Whistle Stop in County Durham

We had fish bites (generous portion of large fish "chunks"), large sausage, chips, gravy, peas and scraps! It was a lovely treat to have and take onto the beach nearby to eat. Really friendly chap who served me.

Now called the Charcoa Carvery since its refurb recently and I was impressed with the new decor which was luxurious and classy. The staff were pleasant and eager to assist and for all it was Sunday lunchtime there was no queu to get served and plenty of choice re seating arrangements for all we had not booked. I chose the turkey which was perfect and my family all had beef which they enjoyed. There was a good selection of vegetables (even salad if we had wanted it) but I did find it difficult to access the veges as there is nowhere to put your plate down and you need one hand to open the lid and another to serve the veges. Also the containers at the back of the vegetable servery were very inaccessible - this must have been designed by a very tall person with no regard for shorter customers and anyone with a disability or only able to use one hand would have been at a severe disadvantage. Also we never discovered the sauces until we returned to select our dessert as the sauces are set aside from the actual carvery and vegetable area. In the past you paid at the end and it was all the same price. Now you buy a ticket at the beginning but the meals are more expensive than the carvery selection so how do you know what you actually want until you are at the servery and by then its too late - you have either paid for carvery or paid for a meal so that is a strange set up I found. BUT getting back to the food and that was good, plentiful and hot. It is described as the 'ultimate carvery' and I think that is rather optimistic - its tasty and the ambience is lovely but a few practical tweaks in my opinion are needed. at the vegetable servery and make customers aware that the sauces are available. I enjoyed my trio of mini desserts and the assistant brought the hot drinks to the table when she had made them. A pleasant afternoon while the piano man played in the background.

Me and my mum and my 3rd nana Dawn went here, we ordered our food and i got some Fanta orange to drink and then our food came. I had cod bites and mam and Dawn had chips with gravy, and we enjoyed it. Will be coming back.

I am very disappointed with the visit to the coffee shop, I was served a cake, dry and looked like it was a month old, when I pointed out its freshness, I was served another equally dry one + 2 cubes of butter

We planned to stay at the Old Well Inn for one night following a family wedding nearby. Our room was very spacious and clean. As it was November and quite cold outside our room also had an additional blanket for the bed and space heater! Due to an unexpected snow storm we had to stay an additional night and all staff were extremely accommodating and went out of their way to make sure we had somewhere to stay for the night. Breakfast both mornings were lovely and evening menus had something for everyone. Highly recommend!