Whether you fancy a hearty breakfast, a juicy burger or good old fish and chips, everyone has their go-to places where they know they are always guaranteed to get their favourite food at its very best.
With the North East home to countless award-winning eateries, a New Year’s resolution for all foodies in 2025 should be to get out and try as many as possible. But seeing as it can be hard to know where to start, we’ve rounded up some of the top choices to inspire you – as chosen by thousands of ChronicleLive readers.
All the restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars and shops listed below have topped polls we have put to you over the last couple of years, whether they’re home to the tastiest cake, the best beer garden, or are simply the best at what they do in their town or city – or even the whole region. Take a look through the list of all our food and drink winners to get ideas for your next meal or drinks out.
The Earl of Pitt Street: Voted the best Sunday dinner in Newcastle
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Best Sunday dinner in Newcastle
Back in October, we put it to you to decide where the best spots were to get a delicious Sunday dinner in Newcastle – and hundreds of you had your say.
If you live in or around the city, it’s no secret that you’re spoiled when it comes to your venue of choice for a roast dinner, with a number of popular pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes offering up their own spin on the tradition. And in fact, in addition to the 15 top-rated venues listed in our poll, more than 40 other places were mentioned by you for their exceptional Sunday lunches.
The Earl of Pitt Street in the city centre took the crown with dozens of votes, with other favourites right in the heart of Newcastle including Babucho, The Broad Chare and Blackfriars. Over in Jesmond, Branches earned a spot in the top 10, while Byker hotspot The Tanners Arms, Heaton haunt Nest, and beloved Gosforth pub The Brandling Arms were also named by readers.
Other special mentions that didn’t quite make the top 10 but still had multiple votes included The Cosy Dove in Spital Tongues, The Victory in South Gosforth, and The Mayfair pub in The Gate.
If you’re after inspiration on where to eat out next Sunday, take a look through the top 10 Sunday dinner spots in Newcastle as voted for by readers in our photo gallery.
Best bar in Newcastle
At the start of 2024, we asked you to vote for your number one favourite bar in Newcastle – and one venue in the city centre won by a landslide.
No. 28, which claims to be the city’s “finest hidden gem”, won with a 43% share of the vote – firmly crowning it as best in Newcastle according to readers. The “fiercely independent” bar has won multiple awards since it first opened in the lively heart of the city back in 2010, including being recognised with a Tripadvisor Traveller’s Choice award last year due to rave reviews from customers, and has plenty to offer.
Firstly, you’ll need to know how to find it – and it’s called a “hidden gem” for a reason, accessed via a staircase hidden inside the entrance to the Grainger Market on Nelson Street. Once you’re in, you can look forward to a signature cocktails, a Spanish-inspired food menu, bottomless brunches, live DJ nights and loads more.
Coming in second place in the best bar poll was fellow hidden gem Mother Mercy, which is tucked away under Old George Yard in Newcastle city centre and has previously been ranked among the top 50 cocktail bars in the UK. Bigg Market bar Twenty Twenty came in third, best known for its core menu of 20 cocktails and 20-inch pizzas and having recently shown off an upstairs restaurant expansion.
The Free Trade Inn: Voted best beer garden in Newcastle
(Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
Best beer garden in Newcastle
Last summer, we also asked you to vote for your favourite beer garden in Newcastle – and a staggering amount of you chose Newcastle upon Tyne’s Free Trade Inn.
Sitting atop St Lawrence Road, the Free Trade gives punters breath-taking views of the Quayside – and it’s easy to see why so many of you favoured it so highly. A quaint and calming little boozer overlooking the River Tyne, drinkers can make the most of an abundance of real ales and cider at the Newcastle staple – taking in the hustle and bustle of one of the city’s main attractions before their very eyes.
Never the largest nor loudest establishment across the region, many would admit that good things come in small packages – and the Free Trade Inn is living proof of that. The other reader favourites rounding off the top five were Horticulture, Tyne Bar, By The River Brew Co, and Barluga.
Best Indian restaurant in the North East
On a weekend evening many of us swap a home-cooked meal with a takeaway, and Indian is one of the most popular options. One poll saw our readers tasked with voting for their favourite Indian restaurant across the North East, with more than 450 votes overall.
The winner was Lal Khazana based in the rural Northumberland village of Shilbottle, which fought off competition from venues in the likes of Newcastle city centre, Gateshead and Whitley Bay. More than 50 restaurants earned recommendations from readers, but with the votes spread far and wide, only a handful made our top ten.
Coming in second place was Shampan in Whitley Bay, closely followed by Jashn in Swalwell. Check out the full top 10 to try next time you fancy an Indian meal here.
Rio Brazilian Steakhouse: Voted best restaurant in Newcastle
(Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
Best Newcastle restaurant
Newcastle is home to a huge variety of places to eat, whether you’re after an intimate date night or a lively get-together – but which venue is the best of them all? When we put this very question to readers, asking you to vote for your favourite restaurant in the city out of the 15 top-rated eateries according to reviews on Tripadvisor, there was one clear winner.
Rio Brazilian Steakhouse, which has two branches in Newcastle – on the Quayside and in Jesmond – earned an 18% share of the vote.
