Best place in town to eat.
I have always been a champion of The Imperial. I have had lots of lovely meals here over the years, but last night was a dreadful disappointment. I ordered gnocchi in a puttenesca sauce with crab. What arrived was enough gnocchi to feed a family of four, in a vile brown sludge of sauce. I was unable to eat more than a few mouthfuls...and I eat everything normally. The service was also dreadful . The waiter forgot our drinks order and I had to actively seeking them out to order coffee and to get the bill. This is with only about 4 tables occupied. When I found them they were behind the bar on their phones. One star is being generous for the food and service I received last night. I wish I had taken a picture of the slurry!!
The place is nicely appointed and will suit pretentious types. The prices reflect the location and the decor rather than the quality of the food, drink and service. I ORDERED a cheese and ham omelette - What I RECEIVED was not an omelette. I don't doubt that it used all the right ingredients, but it was the worst omelette ever.The overly long wait, until it eventually arrived, was explained by the "omelette" itself - the chef (tongue-in-cheek) had obviously taken the entire twenty minutes to make sure the "omelette" was thoroughly cooked in a nice HOT pan. I know eggs are wonderful things and very versatile, but even I was amazed - I could have easily re-soled my boots with it. As I wasn't paying for the meal I made no fuss and ate the damn thing out of respect for the payee. I must say that egg-based bin-lid put up quite a fight, but I still have all my own teeth, and with dogged determination I cleared my plate. I'm not sure my stomach will ever forgive me.If I had been paying for the food myself, I would have returned it untouched, in fact I COULD have just as easily tossed it like a Frisbee - without a doubt it would have made the flight wholly intact, though I would worry that it could have decapitated some pretentious luvvy on the way. - My advice to this place - Learn how to cook an omelette - or fire whomever made the ghastly thing. My advice to customers - keep walking!
Visited twice! We had an evening meal with all the family we were visiting. I had a taste of everyone's dishes, all were executed extremely well and good value for money. There was a great choice of dishes and the serving staff were very good. Great choice of drinks, well selected wines at good prices. We also had a good breakfast the following morning. I can heartily recommend a visit!
Lunch here on a bank holiday Monday. Good ambience. Food really very tasty. I had a teriyaki salmon noodle dish. Staff attentive but did not fuss.
Imperial Express is a UK Cafe based in Darlington, North East England. Imperial Express is located at 2 Northumberland St, Darlington DL3 7HJ, UK.
Please contact with Imperial Express using information above: Address, Phone number, Fax, Postal code, Website address, E-mail, Facebook. Find Imperial Express opening hours and driving directions or map. Find real customer reviews and ratings or write your own review.
Find Cafe in Darlington
You Might Also Consider