Sedgefield
Bolams

Bolams

Salters Lane, Sedgefield I-TS21 3EE, GB, United Kingdom

Cafe • Lunch • Brunch • British


"Great variety of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. Bread and cheese are there to, also not as varied. The prices were rised, but are still very competitive. These large family(? butchers seem to have find a way to carry good traditions to modern times. You can buy something that is rarely seen in the supermarkets: ox tongue, marrow bones, pig and lamb hearts, tails and ribs, etc. Fancy huge whole legs -who and how cooks them I wonder? Orders for the large barbeque parties can be made over the phone or inside, in advance. I like the locally grown fruit and vegetables are sold at very good prices in season. Waxed apples from around the world are still fresher than in some supermarkets. I like the packs of herbs being generous. The cheese section changed about a year ago for the worse. Cooked meat section is still there but, again, less varied as before. The fish section (is it another business renting a counter in Bolam? is excellent. It improved from the previous people there, who used to remove price labels from view for some unclear reason. Pleasant to see new young shop assistant being very helpfull and proud of his work. The prices vary. You can buy live mussles and oysters. Also last time I was given 7 days bodeline shellfish without warning. It cooked fine, but I still think they should have mentioned. My concern is hygene, especially in the meat section, because the packaging isn't always strong enough. Cling film is torn too often and meat is exposed for cross-contamination. Make sure you wash your hand and bags because there will be blood spills. On the other hand the products don't seem to stay on the shelves for long, so are fresh. Hand gel is there too. And I never heard of anyone poisoned there, so not reducing stars. The Full Monty canteen, probably named after the great movie, is adjacent to the shop, on the left. I think someone mentioned a lot of the bus drivers lunch there. It is very basic, the food is simple, but very good and inexpensive. Disabled access. Toilets are in the canteen. There is a petrol station and large Sainsbury's (i.e. for milk and yogurt if you are buying for a week in one go . Also, there is a large park further down the dual carrige way."

Rib Room Steakhouse Grill

Rib Room Steakhouse Grill

Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield, United Kingdom, TS21 2EH

Soup • Grill • Pasta • British


"Very ordinary experience, poor food and slow service. My wife and I ate dinner last night. The appetisers were an onion and blue cheese tart and pork belly ribs. The tart had zero blue cheese or onion flavours, the pastry was soggy. It was a plain tart with a little salt and pepper, not as described on the menu. The ribs while cooked beautifully and tender, were cold and tasteless. We both ordered Sirloin steaks for our main course, my wife 's medium rare with blue cheese sauce, mine medium well with peppercorn sauce. My wife 's steak was cooked perfectly, but again (bit of a theme here) it was a cream sauce, that had never been in the same post code as blue cheese. The accompanying mushroom, tomato and double cooked chips were very good. My steak ordered medium well, was rare, and so I asked them to take it back and give it a little longer on the grill. My wife also sent back her sauce as it had no blue cheese. After 30 minutes, by which time my wife had eaten her steak without sauce, they returned with my steak, which was very very well done, so over cooked it was hard to eat, and it came with my wife 's blue cheese sauce. I asked for he peppercorn sauce I had orded and to speak to a manager. The sauce did not arrive and after 15 minutes, by which time my over cooked steak was now cold, I had to ask another waiter for help, and my sauce arrived shortly after. I couldn 't eat the cold over cooked steak. We were going to leave but I was still hungry after no steak, so I ordered a chocolate and orange brownie. It arrived again beautifully cooked but, again a bit of theme, no orange taste or flavor. Why list things on a menu that do not contain what they say when they arrive? In the middle of all this, my wife wanted to use the rest room, and returned disgusted, without going into detail, all 3 of the toilets were overflowing with poo and paper. The toilets are not cleaned or checked, they really were disgusting. When the bill came, after another 20 minute wait, and us asking twice, we spoke to the manager, who said she was sorry, and removed the £5 brownie from the £120 bill. Nothing for the appalling service or one of the steaks being inedible, and the other without any sauce. What can I say that 's positive...there was a reasonable if not excellent wine list, we found a nice Cabernet for about £40 and the atmosphere and decor was nice. Also the quality of the sirloin meat was excellent, only spoiled that they couldn 't cook to medium well temperature after 2 attempts, 1st time rare, 2nd time very well done. The mushrooms that accompanied the steaks were excellent. In short, amongst the worse service I can ever remember in a restaurant, good quality product ruined by poor cooking, and bland cold and tasteless sauce, ribs and tarts. I can only assume the restaurant doesn 't care about returning customers and lives off transient custom from people staying at the Hall. I am posting this review from my cell phone,so please excuse any fat finger spelling."