Socrates At No 5 - Northumberland

Wonderful lunch, Brilliant food. Lovely staff. Warm and cosy and a fabulous menu. What more could you want.

Apparently this was ranked No.2 among Morpeth Restaurants when it was run by the deceased Socrates? Now renamed Yasu which means Cheers. A rather limited lunch menu but two of us chose fired Haloumi as a starter and the third order was mixed Greek sauces on a mix of breads and pita. Excellent choices and the accompaniments for the breads was enough for 6 guests. A large bottle of chilled water was put on the table all good so far. But the water was not refilled. Waiting for the mains we looked around and the walls and decor show not a hint of Greek tradition. How odd. How dull! Beef Stifado came in an extraordinary pileo of chips in a bashet, rice in a bowl and the stifado in anther larger bowl. Of course one had to tip all of these out onto a plate to eat and then we sat with these piles of containers on the table. Quite why chips and boiled rice came but no matter. The beef was very tender but was simply a beef stew with pearl onions. It lacked the essential flavours of stifado which demand a lot of oregano, garlic and a touch of cinnamon. The fried calamari came looking different to any I have seen before not in crispy rings, but in large wedges, My daughter in law felt the calamari was undercooked but the coating was tasty. The service was clumsy. It might seem that I am trying to pick faults but I am being honest. Eventually 4 or5tablse were filled and those gusts were chewing away with gusto. Perhaps it is just me but I would not go again.

It’s quite a small restaurant, narrow and too bright! The decor’s confusing considering it’s cuisine is Greek. No apparent nods to that inside, rather just a bland space with a few framed pictures of Morpeth hanging on the wall. And to be honest before the food arrived I was wishing I’d booked elsewhere. BUT The food was excellent, lovey and fresh, and great flavour. Very generous portions. The service was great. Pricing, a tiny bit expensive, but actually for the quality of the food and service, you don’t mind. This place could be so much better, with more of an authentic setting, new menus (current ones covered in tipp-ex and stickers), a dimmer switch and some Greek inspired music (rather than the lighthouse family). The most important things though, food and service were absolutely great.

Under new management now called YASU Still authentic greek food Have visited many times when it was Socretes. Decided to give it a try under new owners and was not disapointed. Very good food plenty choice and told a new menu is due soon

Yesterday evening the 2nd February my wife and her friends visited this establishment. There were 4 of them in total. I asked my wife if she could bring me home a chicken gyros after her meal as I love the Greek gyros. On returning home I enquired as to how her meal was. In response she said “it was not only the worst Greek food she’d had, it was the worst food she’d ever eaten” . That’s saying something as we visit Greece at least once a year and love authentic Greek cuisine. She explained that the starters were poorly prepared and ‘a strange combination of ingredients’ . The main course for all 4 of them was over cooked and dry to the point all them left their food and when asked by the waitress if everything was okay ? the response was an emphatic no, to which a a mumbled response was given but no offer of an apology or reduction in the bill. Looking forward to my gyros and hoping it was better than my wife and her friends experience I was sadly disappointed. There was a total of roughly 4 greasy, soggy chips. Roughly 5 or 6 small dried out chicken pieces and the salad looked at least 2 days old and also dried out which went straight in the bin.The pita bread was okay though. The reason I’m writing this and not my wife is she doesn’t like confrontation but I feel restaurants should be held accountable for poor food and service. You would think in this present economical climate restaurants would be making every effort to give a good service when finances are tight, after all you need repeat customers. My wife and her friends paid over £120 for an extremely sub standard experience and then paid £7.50 for an extremely sub standard gyros which went into the bin. I decided to share a photo of my £7.50 gyros. I’m also more than willing to speak in person to the owner, chef if they’re happy to.