The Derwent Arms in Edmundbyers receive second award

The Derwent Arms, in Edmundbyers, received its second Diners' Choice Award on Thursday, March 3.

Diners' Choice Awards are given based on customers who vote for their favourite restaurant to win the award.

Andy Spenceley, the general manager of The Derwent Arms, said the pub received the second award due to the standard of service and the standard of the food they produce.

The pub, which borders Northumberland and County Durham, has a 4.6 star rating on Opentable from 71 reviews, and is also near Derwent Reservoir.

One review left on its Opentable page on Sunday, February 13, said: "Polite helpful staff. Food excellent. Chef came out to check if the food was ok, which was a nice touch."

The Inn Hospitality Group bought The Derwent Arms in May 2021, and completely refurbished the pub in three months before they opened in August, from the beers they sell to the inside decor.

The Derwent Arms got their first award in January 2022, after opening on Friday, August 13 2021.

Andy said: "This is the first time we've really advertised the award we've received, and we're very happy with receiving awards."

It's hard to tell whether the award has influenced others to try the pub, Andy says. "I guess we'll see soon if it's had any effect on people coming in."

"We have really good feedback from our customers on Google, TripAdvisor and through word of mouth as well." 

"We get a lot of regular customers, every week we see the same faces coming in."

The company is in the process of purchasing more properties but are keen to continue improving all aspects of the pub. 

Andy said: "We want to continue improving the service, even though it's a high standard already, we want to keep improving that, and get further with our food and trading standards. We want to give people something different. We're popular for our fish right now."

Andy added: "The award is great, we want to keep them coming and get better, but our best award is the customer feedback we get."