The best restaurants in County Durham North East

Bought a portion of fish strips that were nearly £6. There was 8 pieces of what I can only describe as scraps. I think the fryer must have forgotten to put the fish in. Un fortunately we had taken them home before opening so was impractical to return them. Chips were OK but cold

Delicious food, very good choice. Decent selection of beers and lagers. Staff very friendly, excellent service.

The best authentic Turkish specialty the lamb.

Greeted instantly at the door, nipped in for a nosey at the cake counter decided on 3 things for £15 which is on a more expensive scale but city prices for quality cakes and treats woman on the counter stated the offer 5 for £20 absolutely gorgeous also on too good to go so bargains available.

Great food and very friendly staff. Always busy but never booked and they find us a table everytime. The calzones are huge and the chocolate orange cake is very nice indeed.

A lovely little garden to wander around

Visited for steak night,beer nice, wine very nice, staff were very good and all food was very good. Only problem was for the price the portions have gone quite small, parmo was very nice but not very big and only a half portion of chips and the salad was quite sad. Steaks good as was everything else, lovely onion rings

We visited the neighbourhood cafe. Superb service and very very welcoming. If you're visiting Durham this is where you want to go for a brew

Normally go through the week but tried the Sunday dinner today........ Absolutely superb Crispy belly pork. The service is always good with the friendly staff and our meal came really quick.

Absolutely terrific breakfast, a family of four dined well here. The negatives are that you can’t book, we arrived at 09:15 (Sunday) and it was almost full. Also if you are sat near the door on a cold autumn or winters day, get used to either getting up and shutting the door or shouting ‘can you shut the door please’ at customers entering or leaving. Genuinely incredible that so many people drift through a door without checking whether it is shutting. We were freezing! Please invest in some door closers! I’m not picking though, the food and service are superb. We had a pancake stack (delicious), avo poached eggs and chilli (ace), two poached eggs on toast (demolished) and a toasted tea cake for the tiny fella. All were served with a smile. All were very very nice. So nice I forgot to take a photo!

Great food, great service. Definitely will return.

We are regular customers. The food is great, service is excellent and staff are very friendly. We will be back.

After a lovely walk along the river with a friend we decided to see if a table was available at Valentines for lunch. I’d normally book this popular restaurant but took the chance that a table would become available. On entering the restaurant we could see that it was very full so waited till we could ask the front of house staff. A couple were paying their bill (they were part of a larger party) and berating the staff as they did. The tone used was intimidating and I immediately felt very sorry to the young person having to deal with the anger thrown their way. As an ex restaurant manager myself I listened with the intention of calling in the owners if the woman lost further control. The complaint wasn’t about the food, they’d enjoyed that. It seemed to be tied to a request shed made to the server that she felt was ignored. She was confrontational and described the service as shocking. The front of house staff was respectful, at all times, but you could see she was at a loss as to what to say. I had the feeling that she was expecting to put us off asking for a table. However, Valentines has been a place I’ve always enjoyed immensely, judging by the sea of local faces seated that day I’d say I’m not alone. When they left I wasn’t the only person to offer words of support to the front of house staff, they said they’d never been spoken to like that by a customer. A wonderful lunch followed when a table was found, well worth the small wait. We will return, we always do.

Wonderful introduction to Indian food. Chaz/chad was super helpful and made lovely recommendations for us. We had lamb Rogan and chicken korma. Next time we’re in Barnard castle we will definitely come again.

Booked a table for 2 at 1pm. Arrived on time and chose our meals which were served in about 10 minutes. The lunches were plentiful, well cooked and nicely presented. Staff were courteous and helpful.