Newcastle Restaurant Week: How It Works and How to Make the Most of It

Twice a year the city centre turns into one large set-menu deal. NE1 Newcastle Restaurant Week is the twice-yearly dining festival run under the NE1 and NewcastleGateshead banner, during which scores of restaurants offer fixed-price menus for a single week. It has been going for around fifteen years and has grown into one of the busiest weeks in the Newcastle food calendar, a chance to eat somewhere new, or somewhere you have always meant to try, without the usual bill. Here is how it works and how to get the most out of it.

When it runs

Restaurant Week is not a one-off. It runs twice a year, usually once in the depths of winter, often in January, and once in the summer, typically in August, each edition lasting about a week. The exact dates change from year to year and are confirmed by the organisers a few weeks ahead. Rather than trust any date you see repeated online, check the official NewcastleGateshead listings for the next edition and the current line-up of venues. That page is also where the participating restaurants and their menus are published once each week is finalised.

How the fixed-price tiers work

The scheme is built around a small number of fixed price points per person. In recent editions these have been roughly £15, £20 and £25 a head, with each restaurant choosing which tier it sits at and building a set menu, usually a couple of courses, sometimes three, to fit. It is worth reading a menu closely before you book, because the tiers are per person rather than a flat discount, and what counts as good value depends on where a place normally sits. A £25 menu at a restaurant whose à la carte mains alone run well past that is a genuine saving; a £15 menu at a more everyday spot is more about trying it cheaply than a dramatic markdown. Drinks, service and any extras beyond the set menu are charged on top as normal.

Best for: Compare the set menu against the restaurant's usual à la carte before booking. The saving is largest at the places that are normally dearer, which makes Restaurant Week the ideal time to try somewhere you would not usually stretch to.

There is no central booking scheme

This is the point people most often get wrong. There is no single Restaurant Week app or box office. You book a table directly with each restaurant you want to visit, by phone or through its own website, exactly as you would at any other time, and you simply ask for the Restaurant Week menu. Because the whole city is doing the same thing in the same seven days, the popular rooms fill quickly, so it pays to decide early and reserve as soon as the venue list is published rather than turning up on spec.

Where to look for restaurants

Well over a hundred venues take part in recent editions, more than a hundred and thirty at the last count, spread right across the centre, so a little geography helps you plan. Grey Street and the surrounding classical curve of Grainger Town hold many of the grander dining rooms and a good run of independents. The Quayside puts restaurants along the river beneath the bridges, handy if you want a walk before or after. Stowell Street, the city's compact Chinatown behind the walls, is the place for Chinese and wider East Asian cooking. And the streets around the Grainger Market and the Bigg Market have filled in recent years with smaller independents that often use the week to introduce themselves. For a fuller sense of the field before you choose, our guide to the best restaurants in Newcastle city centre is a good place to start, though not every restaurant we cover takes part every time.

Making the most of it

A few habits make the week go further. Book the middle of the week if you can, as Friday and Saturday nights are the first to go and the most pressured for kitchens working a set menu at volume. Lunch sittings are often quieter and sometimes cheaper still, which suits a leisurely city-centre afternoon. Use the week deliberately as a way in to somewhere unfamiliar rather than returning to a favourite you could visit any time, since the value is greatest where the everyday prices are highest. Check whether your chosen restaurant is offering the set menu across the whole week or only on certain days, as some restrict it, and confirm when you book. And be a considerate guest at a busy time: arrive on time, and if plans change, cancel early so the table can go to someone else.

A twice-yearly fixture worth planning around

Restaurant Week has become a dependable part of the year in Newcastle, a reliable prompt to eat out in the centre in the flat weeks after Christmas and again in high summer. Because it comes round twice, there is no need to cram everything into one edition; miss a place this time and it will very likely be back. Keep an eye on the official listings for the next set of dates and the confirmed venues, pick two or three rooms you have been curious about, and book them early.

Spotted a Newcastle restaurant we should feature, or a detail that needs updating? Let us know and we will take a look.