Morpeth Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: A high street outfit ‘bringing a dash of Sardinian sunshine to Gosforth’, as their website proclaims – and which is well-regarded locally; they have now opened up an on-site deli, should you prefer to take away.

This “lovely hotel” in a “beautiful” Grade II-listed Arts and Crafts house remains a satisfying getaway, being particularly “perfect for afternoon tea”. There are several dining spaces, ranging from a bar offering light snacks to the dedicated Fern Dining Room for heartier meals.

2022 Review: Scant reports – too few for a rating – on this ‘upmarket neighbourhood dining room’ from ex-House of Tides chef Danny Parker, in the venerable Jesmond Dene location once part-owned by Terry Laybourne. In addition to dinner service and Sunday lunch, daily afternoon tea is a feature.

“A good range of locally caught fish and shellfish” can be enjoyed at this “recently refurbished building” in a “fantastic setting right on the quayside in Amble, with views up to Warkworth along the Coquet and out towards the sea”. It’s “our go-to place when we want to give foreign visitors a taste of traditional fish ’n’ chips” – with the bonus that you can “watch the boats arriving” with tomorrow’s fish. The owners also run the Fish Shack close by.

2022 Review: “Delicious, interesting dishes” inspired by the street food delivered by Mumbai’s ‘dabbawala’ bicycle delivery men, are to be found on the menu at this brightly coloured Jesmond venue with an open kitchen and verandah. It’s a spinoff of the city-centre original.

2021 Review: Fans of this puntastic pizzeria may be going OTT when they hail it as “probably the best pizza in the UK”. But Jesmond-born former joiner Calvin Kitchin and his brother Kerry take their trade seriously – their “good-value pizzas” are accredited by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana and cooked in a wood-fired Stefano Ferrara oven imported from Naples.

For a “cheap ’n’ cheerful” occasion, this Jesmond institution of decades standing is just the job. It bills itself as a pizzeria, but there are lots of other choices on its long menu.

2021 Review: The “excellent Persian food” at this “friendly” Jesmond spot wins high ratings for “one of the cheapest restaurants in Newcastle for cooking of high quality”. A more central branch near the station has closed down.

2023 Review: “A very pleasant change from some of the run-of-the-mill Asian offerings elsewhere in Newcastle” – this “very nice South Indian restaurant” which doesn’t have the greatest entrance (“entry is via a door on a different street and up a flight of stairs”). “An excellent range of dosas” is the highlight of its “excellent value and very consistent food”. Top Tip – “Sunday buffet is especially good value and a great introduction to South Indian cuisine for those unfamiliar and/or unsure what to order”.

Le Gavroche-trained chef Dave Coulson came home to open this “firm favourite” in Jesmond, with a winningly puntastic name; the “very good” seasonal tasting menus “mostly favour grown-up tastes” – and if you want to try them for less, there’s a “great-value lunch deal called ‘2,1,2,1,2’”.

2022 Review: You wouldn’t necessarily expect it from the unassuming façade, but former River Café alum Nick Grieve's “small but adventurous” bistro on the main road through Jesmond turns out some “outstanding quality” food – currently in the format of a six-course, no-choice menu (£59).

2022 Review: This Art Deco (1938) landmark (incorporating Newcastle's only surviving indie cinema) closed for much of the COVID-19 pandemic and started a phased reopening in August 2021. The coffee rooms are in the final phase following a new floor and refurbishment of furnishings throughout the building.

A “very historic dining room” – set in a thirteenth-century former refectory that may be the oldest of its kind in the UK – adds a sense of occasion to a visit to this “atmospheric” outfit, but it’s arguably even better in summer “when you can eat outside in the courtyard garden”. The brasserie menu is “quality” (think “good seasonal produce such as game”) and “you can hear yourself talk, so it’s good for taking your parents too if they like traditional with a slight twist”.

With its “buzzy atmosphere, friendly staff” and “good Sardinian specialities”, Roberto & Walter Pani’s deceptively “cheap ’n’ cheerful” spot is quite possibly “the best, most consistent and interesting Italian in town”. Just short of 30 years after opening, it remains for many “the go-to place when I return to Newcastle”.

This Ouseburn outfit is “worth seeking out, even though it is off the beaten track”, for its “quirky but delicious food and really good service”. Founder Anna Hedworth worked at Quo Vadis and Rochelle Canteen in London before setting up in a shipping container in Newcastle, and moved on to the current open-kitchen venue six years ago.

2021 Review: Terry Laybourne’s 21 Group closed the beloved Caffè Vivo in August 2018 to much local ire, but after a remarkably short interregnum, the space was “reinvented as an imaginative, wine-led tapas restaurant” (“still with an Italian slant”, and featuring a new bar and metro-chic décor). Reassuringly, head chef Emanuele Lattanzi, a carry-over from the Vivo days, oversees the menu, which dances about all over the place (mac ‘n’ cheese, black pudding, etc.) but so far it’s the “fascinating wine list” which draws all the comments.