The Steakhouse promises diners a “remarkable experience like no other”, where visitors are served their food in a unique way that combines an all-you-can-eat style with table service. Each guest is given a card with a green bull on one side and a red bull on the other – and when you place the card green side-up, chefs will continually bring round a selection of hot barbecued meat on skewers which will be freshly carved at your table to your heart’s content.
Taking second place in our poll was Branches restaurant in Jesmond with a 13% share of reader votes. This respectable runner-up has been voted the eighth-best food venue in Newcastle based on Tripadvisor reviews, with diners praising its “fantastic service” and “outstanding food”, so it’s most certainly worth adding to your foodie wish-list if you’re looking for somewhere new to dine in Newcastle.
Best Whitley Bay restaurant
Whitley Bay is now home to so many popular independent restaurants after undergoing a transformation throughout the last decade that we also asked readers to crown their favourite food venue specifically in the North Tyneside coastal town.
Beloved Turkish restaurant Turknaz just pipped The Roxburgh to the post, as these two proved to be the runaway favourites with a 30% and 29% share of the vote respectively, while Italian trattoria Pranzo came in third place. However, this is far from the first award won by Turknaz; since first arriving on the Whitley Bay seafront in 2016, the popular venue has picked up accolades from the British Kebab Awards, Restaurant Guru, Tripadvisor and more.
Turknaz specialises in authentic Turkish cuisine all cooked by Turkish chefs, offering up a variety of barbecue and seafood dishes cooked over charcoal as well as a range of hot and cold mezze platters. We spoke to owner Anthony Yilmaz to get his verdict on what makes his restaurant such a massive hit – you can read that interview here.
Pet Lamb Patisserie: Voted best cake in Newcastle
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Best cake in Newcastle
We’re well and truly spoilt for choice across Newcastle with regards to dessert dishes, with a number of renowned cafes and bakeries racking up countless creations for locals and visitors to sample when their sweet tooth comes a-calling. Some of which take inspiration from pastry hubs worldwide like Paris and Vienna, while others come up with exciting new flavours inspired by their Geordie roots.
And with a number of award-winning bakeries right here on Tyneside, there truly are some cracking cakeries to pick and choose from. So we wanted to find out the cream of the crop, according to our ever-faithful readers – after all, you know the North East best.
So we simply set up a poll asking for the best place to grab a slice of cake across Newcastle and – as always – you far from disappointed, with hundreds of votes rolling in. The comfortable winner was Pet Lamb Patisserie in the Grainger Market, with owners Katie and Kay saying they were “chuffed to bits” by the results.
Coming in second place was the popular Cake Stories, which has since closed its Jesmond branch but can still be found in Byker’s Hoults Yard. Check out the full top 10 in our photo gallery.
Best burger in Newcastle
There are plenty of venues dedicated to serving burgers all across Newcastle, as well as countless fast food franchises, pubs and bars all putting their own unique twist on the staple finger food. And with so much choice spanning the Toon, it might have been a daunting task when we asked our readers to reveal their favourite
However, you didn’t disappoint – with more than 1,000 votes being cast in our poll. And the best place to enjoy a burger in all of Newcastle (excluding all of the fast food franchises) was declared The Tanners Arms, with more than half of you voting for the iconic pub on Byker Bridge.
Following in second place was The Fat Hippo, which has restaurants in Newcastle city centre and Jesmond, with local legends Brack Burger – based across the North East in Jesmond, Gosforth, Tynemouth, Seaburn, and the new St James Stack venue – in third. Check out the full top 10 here.
Pantrini’s: Voted best fish and chips in the North East
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Best fish and chips in the North East
With our beautiful coastline boasting award-winning beaches, fish and chips are a beloved staple of the North East and a must when it comes to a day out at the seafront. And of course, everyone has an opinion on where the best can be found – so we put it to you to decide the best chippy in the region.
More than 3,500 of you had your say on which North East establishment takes the title, with votes for venues in South Shields, Blyth and Tynemouth, as as well as city centre chippies in Sunderland and Newcastle. But the ultimate winner was crowned as Pantrini’s in Whitley Bay, amassing more than 1,000 votes .
Happily serving punters with a smile for more than 100 years, award-winning Pantrini’s has won over customers with its fresh fish and golden chips. Owner Lee Taylor said: “As a family we are delighted to have been voted the North East’s favourite fish and chip shop. Being voted for by readers and customers who visit Pantrini’s means so much to us.”
Seaton Sluice’s Harbour View finished second, with 615 votes respectively – while Consett’s Golden Fish finished third with 573 votes. One location which readers had plenty of praise for in the comments section came in the form of South Shields’ Green Lane Fisheries.
Best breakfast in the North East
They say that it’s the most important meal of the day – so if you’re eating out for breakfast, it had better be good. But where’s the best breakfast bar across the North East for Geordies and Mackems alike to make the most of?
We asked our readers to vote in their favourite venues across the region to grab some grub in the morning. Votes poured in for spots across Sunderland, Newcastle, County Durham, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and Northumberland – but there was one runaway favourite.
The winner was Fed and Watered in Gateshead, followed by The Bonny Comet in second place and the Quayside’s Hugo Brasserie in third. See the full top 10 North East breakfast spots as voted for by you here.