Best restaurants in Newcastle
Published 07 September 2026

Coffee shop by day, wine bar by night, Assemble is the sister venue to House Bar in Heaton and currently home to kitchen residency Soku. As recommended by Long Friday's Anna Hedworth in her personal tour of Newcastle. 

Awesome Franks is a deli and sandwich bar serving brunch, pizza 'squares', schiacciata 'sarnies' and soups alongside natural wine, local ales and craft sodas. As recommended by Long Friday's Anna Hedworth in her personal tour of Newcastle. 

There is something rather special about this bijou Mexican eatery. The two owners started out as musicians before setting up a series of pop-ups in the city and graduating to their first bricks-and-mortar site in Heaton. Mexican-themed knick-knacks, modern art, plain wooden tables and terracotta-painted walls set the scene for a menu that puts a plant-based spin on the core repertoire. Friendly, well-informed staff guide diners through the menu, which ranges from antojitos (‘small cravings’) to assorted tacos – all prepared with skill, confidence and a feel for fresh flavours.

Totopos (homemade tortilla chips) and zingy palate-cleansing pickles kick off proceedings on a high note, ahead of little dishes ranging from 'elote' grilled corn cobs gently spiced with habanero and shallot butter to an outstanding rendition of tempura cauliflower dressed with chilli, sunflower seeds and fried sage leaves – a perfect balance of flavours, textures and seasoning. Tacos (designed for sharing) are equally imaginative, offering anything from panko-coated fried oyster mushrooms with pickled fennel and chipotle black beans dressed in a vibrant green salsa cruda to a baja taco that replaces fish with beer-battered banana blossoms and morita chilli sauce. 

To conclude, there are just two desserts: a silky-smooth chocolate mousse topped with iodised sea salt crystals and chocolate crumb, and a rice pudding/crème brûlée hybrid given an extra kick with cherry and mezcal. Tempting cocktails are the top shouts on the drinks list.

Firmly bedded in at Foundry Lane Studios (a series of spaces for creatives and artists), chef and food writer Anna Hedworth’s Cook House continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Spread over two floors, the premises now includes a deli and dining terrace, plus a little garden which supplies herbs for their growing list of soft drinks; there are also plans to keep bees on the roof. It also ticks all the ‘community’ boxes when it comes to local support, education and events.

Anna has drafted in a team of chefs to run the kitchen (and the BBQ), while the expanded menu is a rolling roster of ‘outrageously good’ dishes inspired by British produce and the world larder. Any modern eatery worth its smoked salt must have kimchi on its menu (preferably made in-house) and this place is no exception. Otherwise, breakfast/brunch at the weekend means house granola, hash browns with hot aïoli, green harissa fried eggs on toast and other trendy nibbles, while lunch and dinner could usher a roster of creative ideas ranging from parsnip mousse with curried granola, pickled parsnip and some crispy chicken skin for texture to whole smoked mackerel with smoked salsify, lime yoghurt and orange hot sauce.

There are also sticky, treacly slow-roast short ribs with cheesy polenta and plum ketchup for sharing, plus some tempting desserts including dark chocolate mousse with blackberries and honeycomb or toasted barley ice cream with miso caramel. World beers, kombucha and spritzes suit the on-trend minimalist setting, and there are plenty of intriguing, fashionable wines too.

‘We have been regular customers for a while, and it seems to be getting better each time,’ noted a reader who plunged into the ‘exceptional’ seven-course tasting menu at this grown-up metropolitan brasserie close to Newcastle’s Quayside. The gastronomic star turn on that occasion was a dish of crispy oyster with apple and dill purée (served with a beetroot ‘jammy dodger’), but bigger plates were also perfectly executed (think lightly roasted halibut teamed up with fried chicken and mushroom ketchup). Others have also lapped up equally enjoyable, ‘thoughtfully decorated’ dishes from the more modest set menu – perhaps rare-breed pork with carrots, carrot-top pesto and fried sourdough crumb followed by dark chocolate and orange pavé with chocolate aero and orange sorbet. Named after the two Victorian architects who designed the building, this is a spacious, good-looking venue with some of its original rough brick walls intact, plus white tiling, low-hanging lights and partitioned banquette seating. Service gets a resounding thumbs-up (‘knowledgeable, friendly and the right sort of attentive’), and the carefully chosen, global wine list promises sound drinking from £24. ‘Go there – you won't be disappointed.’

Hugely popular, not least for its 'super-fair' pricing and vibrant, inclusive atmosphere, this South Indian favourite takes a masterly approach to carbs. Dosas, which can be roasted with homemade ghee or stuffed with the house potato masala, are big, crisp and shiny, while the parathas are gloriously ragged and the pooris puffy. Eat them with veggie and vegan curries such as tempting tamarind chickpeas, though there are homespun takes on chicken and lamb classics too. Everything comes together on Sundays for 'particularly good' sapaad feasts, popular across the generations. A new outdoor space is getting noticed.

