Cool Places To Eat
City Centre Restaurants.
All the eating places recommended here are outstanding & we go there if we’ve been lucky, made a bit of loot & get a chance to eat out.
St Sushi.
This is the best sushi place in the City. We can say this ‘cos we are sashimi freaks & have tried all of them. It’s at the bottom (the town end) of Westgate Hill, opposite the Tyne Theatre. It used to do the conveyor belt thing, but has recently been adapted to be all tables.
Due to the freshness of produce required to retail raw fish successfully, anywhere doing it needs to be busy. St Sushi always is & the number of Japanese customers in there every time is a testament to it’s authenticity. It’s reasonably priced & whether you are wanting to dash in, nosh & dash out, or to sit for ages enjoying your food, there is no finer place. They also do Bento boxes & a full supporting range of dishes, so this is not just a raw fish place.
The difference between here & other (would be) Sushi places in town, is so vast as to be obvious & a visit to St Sushi is very, very highly recommended.
The Broad Chare.
This is the newest high end quality kid on the block & a recent visits here have blown us away. Situated right next door the the Live Theatre, opposite the Quayside Law Courts, this is an absolute gem of a bar/eaterie that opened earlier this year.
It’s a small proper pub, with what is without doubt the best pub food menu in Newcastle by absolute miles…
The Broad Chare is co operated by the Live Theatre mob & the dude who runs all the (would be) elite’s favourite eateries, the Cafe 21 restaurant group. Unlike Cafe 21, this does not feel aimed at an ‘Accent magazine’ type market, it’s more of a really high quality gastropub vibe.
From the beers & the bar snacks, to the full menu available upstairs, this is a great place to drink & an amazing place to eat. It’s food prices are not cheap, but not ridiculous either, especially when you consider the quality on offer. Wherever you are planning to go next don’t….
Check out this instead. It’s a really cool place, beautifully understated & a lovely little spot.
In a radical move a deal has been struck between the two operators, to take a sizable skim from the yearly profits & plough it back into funding new writing for plays at Live Theatre. In this age of arts organisations all crying like babies, because the fat cat, free money gravy train has come to a halt, this is am amazing local example of Business & the Arts getting together, to create a really great place with a solid ethos.
The development of the Broad Chare is really great to see & other businesses & Arts organisations should take note. This type of thing can be done, if you just stop crying all the time about your lost handouts & get your thinking caps on instead.
A sustainable, arts connected, high quality place to hang out in..? Very flippin’ rare in Newcastle, as you already know only too well & anyone who loves really great, food led bars, should make a point of discovering this inspirational little gem before everyone else does…
Panis.
Located at the far end of High Bridge street Panis is a proper Newcastle institution. An Italian/Sardinian place run by Italians/Sardinians, smack in the middle of town. The food is ultra fresh & it comes quick. The feel of the place is quirky & informal, the welcome is friendly & it really hits the spot taste wise.
It carries none of the clichés that blight the cities more ‘boil in the bag’ Italian type places. The waiting staff don’t do the letching over girl customer thing, that more cheesie places still peddle even today & it isn’t cluttered with undecorative tat.
Midway between a cafe & a restaurant, in Panis you really have a feel of eating with cool people who care about the quality of the food they serve. It’s also really cheap to eat here. A stylish winner on every single level & always has a busy, bustling & cosmopolitan atmosphere because of that. You have got to try this place. 10/10.
Paradiso.
This is where we often take visiting Djs playing the Club. Upstairs from Popolos (see bars we like) just 5 mins walk from the Club. This is a great place.
World cusine that leans toward the Italian end of things, the vibe is similar to Panis, but its far more restaurant than cafe. Friendly, authentic & welcoming, it’s a smart idea to phone ahead & book a booth. Fish stew here is the absolute bomb & this place is a total winner.
Elecrtic East (Formerly Barn Asia).
We haven’t been since the recent name change, so we are leaving up the write up we gave Barn Asia, as the same team are involved. We will update this once we have eaten there again.
This is tucked away in a courtyard behind Waterloo street & is a really fab place. Authentic far eastern dishes & served up in a thoughtfully decorated & really inviting, cosy environment. The dude who runs this place has the best restaurateur CV of anyone in Newcastle, having been at the helm of the original Barn premises & then steering the business through another couple of successful incarnations at different premises over many years.
This location really is a great environment & it has rightfully won awards for it’s food. Don’t think that makes it snotty though, Barn Asia is a really cool, relaxed place & if you are a student new to town & expecting the obligatory parental visit, this is where you should eat out. Prices are under average for Newcastle & an absolute bargain if you take account of the top end quality of the food.
Along with that it kicks the ass of would be posh eateries, by also embracing another thing that sets it apart, the layout. It’s a large room, made cosy by the most exquisite pieces of furniture. Every single item from the seats to the stuff on the walls is unique & it’s put together in an uncluttered, informal way.
There really isn’t anywhere else that comes close & the tables are really nicely spaced out, so you can chat away to your hearts content, without anyone else earwigging your conversation or oggling your date. It’s a small thing, but it makes all the difference & almost all (would be) top end eateries in town fall down on this important bit of the dining intimacy jigsaw.
This means even when it’s really busy it feels spacious & relaxed.
If you are rich enough to try posher places like Malmaison or Hotel Du Vin, you can almost see down the throat of the table next to you… It’s not a good look & stunts your conversation. You’ll see the difference & exactly what we mean when you take our advice & eat here.
We ate the best food we had ever eaten in Newcastle here (drunken Sea Bass) & this place would honestly stand up in any city in the world.
Other places.
There are obviously many other places to eat in the city of varying quality, but none in our opinion , in the City Centre are as good as the five we have listed here. Tuck in!
We have had a very ‘interesting’ response to this section & we now feel the need to include the following statement for information purposes…
Everywhere we mention or review, is somewhere we feel is special & will be of interest to people who get the individuality of our Club.
Please note that we are not interested in taking money from anyone to influence the content of this site.
It’s just meant to be a bit if fun & networking between chums & this page is not an advertising opportunity for anyone, so please don’t send us any more daft e mails. With respect, you will only embarrass yourself, if you ask us to include your business on here in exchange for free meals or money.
We are going to be looking at & adding the best cafes in & around the outskirts of the City over the next wee while, so check back.