Northumberland Restaurant Guide

“A lovely setting on the Coquet estuary” makes Martin & Ruth Charlton’s 12-year-old quayside spot a popular choice for eating seafood (“their nearby Fish Shack is also great”). But one or two regulars are beginning to wonder if “it’s getting a bit too big” for comfort.

“Exceptional” ‘new Scandi’-style cooking has won widespread acclaim for Swedish chef Alex Nietosvuori and his locally born partner Ally Thompson at their five-year-old restaurant-with rooms – a 24-seat dining room with open kitchen, “in a beautiful setting in the wilds of Northumberland”, close to Hadrian’s Wall. “The food is created with passion, delivered to the table with unbridled enthusiasm and reveals combinations, textures and flavours which are a sensory revelation”. The couple’s spectacular new purpose-built venue, Frejya, in a walled garden within the Close House estate at Heddon-on-the-Wall, is scheduled to open in late 2025.

2022 Review: A “super-friendly and efficient” stone-fronted country boozer, where chef Paul Johnson (a Nathan Outlaw alum) delivers a “great menu selection” that saw it walk off with a CAMRA Pub of the Year accolade not too long ago.

Set on the village green in a charming hamlet a few miles from Hexham, a “lovely old inn” with a “warm fire in winter” and a conservatory offering sweeping views over the Tyne Valley. The blackboard-listed cuisine features some “very good local produce, e.g., game and fish” (plus “fantastic steaks”) making it “a favourite” in these parts; it’s been ably steered by chef Phil Mason and FOH wife Karen since 2007, and is the follow-up to their acclaimed former venture the Green Room, which occupied the old luggage office at Hexham railway station.

This “lovely local Indian” is “a proper restaurant in a converted old railway station” (and also has spin-offs in Newcastle and Hexham). “It’s a favourite to combine with a day in the Tyne valley, followed by a couple of beers, then an excellent curry here”. Book their well-known ‘Passage to India’ for £56.50 per person, including travel from Newcastle, orders taken on the train, meet-and-greet at the station, and your meal (not including drinks).

Loire Valley native Greg Bureau is behind this “well-established and well-regarded” Gallic bistro: a jewel of this “lovely market town” (especially since they added a glass balcony) and long reputed for its “highly reliable” cooking and “tremendous value” sets. Linger over a meal amid vintage French posters and then amble over to the “fine abbey a short walk away”.

2021 Review: A high street outfit ‘bringing a dash of Sardinian sunshine to Gosforth’, as their website proclaims – and which is well-regarded locally; they have now opened up an on-site deli, should you prefer to take away.

2024 Review: This “lovely hotel” in a “beautiful” Grade II-listed Arts and Crafts house remains a satisfying getaway, being particularly “perfect for afternoon tea”. There are several dining spaces, ranging from a bar offering light snacks to the dedicated Fern Dining Room for heartier meals.

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.

2022 Review: “Delicious, interesting dishes” inspired by the street food delivered by Mumbai’s ‘dabbawala’ bicycle delivery men, are to be found on the menu at this brightly coloured Jesmond venue with an open kitchen and verandah. It’s a spinoff of the city-centre original.

2021 Review: Fans of this puntastic pizzeria may be going OTT when they hail it as “probably the best pizza in the UK”. But Jesmond-born former joiner Calvin Kitchin and his brother Kerry take their trade seriously – their “good-value pizzas” are accredited by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana and cooked in a wood-fired Stefano Ferrara oven imported from Naples.

2021 Review: The “excellent Persian food” at this “friendly” Jesmond spot wins high ratings for “one of the cheapest restaurants in Newcastle for cooking of high quality”. A more central branch near the station has closed down.

“A hidden gem” in Jesmond – “we used to bring our children and now bring our grandchildren: the menu (by no means only pizza) hasn’t changed much but along with the classics there are good daily specials (search out the blackboard!)”. “Food is good and tasty, service very quick, with a jolly vibe” – and it’s “walk-ins only, which means we give it a miss on Saturdays, when queues can be in the street”. Top Menu Tip – “the best garlic king prawns”.