The best restaurants serving British food in Dawdon County Durham North East

First time visit to Paws for 5 , had an excellent morning Kaiser our 18 week old Rottweiler puppy throughly enjoyed himself. We both had a lovely fried breakfast, tea and Lattes at very reasonable prices.

Beautiful decor, great choice of wines, wonderful service with sharing boards of food.

Highly recommend this place. Burgers with fries and breakfast sarnie were both delicious. Very good coffee too. Really friendly staff. We must have walked past here so many times. We have been missing out! It’s great. Will be back. Soon!

After noticing it was dog friendly as we were walking past we decided to pop in . What an excellent choice we made . We were greeted by 2 extremely friendly ladies who made us both feel very welcome . I decided on Eggs Benedict and a latte which were both delicious. From the Doggie Menu sausages were chosen and were devoured with much licking of lips . My daughter who pops to seaham quite often has been informed of this little gem 💎. Ty ladies we both thoroughly enjoyed popping in . Mike and Nellie

This used to be a wonderful place to visit, all members of staff were friendly, the food was always piping hot, well portioned and very reasonable. It has undergone a few changes, one being the name - now named "The Lighthouse by Poppies". It seems the new owners have made a few changes, the decor has been vastly improved, however there are couple of new members of staff who just aren't as friendly. Furthermore, the quality of the food is terrible compared to all our previous visits. The chips which used to be absolutely wonderful are now terrible - I'm not certain if a different oil is being used, but the quality is just not there, and the meal was also served warm as opposed to hot. To add to this, the prices are much more expensive, even a can of coke is £1.50 - a can that came from a multipack! I'm afraid what was a regular place and a highlight of Seaham has now been crossed off the list. Finally, a "Traditional Turkish Breakfast"... It's an English cafe for goodness sake!!!

Brilliant restaurant on the Seaham Seafront.Fantastic food & drinks the staff are very welcoming.Great prices plenty of choice.

Fish and chips were just Ok! Thought the fat could have done with changing.The Staff looked sick of their lives. Wont be going back in a hurry.

Went here because Bells refused us entry & were quite rude, gotta say though, I'm really pleased, great food, friendly service, good seating & the batter is incredible, best I've ever had, this is now my go to place whenever we visit

Hi I'm a regular at the Black Truffle in Seaham... I pop in with friends for coffee and sometimes a nice cake or 2 .... the staff are great... very friendly and always have a smile on their faces. The food is 2nd to none and fairly priced and would recommend a visit. You can also get your drinks to go...

We dropped in here for coffee on a wild January day and sat on the outside deck to watch the waves breaking over the walls. The coffee was very good and the cherry Bakewell remarkable. Lovely staff, clean toilets, nice place all round. If you park in the harbour car park be aware that the wardens are on the ball!

Lovely food. Then a couple of hours playing bingo...

Sunday lunch ok £15 expensive,there was one carrot on our plate we asked for a few more they gave us 3 and charged us £3 50 how mean maybe it was to pay for there plastic flower deco hanging from ceiling, lunch at valentinos seaham is better value £10 50 and more enjoyable.we will be going to valentinos from now on.

Stopped here BH Monday with the family, we’d had a walk on the beach and without planning ahead opted to eat in here. It was about 1/3 full with 3 wait staff. Typically you’d expect chip shop restaurants to be fairly quick, esp given the takeaway set up next door. Order was taken after a little longer wait than we’d usually expect but not major. It then took about 30-40mins for 2 teas (strictly for one as per the menu) and a Pepsi to arrive!!! We then found the mystery of why places like this use tea pots that can’t do 1 of the 2 jobs it’s required to do (hold water and pour water). Upon pouring about 1/4 of the tea ended up all over the table. For the record I’ve worked in catering so I’m fully qualified to pour tea but these pots were obviously a cheap stick option and not tested. By the time the food arrives, some 15mins after our drinks our remaining tea was cold. The food was ok, nothing amazing as suggested by the constant reminders of the awards one of their sister restaurants has won (about 10 miles away). Being a seaside town there are no shortage of chip shops, I’ve used a few and had much better food, just sadly for us, this was the only sit in place open at this time. I wish we’d got takeaway from somewhere else and eaten in the car. The wait for the food was almost to the point we got up, paid for drinks and walked out. It’s possible on a BH Monday the staff were fully worn out at the end of a busy day but in that case advise us that there is a wait for food, at least we know what we are expecting. When a table behind us of around 6 who walked in about 10mins after us got their food before us suggests there is something wrong in the kitchen. Wouldn’t recommend

Scruffy !! Very disappointing experience and will definitely not be returning 🤢 Called in after visiting Hello Sunshine on the harbour front. We had a nice walk around Seaham and fancied something different than the usual chain coffee shops. Looked quirky on getting inside. Went to the counter to order and was given a teacup & teapot, a coffee , spoons, milk, sugar to carry back to the table (no tray to carry everything) more than 1 trip was needed, very aware of my footing over the uneven manhole cover with a missing tile and left a hole. (Very aware as I’m just recovering from broken ankle) Baked potato with cold Mexican chicken. Potato not baked just microwaved as no tasty crispy skin at all. Steak and ale pasty was expensive for a little bit of chewy meat. No salt and pepper anywhere so I went back to the serving area and no one came to see what i wanted. Upon sitting for a while I started to notice that it wasn’t rustic and it was in fact really SCRUFFY. We were seated next to the back door and WOW it was horrific for a food establishment, muck would need to be scrubbed and scraped off, the cobwebs were all over, ceiling and walls. The doors where the shelving is were disgustingly dirty. £20 down the drain. HOW CAN A FOOD ESTABLISHMENT BE ALLOWED TO STAY OPEN AND TRADE IN THAT STATE!! 🤮. SHOCKING