Restaurant Week: Bonbar

My favourite event in Newcastle's busy calendar is definitely Restaurant Week.  It comes round twice a year and is a whole week of the Toon's best restaurants offering amazing value meal deals.  It's a great opportunity to head to somewhere that's recently opened or somewhere you've been wanting to try for a while and I always try to pick out a place we've not been to before.

Restaurant Week is running from Monday 4 August to Sunday 10 August and the list of restaurants partaking is impressive with many new additions.

If I didn't have to count my pennies and keep an eye on my calorie intake I'd happily go out every night and do seven restaurants, but instead I decided to study the list very carefully and pick out just two.

Choosing only two was so difficult but for our first dinner of the week we decided to go to Bonbar.  

Bonbar opened in the Assembly Rooms earlier this year and offers something quite different to Newcastle's famous nightlife with a bar, restaurant and club that feels luxurious and exclusive.   Appealing to an older crowd it offers a £1,000 membership if you feel like becoming a VIP or a £10,000 membership if you have that much cash to splash.  Luckily there are also free memberships available to us normal folks offering freebies on your birthday, free wi-fi and 10% off food amongst other things.



As you can imagine I've been wanting to venture into Bonbar ever since it opened so I was very excited that Restaurant Week finally gave me the opportunity.

Now, I apologise in advance because here's where I start swooning over how amazing Bonbar is.  I could literally sit here all night writing paragraph after paragraph about how impressed I was.  It completely lived up to, and even exceeded my expectations.

The restaurant is large, with a huge well stocked bar running through the middle complete with stylish snake print bar stools.   Positioned around the edge of the room are luxury booths with plush leather seats and art deco walls.  Bonbar definitely has the Gatsby vibe to perfection.

We were really impressed with the level of service as soon as we stepped through the door.  The staff were attentive and friendly and couldn't do enough for us.  Our waiter was fantastic and really looked after our every need, making sure that our visit was comfortable and enjoyable.

The Restaurant Week deal was 2 courses for £10 with a nice menu of delicious looking food to choose from.   I ordered the Linguine Pasta served with fresh mint and Greek feta pesto as my Main.   The portion was the perfect size, the mint and feta were a wonderful flavour combination and I wolfed it all down without leaving a single mark on my plate.   Absolutely delicious.

An exciting part of the deal menu was the Skewers which are launching in Bonbar next Monday but have been added to the Restaurant Week Menu as a sneak peak.   There are five skewers to choose from and they come served with flat bread and a choice of 4 dipping sauces.   Simon opted to give them a try and chose the Moroccan King Prawn and Beef Teriyaki skewers with a Roasted Pepper and Dill Salsa.   He seemed very happy with his choice although did somewhat battle with the cabbage stuffed into a small pot, most of that seemed to end up on the table!

As we all know dessert is my favourite part of any meal so I was looking forward to getting to my second course.   I decided on the Upside Down Passion Fruit Cheesecake which was beautifully presented in a little pot, however the crumbly topping was a bit hard to tackle without making a huge mess.   Once I'd munched my way through the base I was left with the most amazing pot full of rich and creamy topping.  If you are a cheesecake fan you seriously need to give this bad boy a go.

Simon went for a lovely Summer dessert - Homemade  Meringue with fresh berries and cream.   He really enjoyed it, however if I'm being honest I only really had eyes for my cheesecake.

We really enjoyed our meal at Bonbar and I'm so excited to tell you that from 12 August they will be serving up afternoon teas.   I'm definitely booking a table as soon as possible, I can only imagine how amazing the food will be and in such gorgeous surroundings I'm confident it's going to become one of my favourite afternoon teas in the area.

Also if you are looking for somewhere to celebrate Christmas Bonbar are offering some amazingly priced dinners, party nights and lunches so make sure you get in touch with them to ask for a brochure.

If you hadn't already guessed I am completely in love with Bonbar and am so happy that we chose to go there, it's shot right up into my list of favourite places in Newcastle and I honestly can't wait to head back there again to try out some more food and cocktails.

You can see my posts about previous Restaurant Weeks (February 2014 and August 2013) here:

The Living Room
The Herb Garden
The Vermont
Blackfriars/Popolo