Duke Of Wellington - County Durham

This is our second visit and it definitely was different from our first, we ordered from the 3 course set menu between 12-5pm Starter was amazing garlic bread and beer battered mushrooms. the main in my honest opinion was absolutely gross. Ham egg and chips, let's just say it was so bad we had to exchange both our mains (we both had ham egg and chips. The ham wasn't ham at all it was boiled gammon with un rendered fat on (Raw), the meat itself was drowning in some sort of fatty like liquid (never had wet ham before) the smell of the ham was off almost like a few days old (no marbling) but almost like they got too much out the day before and that's what we ended up having. The ham was so wet the chips were soaked in this liquid. However I did complain and requested 2 new dishes in replace of them and we went for Sausage and mash (honestly amazing) going forward I will get this. But the way the ham was has actually made me go off ham in the future. Desert was nice Belgian waffles only downside is squirty cream not fresh cream, I'm sure this is due to wastage and costs.

Absolutely beautiful breakfast and amazing staff, make you feel so welcome go above and beyond to help. Amazing atmosphere as soon as you walk in, amazing staff and to top it off the food is fabulous.

Very poor disappointed in service food. We reserved a table for 7 prior waited over 5 minutes at the bar as staff were serving other people, fair enough but a slight acknowledgment or a “we’ll be with you in a minute” would of been nice as one member of staff was actually standing right in front of us doing a hand pull pint, ignoring anyone’s existence. 7 people, 1 starter, 7 mains,5 desserts. I had a rump steak, it had a lot of gristle, most of the steak was left, poor frozen chips, garden peas, tomato and mushroom (very limp), the onion rings were really nice and the peppercorn sauce tasty without being over the top. 2 people had the slow roast beef rib and it looked beautiful, and slid off the bone, the roasted root vegetables with this looked lovely and were tasty. Very short on the gravy tho, it was served with an accompanying small gravy boat, however this had only been filled to approx a third full. Aasked the waiter for another bottle of wine as he brought a coffee out his reply was “youll have to go to the bar, ive got to bring your desserts out” fair enough, but could of been said slightly nicer. i went to the bar, again a long wait, three lovely more mature ladies followed me but managed to get served before myself and a gentleman who had been there before me. He actually spoke up (very politely) said he had been waiting so long and the member staff just said he woukd be next, failed to acknowledged this comment and continued, when the ladies walked away she said i did not know they were gonna order separately( this is irrelevant, they should of have been served in turn. I returned to our table with the bottle if wine after about 10-12 minutes, having missed all the desserts alot of the conversation Overall a poor experience, the place definitely needs more staff at busier times we were booked at 6pm on a Saturday night some training in customer care

This is an amazing place so relaxing and always a warm welcome from all staff members, special mentions to Dan and Matt who are always smiling and interacting with costumers, place is clean and the food is great overall love going in and relaxing by the fire place. Thank you for always being so nice to us.

I am a regular at the Duke and when you visit it's like going home for the day. The team have a laugh with you and aren't scared to have banter. It's a great locals pub and it has massively improved in the last few years since management changed. No longer feels like a massive restaurant/pub divide. Really doing a great job, well done!