Newcastle Upon Tyne, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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.

2019 Review: “Andrew Wilkinson consistently produces meals bursting with flavour from first rate, locally sourced, ingredients” in the “unique setting” of this converted Victorian warehouse (part of the UK’s largest arts and crafts galleries): “a banker of a restaurant, with interesting monthly tasting menus and ‘fish Friday’ options”.

Terry Laybourne’s “buzzy Quayside fixture” is “clearly the place to be in the Toon” – “reliably pleasing and deservedly popular” after providing “top-quality dining at surprisingly affordable prices” for 35 years. Top Tip – “great pre-theatre prix-fixe menu” ahead of a visit to the Sage, just across the Millennium Bridge.

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.

The route in question is that from castle to Quayside – the street where John Calton’s “lovely and intimate” modern bistro is located. There’s nothing but praise for the “exceedingly creative and imaginative menu, featuring original combinations and matched with a good value wine list”. Top Menu Tip – “Oh, the treacle bread…”

Casual fine dining is the style nowadays at this buzzy Quayside destination, which occupies an address made famous in its days as ‘21 Queen Street’ (long RIP). There is a conventional two-course/three-course menu, but also competitively priced 5-course and 7-courses options featuring more “unusual taste combinations”. All are well-reviewed as “always reliable” and “delicious” as is the “friendly and attentive service”. See also its siblings: Blackfriars Restaurant in Newcastle and Hinnies in Whitley Bay.

Kenny & Abbie Atkinson’s Grade I-listed sixteenth-century merchant’s house on the old Quayside is frequently hailed as Newcastle’s best restaurant, and it’s historically the most renowned of the city’s more ambitious culinary destinations. And its “lovely, informal, friendly atmosphere makes this haute cuisine dining experience an all-round joy”. The worst thing anyone said about the food this year? “The caviar was a bit soft and non-descript” [first world problems! Ed].

“Wood-fired wonders from one of Newcastle’s best!” – a “tremendous menu” of “raw-in-tooth-and-claw meat cooking over open flame” draws aficionados to this “wonderful location, right under the Tyne Bridge”. There’s “nothing here I could cook at home – many things I couldn’t even imagine. Risky, but it works!”

2022 Review: Consistently inconsistent ratings on the food front were echoed again this year (reports ranging from “quite ordinary” and “pricey” to “very good”), but by common consent the “amazing views” and “plentiful outdoor seating” make this upscale art gallery restaurant “worth the visit”.

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).

A “really excellent find in a charming location”, “Anna Hedworth’s flagship restaurant in the Ouseburn serves an unusual and interesting menu” in “a quirky building just away from the city centre”. The former Quo Vadis and Rochelle Canteen chef started out here in a shipping container, before graduating to this upstairs, open-kitchen venue. (“Flawless… high praise from a veggie going to a ‘normal’ restaurant!”)

“I’ve never had a bad meal here”. Local chef Dave Coulson trained at Le Gavroche in London, and returned to open his “outstanding” Jesmond restaurant 10 years ago, steadily building its reputation ever since for “adventurous and delicious” cuisine from its seasonal tasting menus. “Dave is renowned locally and deserves national recognition”. Top Tip – lunchtime and early evening, try it out more inexpensively with the ‘2, 1, 2, 1, 2’ menu for £35 per person.

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 great escape in the centre of Newcastle”, the “excellent” dining room in this Arts & Crafts boutique hotel serves “reliably decent food in a very nice setting”. Coffee and tea are served in the “beautiful lounges or garden” – and it’s all “reasonable value”.

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.”