The best restaurants serving Italian food in North East

Intrigued by Greek/Mediterranean vibe we booked Mambos for an early evening dinner. Reception staff showed us to a table in a largely empty restaurant and we ordered drinks, wine, mains and desserts and coffees afterwards. The waiter / waitress were really friendly and swift. The food was good and served hot, although due to the questionable orange/pink neon lighting, the chicken appeared perfectly no and uncooked. Note: it probably was cooked, only in appearance it was off-putting. Dessert and coffees were also nice. But here is the rub: for the first time in any restaurant on any continent, myself and partner were asked to vacate the table and finish our drinks at the bar while the restaurant remained with many empty seats. Poor management decision! I took back our generous cash tip from the bill wallet before leaving with great disappointment and will never return. Shame on you. You have good efficient people, good food and drink, but poor management decisions do not encourage local return business.

This restaurant is brilliant, the food is amazing (thankyou chefs), the service was attentive. The owner and his staff went above and beyond to make us have a lovely dining experience.Especially as another large party was in around same time. Looking forward to coming back or even trying one of your other restaurants 😊

Starters and desserts were ok! Mains decidedly average, needed to be hotter and were the broccoli and cauliflower frozen? Tables were sticky and although the staff are pleasant not a place for a second visit.

Hands down the best Italian meal I would say we have ever had. We had mussels to start and the belly pork with black pudding. Both were very tasty and the mussels were fab. For mains we had the tiger prawn aioli pasta and a fillet jabalaya with chips and a side of salad. We shared both starters and mains as we always do, and genuinely couldn’t decide which was the nicest dish. Tasty and cooked to perfection. The steak absolutely melted in your mouth. Service was great, a couple of shots at the end of the meal too. We aren’t local so was only by chance driving past that we saw it and walked in without a booking. 100% recommend.

I got a takeaway tonight. Unfortunately even though Vespa is 3-5 minute drive from my house, the pizza and chips I ordered arrived luke warm which quickly turned cold when plated. I had to then reheat in the microwave. The chilli and honey dip I ordered wasn’t sweet at all and more like a chilli oil, with no flavour. I have eaten in restaurant before which was lovely, hence the 3 star, as this may just be a takeaway issue

First Time we have used this restaurant for a take away pizza, excellent staff service and very good pizza also, would recommend this establishment.

The staff made our little pug Bella very welcome. It's great that Caffe Nero allows dogs. After watching rare seabirds and seals on the river Tweed we were able to escape the rain, enjoy yummy coffee, lunch and cake, and relax with Bella. Many thanks - we'll back. Five woofs from Bella! 😁 🐾🐾

Went for my birthday with my partner, meals were delicious, cocktails were nice. The staff were lovely and pleasant. Sang happy birthday to me with the cake in the picture and got a shot. Lovely! Will definitely eat here more. (Not the first time I have been but this experience was great) Thankyou to all the staff!

Came in for a work meeting. service was excellent, especially by Liam. Food was quality. Would recommend highly, as it’s so warming inside

lovely Sunday dinner, huge portions

Went to Sambucca on Sunday night with four friends. We were seated and told we must be out by 9pm meaning we had an hour. We were fine with tat but we’re not fine with all but one of the staff standing guard over our table making sure we would be out! And I mean standing over our shoulders glaring at us. It was very unpleasant. The food was very mediocre, in fact Philippa had ordered beef stroganoff and when it arrived it was nothing resembling stroganoff. On a brighter not there is a very lovely waitress from Romania, she really was quite charming.

Great restaurant that I would happily go to again. Service was more than perfect, and the waiting staff were kind, helpful, courteous and extremely efficient. Food was exceptionally good and tasted very Italian, including the vegan option. I spoke with the chef afterwards and complimented him on his cooking. If I was in Durham again, I simply wouldn't bother going anywhere else. This is a really good restaurant, with good service, good food, a wide array of drinks, and all at very reasonable prices.

We called in here after we had been for a walk. Sat outside has we had our dog with us. Dogs are allowed in the bar area. Next time we go I think we may have food.

The food is amazing the staff are really friendly and the beer is a great price all round it was a great wee afternoon special thanks to the young lady behind the bar who couldn’t help enough nothing was a bother

We dined here after the Queens Baton Relay. It was very busy and loud but we were seated in a nice corner away from the rowdy stag doos. The service was unbelievable considering how busy the restaurant was. Starters came quickly, drinks were topped up regularly, and food was delicious. Huge thanks to Tammy for going above and beyond and being so helpful and friendly and fab with the kids.