Rossopomodoro, Newcastle

If you've recently journeyed up the escalator to the first floor of John Lewis in Newcastle's Eldon Square you may have stumbled across new restaurant, Rossopomodoro who are bringing the south of Italy to the North East. 

Rossopomodoro are an Italian restaurant who specialise in Neapolitan breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Authentically Neapolitan, the chefs come from Neapolitan pizzaiolii families and make the dishes using ingredients sourced from the Napoli region.

The restaurant is beautiful.  Large, bright and spacious, the perfect place to relax after a hard day of shopping (I already know where I'll be heading after my Christmas shopping this year!) with a rather handy balcony if you enjoy a spot of people watching.

I  always appreciate an open kitchen and the glittering gold pizza oven is the main focal point of the restaurant and looks stunning.  So when I wasn't people watching, or secretly stealing food off Simon's plate, I spent quite a bit of my evening watching the chef at work making up endless delicious looking pizzas.



After a hard day at work Simon and I were more than ready to tackle a full three course meal. It's not often we go for a full three courses (we never like to run the risk of not being able to fit in a dessert) but as I was wearing a very roomy swing dress I felt fully prepared.

I chose the Funghi e Pancetta from the wonderfully varied selection of bruschetta available.  Chargrilled homemade bread, wild mushroom cream, crispy pancetta with a hint of garlic, chilli and parsley, it was the perfect size and went down a treat.

Simon ordered an Antipasti and had Polpette - pork meatballs, amatriciana sauce, onion, bacon and chilli.  As always I managed to get myself a fork full (or two) to try and I was really impressed with the meatballs that were packed with flavour.

Although I was so tempted by the Gnocco for my main course (I'm currently a little obsessed with gnocchi) I knew we couldn't visit Rossopomodoro without trying one of the pizzas.  Neapolitan pizza is different as it has a charred crust and a really soft and juicy centre, it's definitely pizza designed to eat with a knife and fork and not with fingers.

I attempted to order the Salsiccia e Friarelli but unfortunately my Italian isn't great so this resulted in me doing a bit of vague pointing (anyone else do that in Italian restaurants?)  Our Italian speaking waiter was lovely and gave me a little lesson so next time I'll be able to order in confidence. 

My pizza was covered with pork sausage, friarelli, smoked mozzarella and basil.  Unfortunately I wasn't too keen on the sausage topping, it was a little too salty for my tastes, but I absolutely loved the texture of the Neapolitan pizza, it was beautifully soft.

Simon opted for the Ventura, which made me giggle as I'm convinced he ordered as it was easy to pronounce!  I soon stopped laughing at him when his pizza appeared as I had serious food envy.  His mozzarella, parma ham, rocket, parmesan and basil made for a truly beautiful pizza and it tasted just as good as it looked.

I will admit that I actually ate my way through at least a quarter of Simon's pizza (this is as well as tucking into my own).  Every now and again I'd show him the puppy dog eyes and I'd get a rather generous slice to enjoy.

The pizzas truly defeated us and we all know it's not very often that happens and we both struggled to finish.  The Neapolitan pizzas at Rossopomodoro were like nothing we'd ever had before, they were so tasty and filling and I can see them being very popular with hungry shoppers.

I know I've just told you how full we were but we still had to order dessert and despite being full to bursting, I was in the mood for chocolate so ordered Capresina, a classic desert from Capri.  It was a beautiful dark chocolate cake sprinkled with almonds.  It was really rich and nutty, the perfect end to my delicious meal.

Simon was also in the mood for chocolate and opted for the Tortino Al Cioccolato - hot dark chocolate soufflé served with ice-cream.  I couldn't take my eyes off his dessert as he cut into it and the liquid chocolate centre oozed out, delicious!

Although we have a few great places in the Toon to enjoy pizza, Rossopomodoro brings something a little different to the table and it's definitely worth a visit to enjoy a type of Italian food that you may not have tried before.