Cafe 1618 - County Durham

This is a fantastic spot to dine and socialize with loved ones. I have dined here multiple times with both small and large groups of family and friends.

We stopped by on our motorcycles for a quick drink before heading home. The welcome was very friendly and we were greeted by the owners. The service was fast and cheerful, we would definitely visit again.

We really enjoyed lunch here. The food was freshly cooked and tasty. As it was sunny we sat out at the front but there were loads of motor bikes so the air smelt of burning oil and it was noisy. Not the cafe’s fault, but a warning to others that sitting outside might not be as nice as you might think.

Stopped in after a busy weekend supervising Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. Absolutely brilliant food, a warm welcome, fast friendly service, and great music playing (I love a bit of Annie Lennox! Ha ha... Highly recommend the steak and onion sandwich with the twice cooked chips! I enjoyed it so much I’m sat at the table writing this review before I leave!

After a wonderful day visiting High and Low Force with my Wife and my 9 and 6 year old boys, we had our day totally spoiled by the unnecessary behaviour of the owners of Cafe 1618. After parking up outside the shop we decided to look at the menu as this seemed the least busy place to eat in the village at the time. Unfortunately, my 6 year old did not want anything from the menu so we took him to the fish and chip shop for chicken nuggets and chips (poor parenting i know but he had fallen over and scraped his knee earlier so it was a bit of a treat). After picking up his meal we headed back to the cafe to sit outside, as we had our dog, and intended on ordering 3 adult meals for the rest of the family. As soon as we got to the table (not even sat down) a lady member of staff (later we learned the wife of the owner) stormed out and said that we could not sit there while we had food from the chip shop, I pointed out that this was only for our 6 year old and we intended to purchase the rest of our food with them. She then flew off the handle and said 'im just not having it ' and 'im sick of this ' and 'this happens all the time, needless to say she did not agree for us to stay and eat there and asked us to leave '. My wife pointed out she was being rude at to which she accused us (potential paying customers) as being rude for simply pointing out that we felt like this was unreasonable. The employee then stormed off back into the shop. By this time we were packing the Dog and kids back into the car when a highly aggressive and disgruntled male (i presume the owner as hes in a lot of the pictures on Tripadvisor) came flying out screaming we were the rude ones and that we had been totally unacceptable in our behaviour. In retrospect I dont understand why he came out other than to intimidate and be aggressive. This soon stopped when got up to myself and realised i was 6 '3 and not the type of chap to approach in that manor. Lucky for him the old adage don 't judge a book by its cover is true of he may have been assaulted had he done that with another less restrained. All in all we left feeling, disappointed, intimated, my kids hungry (one at least) but both upset. What I cant understand though is the business acumen. The chip shot got about £4 of business from me. Cafe 1618 missed out on what would easily have been £30-£40. Whats more baffling is i even pointed this out to the female employee by saying we were going to be paying customer yet she still threw us out. PLEASE PLEASE do not go near this place, especially if you have your children (reading the other TripAdvisor comments). The Husband and Wife duo here are simply hateful, bigots, who clearly dont understand business acumen or even the very basics of customer service. I saw it was for sale, I hope the next owners take this place on to a new level as the current bottom of the bucket is pretty grubby.