NE1’s Newcastle Restaurant Week is back January 16-22 and the event is on course to be a record-breaker with more restaurants than ever before taking part.
The week will see diners once again enjoy meals out for £10, £15 or £20 per person across the city as the event celebrates the start of its 12th year.
As well as all the big names we’ve loved dining at every Restaurant Week, there’s six exciting newcomers to try out this time around too – all taking part in their very first Newcastle Restaurant Week…
Newcastle United Football Club – St James’ Park
St James’ Park will kick off its debut Restaurant Week with a tasting menu served in a pitch-view room, with the club’s hospitality team delivering an immersive dining experience for foodies and football fans. The £20 tasting menu includes fresh-baked Newcastle Brown Ale bread with whipped beef dripping; swede and bacon soup with bacon crumb, parsley and sourdough; pigs cheek arancini with cauliflower, black pudding and apple; pan-roasted stone bass with mussel, dill, potato and fennel; and a special take on a Snickers bar which brings together chocolate, peanut, nougat and caramel.
Pepo
Sister venue to Horticulture, Pepo is taking part in its first Restaurant Week after opening on Pilgrim Street in the summer of 2022. Renowned for its fruit-focussed cocktails, the team at the bar and late lounge will be serving up sharing platters for £10 per person throughout the week. There’s options for carnivores – featuring Sriracha pork belly, flat iron steak, jerk chicken, hummus flatbread, labneh sourdough, spiced fries and edamame bean salad – as well as pescatarians (with jerk prawns, tempura cod bites and cured salmon) and vegans (with padron peppers, tempura veg, charred corn ribs, caramelised sprouts).
Chart House
The reimagined Chart House on the Quayside will be serving up an international debut menu, with two courses for £15 and three courses for £20. Small plates include fried calamari, broadbean falafel and houmous with beetroot crisps, salt and pepper chicken, and vegetable samosas. There’s also Thai red vegetable curry, pan-fried seabass, lamb kofta on focaccia flatbread, red onion and fig tarte tatin, and the house bistro burger, plus the choice of apple tarte tatin, chocolate orange tart or warm honey and almond cake to finish.
Lui’s
For its first Restaurant Week menu – with two courses for £15 and three courses for £20 – Lui’s (formerly Sabas) is celebrating the best of Italian cooking. Bruscetta, calamari and meatballs are all highlights from the list of starters on offer, while penne amatriciana (spicy arrabbiata sauce with pancetta and Nduja), traditional spaghetti carbonara and bolognese, and a choice of five different pizzas lead the mains. To finish, there’s a choice of chocolate profiteroles, cheesecake or chocolate brownie.
Missy Milieu’s
Relaxed all-day bar and bistro Missy Milieu’s, which opened in September 2022, is also serving up two courses for £15 and three courses for £20 this Restaurant Week. There’s an eclectic menu of starters, including wild mushrooms, garlic, black truffle oil and sourdough; salt and pepper calamari; confit bang bang chicken lollipops; a roast parsnip, endive and apple salad stack; and black pudding bhaji with pickled carrots, apple, mint raita dip and curry oil. For mains, the choices include pan-fried hake fillet with sticky rice; slow-cooked feather blade of beef and mustard mash; slow-cooked pork belly with black pudding bhaji; Thai panang curry; Asian tofu stir-fry; or Louisiana Cajun chicken. There’s also desserts to suit everyone – from frozen berries with yoghurt sorbet and white chocolate sauce to sticky toffee pudding, coconut panna cotta, and winter spiced bread and butter pudding.
Thali Tray @ Bealim House
With two courses for £15, Thali Tray @ Bealim House promises an adventure through the subcontinent. Four starter choices – broken corn bhajiya, chicken murg mali, masala fries and curry aioli, grilled Kashmiri paneer – are followed by a choice of thali tray with each including two curries, onion seed naan or puri bread, soyawadi, cardamom turmeric rice, lime pickle and fresh chillies. There’s a choice between Amritsari (dal makhani and dhaba paneer masala), Punjabi (chickpea chole and spinach mushroom palak) or Goan (pork belly vindaloo and chicken xacuti) trays – how on Earth do we choose?!
In 2022, Restaurant Week delivered a £1.5 million boost for participating businesses, with August’s event breaking records for economic impact, with more than £850,000 generated and more than 50,000 diners taking part.
For details of all participating venues in January’s event, to review the menus and to download Newcastle Restaurant Week vouchers, visit getintonewcastle.co.uk/restaurant-week
