Holy Cross, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Dave Coulson, a former MasterChef: The Professionals finalist, ensures that this whimsically named split-level venture on a shopping parade in Jesmond is “great for a business meal as well as for leisure”. The “good value and delicious set lunch” (£25 for four courses) remains the top draw, though the classically inflected cooking also takes in a more decadent £90 tasting menu – all “top rate” and with “excellent” service to boot…no wonder reporters “love it”.

2022 Review: You wouldn’t necessarily expect it from the unassuming façade, but former River Café alum Nick Grieve's “small but adventurous” bistro on the main road through Jesmond turns out some “outstanding quality” food – currently in the format of a six-course, no-choice menu (£59).

“You can always guarantee something a bit different or unusual” at Anna Hedworth’s Ouseburn operation, which upsized from its original shipping containers site seven years ago. “Not obviously romantic, but it’s cool and quirky with excellent cooking”. The changing menu offers the likes of “Cheese & Sauerkraut Doughnuts, Beetroot Borani with Walnuts, or Pan-Fried Hake & Sag Aloo with Curried Mussel Sauce” – making it “imaginative and generous, particularly considering the price point”.

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.

“Great atmosphere, great cooking, great concept” – Terry Laybourne’s busy wine bar/restaurant just off Newcastle’s Quayside offers an enticing menu inspired by the south of France and Italy. It’s next door to the Live Theatre, so perfect for pre-theatre wining and dining.

In its days as ‘21 Queen Street’ (long RIP) this Quayside address led the local field for many years, and this casual dining successor took over in 2016, owned by Andy & Sam Hook plus chef Troy Terrington. Reports this year, though, continued the uneven theme of last: one regular hailed it as a “fabulous place that never disappoints” but others thought it “rather average” (“at the last visit, we felt we could have cooked our meals better at home”).

2022 Review: This Art Deco (1938) landmark (incorporating Newcastle's only surviving indie cinema) closed for much of the COVID-19 pandemic and started a phased reopening in August 2021. The coffee rooms are in the final phase following a new floor and refurbishment of furnishings throughout the building.

For 10 years “the go-to establishment for a fine-dining experience in Newcastle”, Kenny & Abbie Atkinson’s Quayside spot is these days slightly eclipsed in feedback by its younger sibling, the nearby Solstice. Reports ands ratings remain positive, but sometimes came with a sting in the tail in this year’s annual diners’ poll: for example, “expensive but actually reasonable for the quality of food and service on offer”… “really good but meagre portions”… “well-executed, but not hugely exciting”.

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.

Despite arguably being the “most understated place in Newcastle”, this “unpretentious” 15-seater in a block in a residential part of Sandyford is a “special place well deserving of anyone‘s attention” (and securing Jay Rayner’s in his November 2023 review, who found it decidedly “one of the great places”, while pleading with owner Sam Betts to increase wine mark-ups and reduce portion sizes). Delivering “the most generous and delicious food with care and passion”, it “feels like you’re in a proper home cook’s restaurant on the Continent, but with brilliant British food”.

“Outstanding… nothing more to add” – Kenny & Abbie Atkinson’s “smart, intimate and welcoming” two-year-old sits next to their more established House of Tides, and increasingly is eclipsing it in terms of the volume and quality of feedback we receive. Reports give “compliments to the whole team for an excellent menu, exquisite food (we loved and couldn’t fault a single dish) and the warm enthusiasm with which it’s delivered”, all from a tasting menu providing 12-15 servings for £175 per person. This year’s biggest complaint? “Carrot was the weakest dish for me, but that is only because I don’t particularly like carrots and it tasted a little, well, ‘carrotty’…”