Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hardens guides have spent 32 years compiling reviews of the best Newcastle Upon Tyne restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 23 restaurants in Newcastle Upon Tyne and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Newcastle Upon Tyne restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Newcastle Upon Tyne Restaurants
1. Dabbawal
Indian restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
69-75 High Bridge - NE1
“A full menu with lots of variety, and super staff” underpin the appeal of this street food pioneer, which opened in 2008, near the Theatre Royal. “The only downer is that it is sooooo popular now, it is hard to get a table!”.
2. Colmans
Fish & chips restaurant in South Shields
182-186 Ocean Rd - NE33
“The menu is simple but they know what they are doing… as you would expect now they’re into their fourth generation running the place” at this Tyneside “local institution”, which first started out as a hut on the foreshore in 1905 – a “fantastic traditional chippy with a good selection of other dishes too. Always busy, but they always find room for you!”.
3. Colmans Seafood Temple
Fish & seafood restaurant in South Shields
Sea Road - NE33
“A great choice of seafood and lovely sea view” accompany a trip to this beachfront landmark (dating from 1921 and known locally as Gandhi’s Temple), which was relaunched as this descriptively-named spot in May 2017, by the family behind local well-known institution, Colmans (see also). “More up-market than their old established chippy in the town, this is a top venue with the same value for money combined with a great setting”. Top Menu Tips – “fabulous Lindisfarne oysters, the best king scallops Thermidor and smoked haddock soufflé”.
5. The Valley Junction 397
Indian restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
Old Jesmond Station, Archbold Terrace - NE2
The Valley Restaurants promise a unique and pleasurable dining experience in luxurious surroundings. Superbly presented authentic dishes from Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent are served with impeccable style by attentive waiters. The Valley Restaurants are proud to have ...
6. Pani’s
Italian restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
61-65 High Bridge - NE1
Roberto & Walter Pani’s Tyneside fixture (est. 1995) is “still a very reliable venue after all these years”, serving an Italian menu with “interesting Sardinian specialities” – and there’s “always a great vibe both lunchtime and evenings”.
7. 21
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
Trinity Gardens, Quayside - NE1
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.
8. Blackfriars Restaurant
British, Traditional restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
Friars St - NE1
“An old building, with lots of candles and nooks and crannies” – “this beautiful 13th century former Dominican friary” is particularly “atmospheric in winter” (but it also has “a lovely courtyard area for summer dining”). From its bistro/brasserie-style menu, there’s “always a good choice of dishes based on good local produce” and its standards are “accomplished and reliable”.
9. Dobson and Parnell
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
21 Queen St - NE1
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.
10. The Broad Chare
British, Traditional restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
25 Broad Chare - NE1
“Quality locally sourced food” “in an excellent refurbished pub close to the Quayside” wins consistently high ratings across the board for this long-running collaboration (12 years and counting) between Terry Laybourne’s 21 Hospitality Group and the neighbouring Live Theatre, a theatre for new writing.
11. Dosa Kitchen
Indian, Southern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
7 Osborne Road (rear) - NE2
“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”.
12. House of Tides
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
28-30 The Close - NE1
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].
13. Trakol
British, Modern restaurant in Gateshead
Hillgate Quays - NE8
“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!”
14. Cook House
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
Foundry Lane - NE6
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!”)
15. Peace & Loaf
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
217 Jesmond Road - NE2
“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.
16. Francesca’s
Italian restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
134 Manor House Rd - NE2
“Queues seem to be longer than ever” at this “well-established, great-value Italian institution” in Jesmond – “a testament to the popularity” of its generous servings of pizza, pasta and much else on a long menu that “continues to provide VFM”.
17. Jesmond Dene House
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
Jesmond Dene Rd - NE2
“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”.
18. Kaltur
Spanish restaurant in Newcastle city centre
19 Dean Street - NE1
“Chic Spanish restaurant, with a varied menu of creative tapas plus good sherries” and an “excellent and extensive range of Spanish wines”, where “a perch at the bar is a front-row seat for watching the cooking”. It opened in 2019, and is a large spin-off from an older wine bar and tapas stop at 8 High Bridge Street.
19. Solstice
British, Modern restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
5 - 7 Side - NE1
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.”
20. Khai Khai
Indian restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne
29 Queen Street - NE1
This 2020 newcomer in a Victorian building just off the Quayside creates “unusual twists on Indian cuisine” by using a modern Josper grill to recreate the ‘primal’ smoky flavours of the subcontinent’s traditional regional cuisines. Top Tip – “wonderful cocktails”.
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