Opened in 2014, House of Tides is the original flagship of Kenny Atkinson (of Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen fame). It's a capacious venue occupying a 16th-century former merchant’s house by the Tyne and incorporates an atmospheric ground-floor bar and anteroom with a flagstone floor, plus a first-floor dining room more comfortably furnished with wooden flooring and modern art on white walls. The tasting menu can be modified for various diets (and vegetarians have their own list), but otherwise there’s no choice. To start, a tempting gougère with warming baba ganoush and harissa filling (served downstairs) indicated the delicacy this kitchen can achieve. Many dishes contain a multitude of ingredients, several unmentioned on the terse menu, but it's questionable whether every component deserves its place. Did the sharp, pickled vegetable topping simply overwhelm a lovely creamy tasting of celeriac velouté? Was the tiny cube of smoked eel needed on the meltingly satisfying rissole of pulled pork matched with tart apple? And wouldn’t salt crystals have been preferable to caviar, topping a tender roundel of venison tartare (cleverly combined with crunchy smoked beetroot and tiny pickled shimeji mushrooms)? The jury is out. In contrast, praise is unalloyed for the sourdough bread and cultured butter (both are bought in), and at inspection, the fish and meat ‘main courses’ showed flashes of brilliance and a mastery of technique. ‘Stone bass, mussels, salsify and dill’ featured a sublime oblong of fish (seared skin, succulent flesh), with a crunchy roasted salsify log in a dill and fish sauce – creativity manifested in an eye-opening blob of intense (and disarmingly sweet) lemon verbena gel. Likewise, a pink, juicy helping of duck was complemented by squash (both puréed and roasted), resilient hen of the woods mushrooms and a piquant blob of black garlic. Puddings – as with every dish – are beautiful to behold: a luxurious cube of orange chocolate covered with melting roasted chestnut shavings (a nice wintry touch) and set off by tiny leaves of Thai basil; and a blackberry and fig tart topped with croissant ice cream, tangy apple caramel and candied pecans, made prettier still with marigold flowers. The wine list is extensive and service from a young team is eager (if uncertain). Yet with the sun shining brightly at Atkinson’s latest venture, Solstice, it seems that this one-time front-runner is starting to fade.

‘Anchored in its local community and owned by someone who lives close by,’ Long Friday thrives on its vibe – a mix of ‘cool hospitality’ and a ‘really warm neighbourhood atmosphere’. Just add incredibly knowledgeable staff and a ’fantastic and ever-changing range of unusual, seasonal dishes’ prepared with a sophisticated eye for detail and a sense of fun. Snacks such as tom yum crab on a tapioca cracker prime you for a build-your-own-banquet of sophisticated and creative small plates, with local Northumbrian produce to the fore, but influences as far-reaching as Mexico, the Med and Japan. Meat and fish dishes (BBQ cod with braised butter beans and chorizo, for example), are matched by a hefty contingent of vegetable specialities such as roast cauliflower with smoked houmous and chermoula. Do save room for the likes of fried apple pie with Chantilly or tonka bean and lemon sundae with nettle jelly. Long Friday's mixologists also serve ‘the best spicy Margaritas in town,’ according to one, and the owners take wine very seriously too.

An industrial-style café (stainless steel tables, open kitchen, polished concrete) that punches well above its weight, with a good-value set lunch, well-filled sandwiches, daily specials (glazed ox heart and butter bean stew), coffee and cake. From Thursday through to Saturday evening, it also excels with a terrific six-course set menu that whisks diners (rather too swiftly) through a series of imaginative, seasonal courses that might begin with whipped cod’s roe, radicchio, baby gem and radish, then, perhaps, pollack with peppers, spinach and aïoli. Tables are so closely packed you may make friends with your neighbours, but that's all part of this friendly buzzing and resourceful place, which is everything you could ask of a little local restaurant. Lubber Fiend, its relation next door, is a vibrant community events venue. Wines are limited to a house red and white, rosé and fizz, plus cocktails. Should you be wondering about the name, a Lubber Fiend is a mythical, clumsy household spirit. Happily, there's nothing clumsy about the Lubber Kitchen.

'Hospitality is done superbly well' at this ambitious but easy-going spot, incongruous on a student street in suburban Heaton. The biggest act of rebellion here is in making old-fashioned standards of service and technique feel so contemporary. That's helped along by the full complement of experimental pickles, British wines and edible flowers growing under lamps – as much a part of the calming aesthetic as the North Sea art, tree-trunk tables and sit-up kitchen counter. Tasting menus run to 10 courses as standard, with a shorter five-course option earlier in the week or at Saturday lunch. Dishes starring local produce are neatly seasonal and texturally effective, from the crackle 'n' crunch of a cod tartare and roe tart to a charred, meaty slice of hen of the woods mushroom in a creamy but bright mushroom broth. Often, the kitchen plays tricks with the familiar, as in a charred Jersey Royal with onion jam, whipped cod's roe and a generous blanket of pecorino, which is, in spirit, a single, magnificent cheese and onion crisp. Elsewhere, it nudges the boundaries – witness the stridently salty-hot wild garlic kimchi added to pork loin with charred hispi cabbage and parsley yoghurt. To finish, macerated rhubarb with sorrel sorbet is a gentler prospect. For those who've made Rebel their 'regular treat', a young team delivers every time. 'The vibes,' it is said, 'are exceptional.'

