Darlington Darlington

Darlington, eine historische Marktstadt im Nordosten Englands, ist bekannt für ihr Eisenbahnerbe. Typische Speisen sind Wurstrollen, Parmo und Stottie-Kuchen.

Sainsbury's

Sainsbury's

Victoria Road, Darlington DL1 5SF, United Kingdom

Cafe • Coffee • Mexican • Breakfast


"Went into Sainsbury’s cafe and simply asked for a ham and cheese toastie, I had not been disruptive or rude in anyway, however I was greeted with a very rude, blunt and abrupt attitude from the member of staff serving me. She had a tone in her voice and had quite a lot of attitude even though she barely said anything. The reason she barely said anything is because she was very short and blunt with me, giving me one word answers or not an answer at all. When I went to pay she shoved the card machine across the counter and threw the table number card down onto the counter with attitude. She did not say a single word after this she simply walked away and did not advise me to pick any table I wanted or too take a seat. The service was then very slow as it took 10 minutes simply to toast a pre-made ham and cheese toastie. Then when I did receive the food she proceeded to strut over to my table and throw the plate down onto the opposite side of the table from me, meaning I had to get up and reach over to get my food, even though this takes very little effort it is still bad customer service (especially at £3.85 for a simple ham and cheese toastie that was served luke warm). She also did not inform me as to where any condiments were for my meal. Once she had abruptly ‘placed’ my food on the table she strutted off before I even had the opportunity to say thank you, despite this I still said thank you but her back was turned and she was walking away, and as you can probably guess I got no response. It was a very bad experience and aswell as the poor customer service the toastie wasn’t even that nice."

The Orangery, Rockliffe Hall, Hurworth

The Orangery, Rockliffe Hall, Hurworth

HurworthOnTees, Darlington, United Kingdom

Fish • Meat • Coffee • Seafood


"Housed in a spectacular building and furnished to a high standard, the Orangery is a wonderful place to visit. Canapés were very artistic and pleasant to look at, more so to taste. I also normally avoid bread but their bread with two types of hoke made butter was delicious. ‘Sandy Carrot’ starter- visually lovely but taste wise it was over seasoned- way too much salt, as was the consensus by the three of us dining- Wife’s Scallop starter however was a stunner. steak main, I have to say, this was the best steak I’ve had in about 6 years, the previous from the Negresco hotel in Nice. The texture and flavour- I woke up and could eat it for breakfast- well done to the chef who cooked it too as it was perfect. Deconstructed cheesecake for desert and wife chose chocolate orangery- both superb, is it wrong to want seconds? I washed mine down with a desert wine- a passable Sauternes but by no means a Climens or a Yquem (of which they sold the latter). The wine list itself was very good- a lot of classified growth claret, burgundy, north and south Loire, Rhône, super Tuscans and lots of other regions. I love wine, so was in my element here but as so often the case forgo the blue chip wines for something less expensive- I only buy the top notch stuff to drink at home; it’s a shame they don’t use Coravin so I could buy the premier stuff by the glass. Got chatting to the Somm- Derek, and have to say what a very nice man he was. Absolutely knowledgeable and in no way intimidating or pretentious (take a note Raby Hunt) Derek was happy to discuss wine and even gave me some suggestions on wine regions and producers that I would have overlooked. Very good at his job, an asset to this restaurant. Front of house staff- both called Katie I think also fabulous. Overall, a wonderful evening- the only part I was confused about was when paying the bill we were taken into the bar, I didn’t see anywhere I could leave a tip- no option on the card reader and it just seemed wrong to leave cash with a different part of the operation to the restaurant. Finally, a message to Rockliffe Hall. While the food is delicious, if you really want your patrons to have a fine dining experience then perhaps you may want to allocate a smoking area somewhere discreet for your Spa users; When we left and walked towards the car park, there were people standing outside in slippers and dressing gowns smoking- far from looking luxurious, it was reminiscent of walking into the front of a hospital. We’ll be back, thank you kitchen and front of house staff for a wonderful experience."

The Buck Inn

The Buck Inn

Middleton Road, DL2 1RR, Darlington, United Kingdom

Pub • Pubs • Meat • Steak


"Where does one begin? I ask thee, where does one begin? The beginning is usually a good point. My Somalian friend, Jared, told me about how he stayed here when his Tinder date had apparently went 'pear-shaped ' and he was waiting for his taxi to arrive, he told me that The Buck Inn was a 'zestful lark into classic British cuisine ' and gave me the two thumbs up. My Nubian friend is right about most things so my partner Theon and I decided we would check it out for ourselves. It sounds silly now but I 'm not sure when we arrived (it was at the 60th minute of the Portugal vs Hungary game, if that helps). Upon disembarking and entry I was immediately taken aback with how aesthetically unappealing the two bartenders were (it sounds shallow but I wouldn 't have commented on it had other events not transpired), I didn 't let it bother me as I am a supreme gentleman. Theon and I sat down and I ordered drinks for us both from the more appealing of the two staff members, for the sake of privacy I will call this person Joe. This scoundrel tried to charge me £13 for two triple V&Cs and he only put in a single measure of Vodka and when I pointed out this mistake to him and he said 'that 's a serious accusation ' before walking into the restaurant section of the building, this would be the last time he spoke to me directly for the rest of the visit. Theon and I sat, rather confused, watching the soccer match, waiting for the 'zestful lark ' to begin but for a while all we got was accusing and potentially lustful stares from Joe. A while later, the other bartender approached us with a crudely written menu on a small piece of paper, he spat as he talked and lacked the vivacious character I was expecting. Our food arrived after what seemed like an hour, Theon had to engage in a swift session of verbal fencing with the other bartender (I will call him Jordan) to get our sundries. I ordered a chicken Parmesan, as did Theon, the cheese and Beshemel sauce was adequate, the chicken however was clearly undercooked in places and when Theon took this up with Joe, this rapscallion simply said 'it 's ligaments ' and handed him the food back (which he didn 't eat). Now at this point I was quite upset, Theon managed to calm me down and we stayed for dessert and I 'm glad I did as the dessert was delightful, shame about the young fiends serving us however. It took some time to receive service as well because Joe kept on bragging to a barmaid from The Tuns about something called 'The Division ' while the other feckless bartender was struggling with putting card payments through the till. We stayed to watch the ROI vs Italy game and then we left promptly, I was still pulling the daggers out of my back that the young hoodlums had stared at me as we left. I cannot say for certain if it 's because I and Theon are gay but it certainly felt like a lot of the cold and surly service we received was because of that. The prejudiced glances was not the only lingering effect from our visit as me and Theon were both struck with a bout of food poisoning that crippled us emotionally and physically for two days and made us unable to attend a civil rights rally of which we were very much looking forward too. To summarise, 2/5, dessert was very tasty but poor service given to us by incompetent gremlins and food was undercooked and made us ill."