No. 1 And Wine Lounge - Northumberland

We stayed overnight on a Saturday. First the positives, the staff were friendly and helpful. Dinner was served quickly but while there was a decent range of food on the menu it was all at the same price and more than I would expect to pay for what was average pub type food. Breakfast had a basic range of hot food, cereal, toast, and fruit juice. The accommodation was OK, the decor is a little quirky, the bed was comfortable. The tap over the bathroom sink only ran hot water out of both hot and cold taps. It was the same in another room. And now the reason for the 1 star rating: This establishment calls itself a hotel and wine lounge, as such I expect to be able to get a quiet nights sleep. After dinner, about 8.45pm we retired to our room to watch some TV for an hour or so as we were tired after travelling up from the south of the country. At about 9pm we heard a guitar being tuned up below our room. Shortly after that an hours worth of live music began! It was so loud we could not hear the TV and our bed was vibrating. At 10.15pm there was a half hour break, then the music started up again and continued until approx. 10 minutes past midnight. It was not gentle relaxing music, for the most part it was heavy rock. If the staff had bothered to let us know there was a live music show that night we could have sorted something out. As it was, I think it was quite appalling treatment and firmly believe that they should not let out rooms directly above where live music is playing if they want to call themselves an hotel. My recommendation is to check before you go for any live music shows, and if there are, insist on a room at the back of the hotel, otherwise avoid entirely.

Ate here at lunchtime on Wednesday. Excellent food, reasonably priced and cooked to order. Lovely young lady working in the bar.

Very happy to have booked here after a long wet day walking St Cuthbert’s way. We stayed in room 8 which has TWO huge claw foot baths and a great power shower .. we managed to get our weary legs up the stairs to the bathroom (quirky layout which we did not mind) and enjoyed a well deserved soak. Very comfortable and lovely bedroom with tea/coffee/biscuits. Very friendly staff. Loses a point as we had to wait over an hour for our breakfast even though we were there at 8.35am, 5 mins after the start of breakfast service and had ordered the night before .Whilst it was nice, it threw our whole walking schedule out. My suggestion would be that if walkers are a target audience, breakfast should start at 7.30 and be prompt!

The restaurant was not as we expected for dinner. It felt a bit cramped with all the tables and chairs in the front area near the bar. The food was decent, but the service was slow, although polite and friendly. We noticed a dining area at the back with tables set up with tablecloths, which could be used as a more relaxing dining space for dinner. We may visit again when we return, hoping for improvement.

I was happy to discover a place to have lunch after 2.30pm on a Tuesday. The service was good and friendly, and there was a nice selection of food options.