The Havelock - Sunderland

With high hopes for Sunday dinner can say quite honestly that it wasn't what I was hoping. the food was hardly warm, not the best meat cuts and the vegetables were badly presented and certainly not freshly cooked. the personal, although friendly... although not presented as professional. we paid cash for the meal and drinks and waited for our change, as we felt, because of the food we could not guarantee a tipp, the change never appeared, so I can only suspect that it was a tipp or they forgot to bring it to us. unnecessary to say we won't be back.

Friday evening drinks so dipped at 19:30 clock into the havelock. this place sprinkled on a Friday night and we were shocked to see so many empty tables and the bar almost empty. when entering I soon realized why. we went...in and drove to the bar to quickly say that we don't stand or order at the bar, we needed a seat and it was just table service. we were directed to sit on high bar stools in a barrel in a small area next to the gents toilets. despite the restaurants that are almost empty and there are many tables, but drinks can only sit in a 4-5 high bar tables area in the window. the staff was not very friendly and looked sick. we ordered some drinks. they had fled from landlord, so my other half took place on a pint of ship yard. they serve only wine in small bottles that leave a very limited selection. I asked for a few scratches to be said that they don't sell any more, but we could order some picky bits from the menu. we ordered the homemade alioli and Ciabatta....the brot was hard and I would say stele. the atmosphere was not pleasant. this place has completely lost its soul. it bets the question, what is it? it is certainly no pub anymore and seems to be a restaurant. if they are looking for a pub atmosphere, then that is not the place. we ended our drinks and left and went to the cross keys in the village, which was much better. the kerle sat next to us, we go for exactly the same reasons into the vic. such a scandal because the preparation of this place was really busy.

The Havelock is described as ‘friendly’ in their description but from my experience it was quite the opposite. Upon arrival we were asked abruptly, “do you have a booking?!!” by a female member of staff using crutches. When we indicated we were meeting friends orders...were barked at us from the same member of staff. “You need a seat mind, you have to be sat down”. I can only assume that the reason behind this was in line with Covid regulations and had they been politely explained to us we would have been more than happy to adhere to the measures in place (measures that are no longer in place in many other similar establishments hence the reason we were caught off guard). After finding seats from a different area of the bar and after asking bar staff if we could use them, (to which they said yes) the same female member of staff shouted across, over other punters who were trying to enjoy their food, “you can’t take them from the bar!!!”. So feeling rather uncomfortable my friend and I skulked back to return the unused seats. This resulted in us having to leave our friends who we’d only just met and who had full drinks to find somewhere else to go. Maybe the story would have been different if only we’d have known to book in advance. The atmosphere was unpleasant and unwelcoming so unfortunately I could not sample their ‘good food and wide range of drinks’.

Very disappointing and poor experience today. Limited menu, no options for vegetarians for Sunday lunch. Food microwaved, not heated well. Restaurant was cold to the point that coats had to be kept on during lunch. Very poor.

I used to visit the havelock regularly before Covid. I was meeting a few friends for drinks. When we arrived the girl told us there was no table for us even though one of our friends was sat at a table waiting for us to...arrive. As more friends joined us we needed chairs. One of my friends took a chair from another table and the waitress stormed over to say the table was booked. The entire time we were there the table and chair didn’t get used. I understand tables are booked but a polite you can use the chair until the other party arrive would have worked we had several people sharing a seat. Staff were quite happy taking our money and our drinks order but weren’t friendly when it came to service. Really disappointed by the Havelock.