Darlington

Darlington, a historic market town in North East England, is known for its railway heritage. Typical foods include sausage rolls, parmo, and stottie cake.

The Oak Tree Inn

The Oak Tree Inn

Yarm Road, DL2 1RF, Darlington, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • Vegan • British


"It is with great sadness that I write this review. We visited on the 30th August 2023, and I was looking forward to it. Firstly, the venue has been nicely redesigned, however the dining room is small and very cramped. We asked to be seated in the covered area outside and that was really nice with some nice living flame centre pieces. The staff were really helpful, and we ordered out meals. Having followed the owner from his two previous venues we expected a similar standard, however we were very disappointed. Four meals ordered. Steak pie was just ok, the vegetables were quite hard and inedible, the chunky chips where a disappointment with lots of small bits in bottom of the serving basket. The Chicken skewers were really good and no complaints there. The peppercorn sauce with the grilled chicken was gloopy, and clearly either a packet mix or the awful jar you get from Makro, no taste and very little peppercorn flavour, very poor, however the chicken was well cooked and presented. The Fillet Salmon with prawns was nowhere near a fillet salmon with four small salmon chunks and a bowl full of salad which looked like it has been tipped straight from the bag. All in all a very below average food experience. I have always rated the food from the two previous establishments the owner managed, I am so sad to see this poor standard. There was a small wedding party with a guest in a wheelchair and there was no ramp to enable the chair to exit the eating area, so one of our guests helped the other three people life the chair over the step, not sure where this stands with the Equality and Disability Act or indeed the liability on the establishments insurance should an accident or inquiry have occurred. However we only to happy to help the gentleman maintain his dignity to exit the dining area without any fuss. Sorry Chris, but we will not be coming back anytime soon, I know you are better than this, and you can provide a very high standard of food, sadly this was not what we are used too. please accept this review in the spirit in which it is given and I hope you can look to seek improvements, where necessary, as I believe you deserve success."

The Orangery

The Orangery

Hurworth-on-Tees DL2 2DU, DL2 2BQ, Darlington, United Kingdom

Steak • British • European • Vegetarian


"Took my fiancé here for her birthday for a spa day at the Rockliffe Hotel. The restaurant serves food at Michelin star prices but food doesn 't quite cut it. Service is fine and brought up allergy note on reservation at the beginning of meal, but staff should try to smile a bit more and try to be more engaging. More annoyed than anything else as the restaurant engaged in the age old sin of set menu/taster menu sized dishes on the à la carte menu. As expected left feeling extremely hungry despite spending over £250 for two three course meals and a bottle of wine, left the hotel premises a couple hours later to get McDonald 's. As for the food itself, okay, but just didn 't quite cut it. Lamb was bland, the risotto nothing to shout about (unoriginal), and nothing that I couldn 't get at a French Bistro in Edinburgh or Newcastle for half the price and twice the quantity. Bakewell tart for desert was somewhat redeeming. @Chef check out l 'escargot bleu in Edinburgh for three courses done right, or do what Hjem in Northumberland does and get rid of the à la carte menu so people know not to come if they don 't want to sit through 8-10 courses. Not sure about the mix of English and French dishes either, local ingredients but no local inspiration. Feel free to invite me back when you 've fixed this, and please fix this as you are obviously quite talented. Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Price per person: £100+ Food: 2 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 3"

Sol Tapas

Sol Tapas

28 Duke Street, DL3 7AQ, Darlington, United Kingdom

Pizza • Spanish • Lebanese • Vegetarian


"I’m not sure where to start with this. I’ve been here a couple of times in the past so thought nothing of booking it for a Christmas meal. There seemed to be some confusion when we arrived with a member of staff saying something about putting tables together (downstairs) which was strange as we’d booked a table. Then someone came to direct us to a table upstairs. It was toasty warm when arrived and I would recommend if this is the case when you visit that you don’t do anything silly like taking your coat or jumper off as later on ALL the heating will go off. The waitress seemed to have amnesia and completely forgot one of the drinks orders. When serving another table she said “I’ll write it down” as though this was a revolutionary idea. The lady delivering the food looked like a she wasn’t quite there and she seemed to have real difficulty holding the plates and setting them down. This confused me as it seemed to be a core part of her job. The food was a mixed bag. Some of the Tapas was very good and part of our party was very happy. Unfortunately one of the vegetarian dishes was so salty that two of our party couldn’t eat it. Whilst they were offered an alternative they’d already had some Tapas so fortunately were full enough. I mention this because the table behind us had also had problems and were given some free drinks to make up for it. It was they who first complained about it being cold and that the heating had gone off. To be clear it wasn’t that the heating had simply gone off rather the sockets which they were plugged into had been turned off. There was apparently no way to turn it on again. This happened relatively early in the evening and it seemed bizarre as presumably providing some heat when the weather is cold would encourage people to stay and perhaps order more drinks. I don’t understand their business plan. The other table opted to go downstairs but we were made of sterner stuff and stayed upstairs. I liked the fact that they had a set menu as well as Tapas and you could mix and match the two however I felt it was apparent that they’re not getting the basics right. When the Tapas arrived they came very quickly to ask about the next course yet when we ordered drinks the order was completely forgotten and we had to remind the waitress that we had ordered them with her. Anywhere else you dine out seems to know the order of things so not sure why it was beyond them to be on hand but not intrusive like everywhere else manages. Overall it’s a shame as this is in a great location and I’ve not been disappointed in the past. I see lots of positive reviews but none seem to be recent so I don’t know if this place has changed hands or is staff have changed. As I say it really is a shame as it could be great, as it was on previous visits. A good reputation is easily lost so they need to understand what’s going wrong and act to improve on it."