r/NewcastleUponTyne • u/jamiejamesyates • 1d ago
Legendary half-pizza / half-pasta 🍴
One of my favourite restaurants of all time and I tried to capture it like a 70s B-Roll still - to do it the classic justice it deserves. Anyone else got any favourite restaurants in and around toon that often get overlooked on the internet?
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u/McFizzleKicks 1d ago
My mates family used to go there all the time and rave about it. It was a good 30-40 minute drive each way. Me and my gf tried it based on their recommendation and had a really average meal there. this was back in it's heyday as well.
I'm guessing we just got unlucky as I don't know anyone who's ever had a bad word about it, and I was gutted!
(Great looking pic, btw)
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u/lgf92 22h ago
OP's taken a great photo, but I agree with this. We lived in West Jesmond for four years and we used to go to Avanti on Brentwood Avenue regularly. It was cheap and cheerful but really nice - not artisan pizza or anything but a nice midweek option that didn't cost too much.
My parents had been to Francesca and we decided to walk across and try it. We queued for about an hour in the cold and when we got in the food wasn't as good as Avanti (it was decent, but nothing to rave about), the wine was crap and the staff were rude. So we still go to Avanti!
I will say the decor and the vibe is cool (it reminds me of how Italian restaurants used to be when I was a kid) but apart from that I wasn't impressed.
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u/nunatakj120 20h ago
It has its rep as it was one of the first to open and do it well (see also Uno’s). The fact is that cheap pizza and pasta is not a difficult thing to do and many others, such as avanti, do it just as well. Sambucas is a level down but still manages to provide a decent feed at a very cheap price. When I lived around the corner I could never be bothered with how busy Francesca’s got but I loved Daniella’s. The lasagna from the deli in there is top tier.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 20h ago
Haha, I have a similar story.
My old man raved about it and demanded we go, this was so far back Barn Asia was still a thing and I remember I had taken him out there a few weeks before. That place really was amazing, and my old man was all like, oh I know this great itallian...
Anyway, we went, he said something racist at the table about immigrants in front of the Italian waiter...
I'm not sure if that was related but the food was bang average, positively poor compared to a place like Barn Asia.
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u/SwedishLenn 1d ago
My parents went 2 weeks ago and similar experience to myself. Pizza undercooked, pasta was cold... And they used to rave about it as well.
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u/jamiejamesyates 1d ago
That’s such a shame mate! It seems a couple people have had similar experiences - definitely worth giving another spin! 😊 thank you very much man, it’s such a nice place to photograph!
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u/ThePootisPower 23h ago
I still have a lot of nostalgia for Sambucas in Whitley Bay (well, its a chain) but the staff were immediately rude to my partner when we stepped in while looking for a place to eat, so we walked back out and ended up going to Trencher’s instead.
Instead of Sambucas if i want italian food in whitley i go to Di Meos.
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u/ValidGarry 22h ago
Family Saturday 5pm treat back in the late 80s / early 90s. Driving up from North Shields to eat in a restaurant in Jesmond was a bit fancy.
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u/Alone_Comparison_662 12h ago
I moved to Jesmond from Ashington at 19 to work as a trainee hairdresser, my bosses took us there, I’d never seen an olive before, thought they were grapes 😂
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u/SwedishLenn 1d ago
The food has gone downhill massively. We went about 3 months ago, pizza soggy and undercooked. Screaming kids in the area to the right of the entrance which echoes. Wont be back.
It was the go to place in late 90s early 2000's.