Harden's says
Kenny Atkinson's follow-up to House of Tides next door (and replacement for Violets) will offer a tasting menu for just 14 guests; opened June 2022.
Harden's survey result
Summary
“Blindingly good cooking throughout, with dishes that are inventive and playful” results in “adventurous, lively food that’s full of flavour and zing” at Kenny & Abbie Atkinson’s exceptional three-year-old, which sits next to its older sibling House of Tides (and nowadays scores similar quantities of feedback and high ratings). “Each dish is brought to your table by one of the chefs who chats you through the provenance and how they created and executed the dish. If this sounds pompous, it’s anything but; friendly explanations are sparkling with fun”. Top Menu Tips – “Scallop ever so delicately cooked in beef fat, topped with a fiery Thai glaze, deeply caramelised. Honey parfait with rye ice cream – the two flavours paired into a sort of sunny-summer-grass-meadow fantasy”. “A tiny smoked eel brandade with caviar, Granny Smith and dill, and served on a little metal tin lid (like a Caviar tin). The flavour just explodes and then is gone. Also a chewy beetroot croustade filled with pickled elderberries, toasted cumin and caraway seeds and finished with a horseradish crème fraîche and a pickled golden beetroot rose”.
Summary
“Outstanding… nothing more to add” – Kenny & Abbie Atkinson’s “smart, intimate and welcoming” two-year-old sits next to their more established House of Tides, and increasingly is eclipsing it in terms of the volume and quality of feedback we receive. Reports give “compliments to the whole team for an excellent menu, exquisite food (we loved and couldn’t fault a single dish) and the warm enthusiasm with which it’s delivered”, all from a tasting menu providing 12-15 servings for £175 per person. This year’s biggest complaint? “Carrot was the weakest dish for me, but that is only because I don’t particularly like carrots and it tasted a little, well, ‘carrotty’…”
Summary
Kenny Atkinson’s “fantastic inventive food”, delivered across a “truly exceptional menu of 17 bitesize courses” (for £175 per person) in this “intimate” yearling, next-door to his flagship House of Tides, is “an absolute must-do if you are in Newcastle”. “It might be expensive, it might be exclusive and it might be incongruous in the current economic climate, but it’s also exceptional and well worth the treat if you can afford it” – and is many of our diners’ choice as “the best cooking eaten in the last 12 months”.
Summary
Kenny Atkinson’s follow-up to House of Tides next door (and replacement for Violets Café) offers a tasting menu for just 14 guests. It opened in summer 2022, too late for feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but a September 2022 review from Grace Dent of The Guardian suggests it’s a ‘must-visit’: “For every Ynyshir, Moor Hall or Ikoyi – and Solstice is easily as impressive as those three – there are others that keep you hostage for hours, offering endless edible gold leaf and interminable pauses, and leaving you hungrier when you leave than you were when you arrived. That’s why I appreciate the theatre, the pacing and the exquisite attention to detail of the likes of Solstice.”
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
Have you eaten at Solstice?
5 - 7 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3JE
Restaurant details
Solstice Restaurant Diner Reviews
"It was 2 years to the day when we last visited and we were starting to worry that we might have “over hyped” our previous meal experience in our memories. All doubt was dispatched as soon as we received the first course … simply described as “Eel” this exquisite dish consisted of smoked eel brandade topped with Oscietra caviar, decorated with gels of Granny Smith Apple and dill and eel … all served with crispy chicken skin “crackers” …absolutely delicious. Other outstanding dishes included “Parmesan & Tomato”, “Lobster 1” , “Lobster 2” and”Craster Kipper” Kenny Atkinson and Scott John-Hodgson are at the helm to explain the dishes and share a joke … in fact the whole team bubbles with knowledge and enthusiasm With such imaginative food so well delivered and the personal attention achieved as a result of having only 6 tables it is one of the best restaurant experiences you can have! "
"Adventurous, lively food; full of flavour and zing. Each dish is brought to your table by one of the chefs who chats you through the provenance and how they created and executed the dish. Sounds pompous - is anything but; friendly explanations, sparkling with fun. Example dish from dinner last week: a tiny smoked eel brandade with caviar, Granny Smith and dill, and served on a little metal tin lid (like a Caviar tin). The flavour just explodes and then is gone. Also a chewy beetroot croustade filled with pickled elderberries, toasted cumin and caraway seeds and finished with a horseradish creme fraiche and a pickled golden beetroot rose. Wonderful dinner, really good wine list too. "
Prices
| Availability | 2 courses | 3 courses |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunch | £130.00 |  |
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| Dinner | £165.00 | |
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| Drinks |
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| Wine per bottle | £50.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £8.00 |
| Extras |
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| Bread | £6.00 |
| Service | 13.00% |
5 - 7 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3JE
Opening hours
| Monday | CLOSED |
| Tuesday | CLOSED |
| Wednesday | 7 pm‑8 pm |
| Thursday | 7 pm‑8 pm |
| Friday | 12 pm‑1 pm, 7 pm‑8 pm |
| Saturday | 12 pm‑1 pm, 7 pm‑8 pm |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
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