Duke of Wellington, Durhamback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Oh dear oh dear. This Pub has had the dreaded "refit." It has also had it's name changed, the old sign has been removed and it now simply says: "Ember Inns Dining and Pub" in huge letters, and then "At the Duke of Welligton" in little letters. Quite clear where Ember Inns wants the focus to lie then.
In my last post about this pub I wrote: "It's a generally pleasant place to go for a relaxed drink with a few friends." Well. sadly it's not anymore, half of the pub has been turned into a restuarant with the other half crammed full of tables and it's much darker and noisier. The clientelle was described by a friend as "up-market chav" - the kind of person who thinks that gastropubs are a cool, new idea. I also wrote "Food not great, but quite cheap." Well it's still not great, but it's not quite cheap anymore. Ditto the beer - to be fair they've kept the usual good choice of ale but the prices have gone up considerably - I now pay more for a pint of Landlord than I did in Cambridge!
A real shame, as this was a really nice place to go for a quiet drink and some quick food, it was just the right sort of business and felt quiet and relaxing. I'm afraid to say that we've now started to look for another place to drink, as I doubt we'll be going back.
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Don't bother going to this gastro pub, ever. I went there with my girlfriend a week ago - at one time it used to be a well run, family owned pub with a relaxed atmosphere and a high quality menu. Now it's a run of the mill franchise with a basic 'every-day' boring menu and horrendous food quality and service. You may as well go to a wetherspoons and save a tenner - it is that bad.
We ordered a mixed grill and a chilli con carne. The mixed grill comprised of chicken, what masqueraded as rib-eye steak, gammon, a sausage, a mushroom and some chips. It was all dry, tough and had the taste of something that was cooked at least six or seven hours perviously. The mushroom was a slimy mess. The sausage was the best part, presumably becuase it was shop bought and had been reheated.
The chillli had a very reheated feel to it aswell. I am not exagerrating when I say that my 12 year old nephew could produce better food than this. It was AWFUL. We left almost everything - when it was unceremoniously collected from our table the waitress did not bother to ask if we had enjoyed it, persumably she is bored of hearing customers complain so has decided to prevent any further opportunity for them to do so.
At desert we ordered a chocolate thing and some cheesecake. The chocolate thing was nice - the cheesecake never materialised. Eventually an abrupt and hassled-looking waiter brought out some kind of almond and raspberry bake. When my girlfriend returned it, the assistant manager on the bar tried to convince her it was cheesecake even though it clearly wasn't. Then he accepted that it wasn't cheesecake and explained that they had no cheesecake so they though we would have liked that instead. She explained that we didn't. He sighed at this huge inconvenience and suggested we choose something else from the menu instead. I chose for him to refund us for the cheesecake, which he did with the kind of alacrity that suggests this is not an unusual occurence.
I'm not usually moved to write reviews of pub food - but this place is absolutely shocking. Don't ever go there it is guaranteed to dissapoint!
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Very average pub, dull but bland so suitable perhaps for people who don't like pubs very much. They have a reasonably good range of beers though not a patch on the Stonebridge down the road or the good ale pubs in Durham. Lacks any sort of atmosphere, though staff are good. Adequate for a quiet chat but not much fun.
What brings this down below a 5 or 6 is that the food is terrible here, sub-Wetherspoons standards. I've lived next door to the place for two years and have ventured in for food on occasion. The roasts are hopeless, the currys bland and they can't do chips. I'm amazed that people drive to this pub for their Sunday Lunch.
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It's a generally pleasant place to go for a relaxed drink with a few friends. When I lived in Durham it was our regular for this fact, however considering we were regular the staff were never overly friendly (with the exception of the bloke who does the Wedensday night quiz, which is fantastic by the way!) Usually around 4 good ales on, including Black Sheep and TT Landlord which are always in very good condition. Food not great, but quite cheap.
To the person complaining about not wanting to be "excluded from civilised society" no one is forcing you to do such a thing, however when you have children you have to give up certain things, and going to some pubs is one of them. I'm not saying that your particular child is noisey etc, but there has to be some places where people can go away to get away from kids, and pubs are one of those places.
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Been there for grill night tonight, good value , unfortunately my personal bugbear is frozen chips, so i slathered them in mayo rendering them (just) edible.Great bar staff and serving staff, very courteous and polite, made up for it!
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I like this pubs surroundings and if you dont want to go into the centre of Durham and have a chat with friends and a drink its suitable with reasonable food on hand. Recently somebody recommended their chocolate pudding.
I am a wife and mother and thought it might be nice to visit this place last saturday lunch time with my 5yr old daughter and husband and enjoy some good food/sample the pudding. We are all civilised people and she is especially cute.Imagine when we tried to sit down and a young barmaid shouted at us from the bar that children werent allowed in. She suggested a nearer pub which served 'happy meals'. Just because i have a child i dont want to be excluded from civilised society and eat beans and chips y'know!It was almost like being heckled.
anonymous - 2 Nov 2006 13:54 |
I did the quiz in here last night, and it was rather good, although we didn't win anything! 4 real ales, which were all in good condition. A bit of a trek out of town though! Never tried the food so can't really comment on that. 7/10 for the beer and general atmosphere though.
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This pub alas has had its ups and downs, while the beer and surroundings are constantly fairly pleasant, it is really the food that people visit the place for. On occasion it can be superb, large generous portions of traditional, well cooked pub-grub. And then occasionally you go in and get served a very small, cheap portion, which is over cooked beyond belief. If you want to try it out go for the quiz on Tuesday nights, that is usually a great evening. It is an Embers Inn Pub
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