The Honest Lawyer Hotel - Durham

Grant

The hotel was very nice. The room was clean and well appointed. The bar was dog friendly so your furry friend could join you for an evening drink. There is a lot to like about the Honest Lawyer Hotel. The staff are friendly, the food and drink is excellent and there is free, no strings attached WiFi. There is also a decent sized good quality car park.

Lucy S.

Stayed here for work, pleasantly surprised by how nice my stay was. Staff were all pleasant, polite and helpful, breakfast was delicious and delivered to my table within 5 minutes of ordering. My room was very clean and comfortable, WiFi was excellent. Would definitely come here again.

susan H.

Called in for a spot of lunch and a cuppa. Warm welcome by the one member of staff on duty - clearly short staffed but the service was impeccable. The chip serving us, I didn’t catch his name but he deserves a medal. His service was warm, friendly and efficient and nothing was too much trouble. |The food was lovely - not quite what was stated on the menu - I had a turkey sandwich which was supposed to be served on sourdough but nevertheless it was delicious and nicely presented. The bar rea is dog friendly, which isnt for everyone, but I believe dogs are not allowed in the restaurant area which is good. |The who area is clean and nicely presented, tastefully decorated.|The hotel has even the victim of foods over the years - it can’t be easy rebuilding a business each time. Please support this local establishment and help them get back on their feet. We will certainly be visiting again!

B E.

An afternoon tea reunion. Lovely sandwiches and a range of good cakes. Service with a smile. The bar is large and lacks atmosphere-perhaps a few flowers or plants may help. Dogs are allowed but perhaps should not be encouraged to sit on seats! The outside is dated and shrubs or trees would improve this. I’m sure this is a brilliant place to stay when visiting the city so I hope it will just step up a little bit. Smarten things. Nice staff. Good day.

Mark M.

Booked this hotel to attend a funeral, the reception of which was held here. We arrived well before book in time, after a 6 hour drive from NE Scotland, and asked if we could have some space to change in. The staff member who we spoke to went out of his way to accomodate us and provided a room without any fuss.||Getting on to the room, it was absolutely presentable, clean and had everything I needed. The breakfast next morning was spot on and very reasonable price wise. I'd happily recommend this venue.

Trevor B.

Nice hotel, clean and friendly staff. ||||Room set up is brilliant as you can park right outside your room. ||||Had the most violent shower ever.. It was the equivalent of an elephant pissing on an ant.. Yet surprisingly invigorating 🙂.. be lucky to get room 35..||||Only improvements I would suggest - firstly, extending the breakfast time until 10am (if possible) as 7 to 9 is a little difficult if you were socialising the night before. Add different types of steak to the menu as Rump isn't for everyone and needs longer to cook..||||Overall brilliant service at a very reasonable price.

Chris B.

Just had Xmas lunch with the family at the Honest Lawyer, and it was excellent. Great food, good value and the service was top notch. The booking experience with Steven was easy and painless (via email). Can thoroughly recommend the experience

James L.

Me and some friends stay here once per year, every year for a friends annual memorial.
Normally it's OK, nothing spectacular but it's where we held my friends wake and so coming back here is fitting.

However, this year we arrived, checked it and sat for some food and drinks.

I ordered a medium steak, two of my friends had some type of noodles and another fish and chips.

My steak arrived and was like hsoe leather. I'm not one to complain, it was well overcooked but I was hungry and so started eating it. I had three small pieces and then the smell of it hit me.
It was clearly off and it stank. I ate some of the mushrooms and they had obviously been cooked with the steak because they smelt awful too.
I just ate some of the chips and just wanted the smell taken away from me.

The noodles had arrived and just looked like a huge plate of brown stodge. Honestly, it looked like a giant stool sample. Visually held zero appeal.
The two do them picked through them looking for bits of chicken but it quickly became clear it was inedable.

My third friend said his chops were fine but the fish was just a mush and was clearly microwaves. How can you microwave fish!

I complained about the food and was asked what was wrong with it. Not wanting to make a fuss I requested the waitress smell my steak.
As soon as she held the plate in front of her nose and could see her recoil.

She took it into the kitchen and came back saying she would give us desert free of charge.
Really poor given the fact that mine was certainly inedable. We had already paid for the food and again, I just didn't want to cause a fuss.

By the time desert arrived I had stomach cramps and I knew that the small mouthfuls of steak had not sat well with me. I wasn't particularly ill in fairness, I had stomach cramps and several trips to the loo during the night but fortunately I had only eaten a small amount.

We were the only people in the restaurant and at last orders we ordered a couple of drinks each. The look of disgust on the bar staffs face was surprising given that all in told we had spent approx £600 between the hotel rooms, food and drinks - and not forgetting the rotten steak - we were likely keeping them in a job during a quiet January!

The following morning, we had prepaid for breakfast and I was hopefull it wouldn't be the same "chef".
We went down for breakfast and I ordered an Egg & Bacon on toast.
It was fine but the toast was just a single slice without any butter and the bacon was again, just a single piece.

My friends ordered small full English and what arrived looked like anemic muxrowaved vegetable sausages and a dried up single piece of bacon. The beans were hard lumps of barely warm dried mush half dried into the side of the plate. Just awful.

And so despite coming here year after year for many years, this will be my final visit. There are Premier Inns not too far away which we will goto in future.

Sat here now still with stomach cramps, and if the "chef" cannot even smell the difference between rotten meat and good meat then I don't want to eat there.

I would encourage anyway to avoid at all costs and save yourself an expensive trip to the lavatory.