The best restaurants in Newcastle: 11 places for top-tier nosh

Famous for its bridges, its black-and-white-striped football team, its big-hearted warmth (the people, if not the temperatures), Newcastle has usually been dismissed as a dining hot-spot. That would be unwise. The city gained its first Michelin star over 35 years ago; it now has two Michelin-starred restaurants as well as a jostling handful of serious wannabees. And that’s just at the fine-dining end, the tip of an eating-out scene that crackles like the Geordie humour.

Let’s get the clichés over with: yes, you can still find stottie cakes (a thick flat-bread), pease pudding (mushy yellow split peas) and, obviously, Newcastle Brown (though it’s now brewed in Tadcaster and the Netherlands). But you can also find mesmerising tasting menus, polished restaurants that deliver quality without the starchiness, a street of Chinese restaurants (that’s you, Stowell Street), neighbourhood eateries that are little beacons of creativity, wine-and-small-plates bars, vegan pubs, artisan bakeries, and coffee-and-brunch places down unlikely side-streets.

It’s not a big city, so it’s easy to walk and browse before making a choice. But the neighbourhoods are equally diverting and often, such as Heaton and Ouseburn, where you’ll find the next exciting kitchen.

Solstice

This is dining as an event; three or four hours of entertainment from watching the skills in the open kitchen and the chefs’ service – the chefs serve each guest – to the wonder and delight of each course. Chef restaurateur Kenny Atkinson gained a Michelin star here in 2023, less than a year after opening – he already had a star at House of Tides, a bigger affair in an atmospheric beamed building five minutes around the corner on the Quayside. Solstice is altogether different: intimate (just 15 covers), sleek in creams and golds, with a relaxed ‘private dining’ feel, and where each dish (up to 18 on the evening tasting menu) is designed to elevate the flavours of sometimes quite humble ingredients as well as to look exquisite. A Craster kipper dish has a nostalgic smokiness; salt-baked beetroot is paired with horseradish and topped with delicate golden beetroot ‘rose petal’, while smoked eel brandade is served with chicken skin crackers. ‘Dig in!’ is the unspoken command!

Address: Solstice, 5-7 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3JE
Website: solsticencl.com

21

Arguably, this is where the city’s food renaissance began. Or, rather, in its previous incarnation, a few blocks away, where chef-restaurateur Terry Laybourne opened 21 Queen Street in 1988, gaining a Michelin star three years later. Deliberately moving away from star status, Laybourne then created this smart space characterised by white cloths, an on-the-ball service and warm atmosphere. Jolly colours and funky lampshades unite in a restaurant serving Modern European dishes/classics that don’t miss a beat. The cheese and spinach soufflé is a winner, the fishcakes a menu staple, the confit of duck has a loyal following, while the classics are there in force – Tournedos Rossini, Dover sole and any number of steaks. Save room for the desserts, which are winningly old-school. The wine list is reassuringly comprehensive. It’s top-quality anniversary, business lunch, lazy lunch, date-night, and pretty much any occasion in between, territory. (It’s not unknown for lunchtime guests to be sliding out as evening diners arrive.)