Fenwick's New Look Food Hall

Way, way back in the days when I was still a Londoner and only seeing my beloved Newcastle a couple of times a month there was one place that I missed almost as much as I missed Simon ... Fenwick's Food Hall!  I quickly built a bit of an addiction to wandering around gazing at all of the beautiful food and every time I visited Newcastle I insisted that we go. 

Of course these days I'm an honorary Geordie and can visit the Food Hall whenever I wish, something that I will admit I do on a weekly basis.

So imagine my horror when the  Food Hall recently shut its doors for a refurbishment.  As exciting as the thought of a new look Food Hall was I've had to go quite a while without getting my proper fix and so have been counting down the days to the grand opening.

Luckily the wait is now over and the multi million pound makeover has been completed.  Recently we were invited to the launch party and let me tell you, the Food Hall looks absolutely stunning and, despite thinking it wasn't possible, I've fallen in love with it even more.

The new look Food Hall introduces lots of exciting new experiences to the people of Newcastle including South East Asian street food, a Seafood & Oyster Bar, a Mediterranean Restaurant, Café & Patisserie and a new look Wine Shop.

The restaurants are perhaps the most anticipated addition to the Food Hall with the North East's famous restaurateur, Terry Laybourne bringing his touch of magic to Fenwick in the form of Asian Restaurant Ko Sai and Saltwater Fish Company where you can indulge in Oysters and Champagne.

Mediterranean Restaurant, Fuego offers a fine selection of food delicious sharing boards and Napoli style pizzas.

I will admit we spent quite a bit of our evening casually hanging round the restaurant sampling lots of the menu.  The bites we had were really good so I don't think it will be long at all before we're heading back to Fuego for more.

Being the cake lovers that we are, the part of the Food Hall that had us completely captivated was Mason + Rye.   The beautiful patisserie has the largest glass cabinet of cakes that we have ever seen and I think we lost a good hour pressing our noses up against it.

Having tried the rose and apricot macarons we can safely say that these guys make the most fantastic sweet treats and we were ecstatic to see that the macarons at Mason + Rye are mammoth size!  Oh yes!

After a long and careful study of the menu we're definitely interested in trying out the afternoon tea and I can't imagine we'll resist for long.

We were pleased to see the grocery shopping element of the Food Hall is still a feature with freshly baked bread and colourful fruit and veg for sale on the shop floor as well as meat from the Blagdon Estate and a great selection of pies and quiches.

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We were very excited to see that one of our favourite places, The Naked Deli, now have a counter in the Food Hall, bringing clean food to the city centre.  I can see them being very popular at lunchtimes, their food is so healthy and delicious and Simon couldn't resist buying himself some sushi to take home.

Ouseburn Coffee are another welcome addition to the  Hall, with a coffee bar for thirsty shoppers as well as a range of their coffee for sale.

Walking into the new look Food Hall was a bit of a dream.  It is such a transformation and truly made my jaw drop to the floor from the moment I stepped through the doors.  It's a little slice of London luxury but with a friendly North East feel. 

I've probably only shared around a third of all the wonders there are to discover on the shelves so make sure you go for a good look round as soon as possible - I'll be right behind you (probably with my face in one of those Mason + Rye cakes!