Bengal Merchant - County Durham

We spent an enjoyable evening here with friends whilst holidaying nearby. The food was very good and we would not hesitate to eat here again or recommend it to others. Our host was extremely friendly and pleasant, and happy to advise us on the menu. A positive experience all round.

We were here on holiday and decided we wanted an Indian. At the Bengal Merchant the staff were friendly the service was good. The meals were really tasty. We would recommend it.

We had dinner here as we were staying nearby and a lot of places don’t open on Mondays. We looked at the menu and the food was traditional. The restaurant is clean and also traditional. We ate poppadums with chutneys and also had onion bhajis and chicken pakora for starters, both of which were delicious and piping hot. We followed this with curries and my partner asked for some variations to the menu which the restaurant were willing to do and ended up recreating a dish we’d had elsewhere. It was delicious and again piping hot. We also had a jalti which is a cross between a Balti and a Jalfrezi and is fantastic. Again the breads were well cooked and the lager was perfectly chilled. The young waiter was attentive and friendly and the manager was the same eager to please and ensure our experience was perfect. A great meal fresh, flavourful, hot, well cooked and reasonably priced. What’s not to like? If we lived locally we’d go regularly.

After reading the reviews I expected the bengal merchant to be decent. Unfortunately that was not the case. Starting with the pint of cobra that was not cold enough the pickle tray starters and main were all poor. My wife didn’t eat the bahji starter and the waiter noticed this and did take it off the bill. The curries were very bland. Once again the waiter noticed nothing was finished asked what the problem was and excepted our criticism and said he would feed it back to the kitchen. Unfortunately I wouldn’t come back but hope it was just an off night.

I am a great believer in writing reviews both good and bad we are visiting Barnard Castle and had a takeaway here on Sunday evening the starters were ok at best but the main course was absolutely disgusting as soon as the lids were off the food the smell of stale water hit you and all the curry’s had the same stale water smell I called back and complained and initially had been offered a 20% discount lol. I bagged the meal back up and went back with it for a refund which I received with an apology. Stale water curry is not my gig.