A Night Out on Newcastle Quayside

March 7, 2017 by Rachel Kershaw in Eating Out 8

NewcastleGateshead Quayside it one of my favourite places on the planet, the river, the bridges, the views, I can’t get enough! Even though I’ve lived in Geordieland for well over a decade I never bore of this part of the city.

As well as being a great place to soak up the culture during the day (thanks to attractions like The Baltic, The Sage and the Sunday Market), the Quayside is also a top destination for a night out and whenever my friends come to visit I have a list of riverside venues that I love to take them to. Here’s what I got up to on a recent night out with the girls in Newcastle…

First things first, we had to line our tummies with a substantial meal so we headed for the South American restaurant Las Iguanas, just a stone’s throw from the Millennium Bridge. I am a big fan of Las Iguanas, the food is hearty and full of flavour and the cocktails are ALWAYS two for one! I devoured a whole rack of ribs and washed it down with several caipirinhas, whoever said “eating is cheating” was mad if you ask me!

After a a good feed me and the girls were ready to paint the Toon red!

After our meal we had several options for where to go nearby, Pitcher and Piano is always a popular choice with a prime location overlooking the River Tyne, I love the cocktails at Chez Mal too (the bar /brasserie inside Malmaison Hotel) but on this occasion, it was the Slug and Lettuce that lured us in.

Credit: Slug and Lettuce

I hadn’t been in the Slug and Lettuce for years but I’d heard it had recently had a makeover and like Las Iguanas, they were also offering two for one cocktails, so I was keen to check it out. We grabbed a table in the centre of the main bar area and had waitress service so no need to queue in our killer heels, yay! The decor was bright and modern and there was a DJ playing a mixture of chart music. We ordered a round of espresso martinis and I could feel myself getting in to the party spirit!

The espresso martinis at Slug and Lettuce were so good I decided to order another one! The girls decided they’d had enough caffeine and choose other cocktails from the vast selection on offer. We still got half of them free though as you can mix and match the drinks, it was turning in to a rather cheap night out.

As you can imagine, I was rather fuelled up by this point and the dance-floor was calling. There is a small dancefloor in Slug and Lettuce but we decided to move on to more of a club type venue and found ourselves in Aveika. My mates brother joined us, he’s recently moved to Newcastle so I spent the night engaged in my favourite topic of conversation ‘Rachel Recommends…’, I think the poor lad knew the city as well as any born and bred Geordie by the time I’d finished bending his ear!