Blackfriars Restaurant

About Blackfriars Restaurant

Blackfriars occupies the former refectory of a Dominican friary founded in Newcastle in 1239, tucked down Friars Street between Stowell Street and the surviving stretch of the medieval town wall. The restaurant makes a well-known claim to be the oldest purpose-built dining room in the country, and the setting carries it: low stone walls, heavy beams and a cloister garden that opens up in warmer months. It is one of the few places in the city where the building is as much the draw as the cooking, and it sits a short walk from Chinatown, the Assembly Rooms and Grainger Town, which makes it a natural choice for visitors trying to understand the older layers of the city centre.

The kitchen works in a traditional British idiom, leaning on seasonal produce from regional farms and suppliers rather than chasing trends, and the menu changes through the year. Alongside the main dining room the site includes a parlour bar, a tasting room, a banqueting hall and a cookery school, so the same courtyard hosts anything from a weekday lunch to a wedding. Afternoon tea runs on Friday and Saturday afternoons. A heritage trail with information boards and QR codes takes in the friary buildings, which is worth ten minutes before or after a meal. Booking is sensible, particularly at weekends and through December.

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