To ask for £175 per diner upfront sets the bar high for any restaurant, so it’s difficult to enter Kenny and Abbie Atkinson’s new Quayside venture without demanding (at least notionally) ‘prove yourself!’ Slowly, via up to 19 tasting dishes on a no-choice menu, Solstice does exactly that. Scott Hodgson is head chef, though Kenny Atkinson (who gained fame on the Great British Menu) was orchestrating proceedings in the kitchen when we visited, emerging to explain dishes to his customers. And what dishes they are! Guests are presented with a bare-bones menu on arrival: ‘caviar’, ‘cod roe’ and ‘mackerel’ being the first three items on our line-up (shortly before the winter solstice). Elaborate verbal descriptions are provided at table, and you’re given a detailed account on paper at the end. A meal here is characterised by beautifully presented, complex morsels of artistry, where contrasting textures and tiny bursts of concentrated flavour excite the taste buds. Highlights? Seafood is certainly a star: Lindisfarne oyster, poached in its shell then covered with an oyster and bonito beurre blanc, topped with oscietra caviar set off by drops of walnut oil (applied at the table); langoustine tail roasted in its oil yet still translucent, served with a citrus yuzu koshu butter sauce and fennel flower; steamed pollock, wrapped in nori and stuffed with a fish and mussel mousse, the masterstroke being its intense Craster kipper sauce. Shortfalls? Perhaps a sweet Parker House roll (itself perfect) wasn’t the ideal accompaniment to a main course of venison, which came with a glorious gravy of red verjus and smoked bone marrow. But that’s a minor gripe. Puddings? Northumberland heather honey parfait won the prize. Don’t be daunted by the number of dishes: portions are well-judged and the final four (including chocolate with sansho pepper ganache) are petits fours, served together. The setting for all of this is a split-level room (with limited kitchen views) seating only 14 diners; colours are subdued but note the sunburst wall lights replicating the restaurant’s logo. Staff are young but well-versed in the menu (and charming too). The suitably voluminous wine list is presented on an iPad; flights cost £95, though there’s ample choice by the glass, starting with a palatable Albariño. It’s clear Solstice is setting its sights at a level still higher than its older sibling House of Tides. If it succeeds, and on this evidence it will, it should become the brightest star in the Newcastle firmament.

Terry Laybourne's self-styled ‘proper pub’ stands not far from the north bank of the Tyne. It looks the part too, with a polished oak bar furnished with high stools, a plain wood floor and inviting banquettes. The dining goes on upstairs, in an equally convivial setting of sturdy wood tables, where cheery staff dispense the kind of food you thought city pubs didn't do any more. There are raised pork pies, Scotch eggs, potted shrimps – and not a leaf of amaranth to be seen.

A serving of Dorset crab with kohlrabi, celery and fennel is about as foofy as it gets. Otherwise, enjoy the sight of bubble and squeak with a fried egg and HP sauce, calf's liver and bacon with crispy onions or smoked haddock fishcakes with proper tartare sauce. As you would imagine, it's food to fortify yourself against the northern chill (whatever time of year) and it's probably best accompanied by one of the cannily chosen seasonal beers.

Sunday roasts are every bit as satisfying as you would expect, complete with mint sauce to daub on the shoulder of lamb, and there are sponge puddings of course – perhaps made with whisky marmalade and served with lashings of custard. Too full by now? Then take a lemon sorbet. Those who incline more to the grape than the grain will be grateful for a decent selection by the glass, starting with Castilian house wines.

A modern French, all-day dining spot with 'Swiss Army Knife' versatility, easing a lunchtime drop-in, wine bar, casual restaurant, café-deli and private-dining balcony into a repurposed railway arch where a buzzy atmosphere reverberates all around. The small-plates menu is equally suited to light repasts and grande bouffes, ranging from frog's legs, escargots and moules marinière to confit duck, boeuf bourguignon and grilled lamb rump with rosemary jus. Alternatively, spend an afternoon at the bar in the company of the brilliant staff, eating plates of artisan charcuterie and fromage with homemade chutneys while working your way through tasting flights of their wine list (reckoned to be ‘the best in the city’). Glasses of vin de la maison start at £6.

It may be tiny, with just four tables and a counter across the window, but the Small Canteen has a big heart. ‘Like dining in an old friend’s house,' notes one. The concise menu is squashed and smudged onto a blackboard in Sam Betts’ ever-so-slightly chaotic ship, which is run with immense verve and generosity. Start with good chewy bread plus sprightly dips, before moving on to a bowl of crab broth with tortellini or a heart-warming plateful of braised ox cheek with potatoes, carrots and bacon. Everything here is rich, abundant and delicious. Customers feel 'part of something special’, and tables are so closely packed you get to know your neighbours, who may also provide good reports of puds such as pear and polenta cake with honey and pistachio. We don’t know how Betts manages to pull off such a ‘masterclass of creativity and restraint,’ but we are very glad he does – especially when the blackboard also lists cocktails, juices and organic lemonade. Otherwise, there are organic wines by the carafe and obscure craft beers, too.