphere. It does get busy but it never feels so busy that it's uncomfortable. Nice seating areas inside and out would recommend for a drink.

Waited 15 minutes for a whiskey cocktail that didn't have any flavour of whiskey. My girlfriend thinks I should mention the barman chatting but I don't feel it's relevant, still one star. Apparently I should clarify that "he was chatting to a bit of clunge whilst I was waiting and she was dying of thirst" I also need to add that at 8 in the evening there is no toilet paper left. The one star is for the music. I feel like my review has been totally hijacked but still 1 star.

Great drinks, super friendly staff!

Came here after making mistake of going in Boat Club opposite which was awful! As we came out of boat club we decided to go in here as a load of trouble was starting outside BC. Like chalk n cheese really, great drinks, music, service...

Being at the airport we decided to stop here since we haven't eaten here yet. The hostess immediately seated us, I asked to be seated in the quiet section of the restaurant, the restaurant was quite busy with few seats open, there was live music...

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My wife and I popped in here for an early evening drink last Saturday and, whilst the bar is decent enough, some elements of our visit were disappointing. Like a lot of bars in Durham, the drink prices are a little on the expensive side....

Expensive and experience spoiled by loud fowl mouthed students

Came for lunch with sister from Hampshire and auntie from New Zealand. Excellent platters. Really friendly and helpful staff. Reasonable prices.

A lovely bar with a great atmosphere at the side of the river. Would live to go back in warm weather and sit outside. well priced drinks with friendly staff. Had a really nice vibe about it. Can definitely recommend. Well worth a visit.

Went here on a Friday afternoon for drinks whilst in Durham. Lovely setting, right next to the river and the interior is modern but cosy. Seating makes it seem intimate. Would def visit again.

Staff didn't appear to know how to make drinks on cocktail menu. Odd watching him guess. He didn't taste it either. The cake was outstandingly dry

Exceptional visit. We arrived relatively late in the evening after dinner. The staff were amazingly helpful, describing the various whiskeys, making recommendation and allowing us to taste a wide range.

Excellent atmosphere and a great bar with a wide selection of drinks. Lovely location and the staff are incredibly friendly and knowledgeable of the cocktails available.

Great bar and atmosphere, lovely staff and drinks. Highly recommend.

My wife and I visited this bar on an early Saturday evening as part of an evening out in Durham. I waited patiently for about 15 minutes for my turn to be served. It was reasonably busy and obviously making cocktails takes time. Not an issue.

Love this place always visit when in the North East

Definitely The Best Pub in Durham! Amazing Atmosphere! Staff and Very Clean Fantastic Choice of Cocktails and Drinks !!

The doorman was alert throughout which was a good thing because, you got the feeling things could turn nasty real quick. Not so much in the bar, but outside by the steps. Luckily nothing happened on our visits. A lot of different people coming & going through here so it was a vibrant place. Busy inside & out, nice drinks.

We used this place to meeting . It served its purpose and provided a pleasant place to enjoy our first drinks of the day.

Rude and incompetent bar staff. On top of a sheer lack of inability to remember who was next to be served, the barman had the nerve to insult us ('trying' to show off to girls at the bar presumably) and then get our order completely wrong. Worth noting this was a relatively quiet afternoon rather than a night

Thought we'd give it a try on an evening out in Durham.

Went for evening drinks, tried a variety of cocktails which were brought to our table, and were delicious, the staff are friendly and helpful, it is clean and well worth a visit.

Been a couple of times and always had friendly service ,it’s got a cosy feel to it with a small but nice selection of beers and wine and the toilets are super posh and very clean,today a couple brought their dog in and they provided a bowl of water for it ,very thoughtful

Visiting Durham to meet friends , came across the whiskey river , being Scottish we like our whiskey and were served by s lovely and attentive bar man called Chris , the drinks were not expensive , I would recommend the owner of the bar to send her staff to islay to see a distillery in production therefore giving her staff knowledge of what they are selling and somthing to converse with customers . Michelle Pia

Fantastic cocktails and great atmosphere.

Great bar with freindly and knowledgeable staff.. fantastic selection of whisky.. don't go looking for rum or gin tho.. clue is kinda in the name..!! Great atmosphere too. Good location next to the river, loads of steps but definitely worth the trek, but Durham is full of places like that..

Bar staff are always super friendly and accommodating. Recently we went for a run and asked to leave our jackets as we were too hot, the guy behind the bar was lovely and said of course we could, obviously this meant that we simply had to go for drinks after our run! Looks a lovely venue for after work drinks or day time chills, especially when the weather gets better.

I've been in some terrible bars in my time, think this place could be the worst, the bar staff are a joke, cocktail making skills 0, and slow isn't even in it.

Popped to the beautiful city of Durham for a walk along the river and visit to the stunning cathedral. Finished the evening perfectly with a cocktail or three in this lovely cocktail bar. Sat outside to relax with the wife.overlooking the river. Service and drinks were delicious special thanks to Holly for a lovely evening and great service. Highly recommended