The Coachmans - Gateshead

Arrive and enter the back room which although had few tables seated had no atmosphere it was set out weirdly so quiet no back group music just felt uncomfortable. Any way we approached the bar was seated few minutes later but not given menus. Waited waited for staff to come over. Ordered lamb pork dinner which arrived in good time looked tasty, but no veg... sat and sat waiting for veg with dinner going cold and no arrival of vegetables so had to go ask at the bar! Not what you want on a relaxing Sunday having to chase up what should obviously come with a Sunday dinner and staff admitted they “forgot”. The dinner was lovely but the restaurant just had an uncomfortable feel. Laid out all wrong drafty and really cold! Also the diet coke was poured from a bottle (witnessed this) and was flat! Decided to skip dessert and I’m so glad as a man opened the door to the men’s loo which is near the area and the smell was horrific! I felt physically sick at the dirty smell.... I’m so glad I didn’t smell this before my dinner had been eaten or I’d have left without eating. We asked for the bill and the man who was taking payment also smelt ... this was of strong cigarette smoke. So I was happy to leave after this smelly end to the meal and not in any hurry to go back. Service needs improved, toilets cleaned and staff hygiene/smell addressed. But the food was nice which is a shame for the chef who obviously works hard.

We came for food to the newly opened Coachman's Rest which is housed in what was the function room. We were greeted by friendly waiting and bar staff and shown to our table. Once seated out waiter introduced himself, which I found to be a lovely little touch and made it a pleasant experience by removing some of the awkwardness. I had the Venison Carpaccio with blackberry to start and it was delicious, well seasoned and the horseradish gave it that little kick needed to balance the sweetness of the Venison. My main was the Chargrilled Mackrel with creamed leeks and new potatoes. Mackrel was perfectly cooked and the leeks too. Would have liked a little more seasoning in the leeks, however this was easily fixed with the pepper mill. My friends and I were given the right amount of attention throughout our meal from the waiting staff, which was great as no one once to be disturbed every few moments. The ambiance of the Coachman's Rest was nice, a little back ground music was welcomed. Only downside was, as the pub began to fill up it became noisy and was slightly distracting whilst we were eating and catching up. Also the dessert was disappointing, ginger and apple cake... It was dry and tasted like carrot cake. All in all a wonderful high end meal for a reasonable price. I would easily go again to enjoy more of the menu.

We booked Sunday lunch and unfirtunately it was our worst ever experience. There was a function in the bar area, do I assume that the staff forgot about us. We entered a vast lounge area with only two tables occupied. They were at the furthest point from the serving area and we were placed between them. Three toddlers amongst them. They were not badly behaved but why sit us there? The fishcakes have been mentioned before, aweful and seved with hard broccoli and cold peas. Main course wad cold and served with yes hard broccoli and cold peas. We had to ask for cutlery, then for accompaniments then for the bill(when I had to go looking for staff). Never again!

I love this place, great pub, great food, dog friendly, the staff are fantastic , I can’t recommend this place enough, it’s the new community centre for Whickham

Family visit on Saturday 2nd February at lunchtime. Having visited a few times recently, we decided to pop in for a bit of lunch due to previous very positive experiences. Unfortunately on this occasion, all 3 main areas of the pub had large wall mounted TV’s showing the Newcastle Utd football match, with the volume turned up quite loud. Despite popular stereotypes, not everyone in the North East of England is a devout follower of their local football team, in fact some people don’t even like football and have other interests and hobbies! Which leads me to my point, that devoting the entire pub to the sights, sounds and smells of groups of blokes grunting at a television set is a bit excessive. It would have been nice to not have my lunch punctuated by grown men swearing loudly in front of my 8 years old daughter at 12.30 in the afternoon. There seemed little point in complaining at the time, because the match was already partway through and it seemed highly unlikely that one of the tv’s would be turned off to accommodate us.The service was efficient and friendly, the food was good for the most part except for the tuna and red onion sandwich, which came in extremely bog standard, cheap sliced brown bread. A bit disappointing.