Barca

I am originally from Gosforth and had been made aware that a few of the pubs had changed hands etc so was willing to give it a go.
Over Christmas I had a night out on boxing day with my family, the bar staff at Barca were quite young and didn’t seem to know what they were doing, the manager who was also quite young also seemed out his depth.
It was quiet, but cleaner than I remember (apart from the toilets which were horrific)., but in saying that the atmosphere seemed quite nice.
On asking what time they closed he said normal time 11pm. However at 10.15 after half the family had been served at the bar (there was 12 of us had met up from around the North East) and the other half were queuing he decided to close the bar as he ‘had decided the staff deserved an early night’.
This is ok if it was planned, but when half of a company have drinks, snacks and the other half don’t it seperated the company (half in one bar and half in another not nice)
This was an awful experiance and when attempting to discuss this amicably with the manager everyone in the bar was threatened to be barred! Someone must have a bad day!
Anyway, this was an unpleasant experiance and won’t be back. The food flattered to deceive and was unfortunetly a case of a nice menu with poor delivery.
The Brandling next door however was more welcoming and the food above average!

I met a friend in what used to be the Earl Grey and is now Montpellier’s Wine Bar — and I was suitably impressed! I wasn’t sure what to expect — images of the dark Earl Grey sprang to mind — but it was nicely done out — light and fashionable. Prices were pretty reasonable, the cocktail menu looked tempting — though I resisted — and there was a selection of food choices too. Though not busy, there were say 5 or 6 sets of people in throughout the evening, there was live music on in the form of a jazz keyboard player — all rather pleasant!