The best restaurants in Central Darlington North East

I know that this place gets a lot of praise and awards, so I already had high expectations before my visit... However, those expectations were surpassed! The whole experience starts with the super friendly and efficient staff, making you feel very welcome. Following that, you get a glimpse of the exceptional and varied wine list which has some proper gems on there from all over Italy. I tried a couple of different ones, and both were exceptional. I should also pause at this point and reflect on the wonderful, rustic surroundings. Lots of natural wood and plants plus the lovely warming glow of the giant pizza oven. Now, onto the main event...the pizzas! Just one look at the menu and you know that they aren't messing around. Loads of choice of exceptional sounding pizzas. Nothing novelty or gimmicky, just quality traditional Italian pizzas. My wife had a marinara and I had a garlic mushroom, ham and ricotta number. Both of these were off the chart delicious! Two things I look for in a good pizza are a super stretchy and glutenous base and simple, exceptional tomato sauce and these were absolutely nailed! The toppings were simple and of the best quality. Honestly, this was a pizza to remember. We'll definitely be back. This place is worth all the awards it gets. Highly, highly recommended!

had the Ukranian. fabulous hash browns. didn't need to eat for the rest if the day. the espresso was nectar.

Absolutely fabulous. Second visit for us and even improved on our first visit, which was awesome. Beautiful food and a great experience. Came out stuffed!

Exceptional food and warm friendly staff. Today was Vijaydashani so we were treated to Payasam off the dessert menu. Could not fault this restaurant. Simply superb.

Fun atmosphere with photo wallpapers of Japanese market streets at night. Great, funny and courteous waitresses. The food is really, really good. We felt comfortable, had an excellent meal and overall had a very nice evening at TAO. Today we're going there again and trying out more delicious dishes - even though we're only spending five days in Darlington and actually wanted to visit other restaurants. Sorry about the half-eaten pictures. We were hungry and when we realized how delicious the food was, we quickly took some pictures. So the portions are much larger. :-) EDIT: At this point I would like to apologize to all the other restaurant operators in Darlington, but this is our third evening here. When we come home and someone asks us what Darlington was like, we reply: "Yummy!".

What a stunning place, everyone should visit, thank you for the hospitality x

Disappointed. Sunday evening with menus for tapas on the tables which state until 9pm (no days mentioned) sat for 20 minutes deciding what to order to be told at the bar that the kitchen closes at 6pm! Take the menus off the tables or state the days! Apart from that it's nice inside, decent selection of drinks, going to colonel mustards now as starving!

Fantastic staff , beautiful food , very welcoming .

The sag paneer had ONE piece of paneer in it and there was a thick layer of oil sat on top of the tarka daal.. disappointing

Had the crushed avocado myself (which was incredible) and my partner (coeliac) had a gluten free full English. Both absolutely satisfied and I cannot praise Breeze enough for being so helpful and accommodating with the gluten allergy! Will absolutely be visiting again - even if just for the rhubarb lemonade 😋

They acted all nice but were actually charging us a lot more than the dishes were worth. Thank God we checked the prices on the menu. When trying to negotiate for the original prices of the dishes, they said we had asked for a custom dish that was exactly the same as the dishes on the menu but were much more expensive. Portions were small and the food tasted horrible. Not recommended at all.

Not up to usual standards, driver had squashed all the packaging, lamb kofta were overcooked, missing items

Horrible Indian food I’ve ever eaten in my life!

Well where to start.. Confirmed booking made earlier in the week for a couple to have a relaxing Saturday night meal. On arrival at the restaurant we were unable to open the door, looked closer and the lights were out and the blinds closed. No contact from the restaurant to let us know they were closed, nor a reply to my subsequent email asking what had happened. Let alone an apology... Luckily we were able to go to the Tapas Bar on Bondgate to be greeted by friendly staff who managed to find a table for us in short order and we were served excellent food. So for anyone considering Sol Tapas - give it a miss and go to the Tapas Bar instead!

Excellent hotel in Darlington centre