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- 7th Aug 2026
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The best restaurants in Northumberland – from tasting menus to Sunday lunch
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The best restaurants in Northumberland are having a proper moment, and a new quality mark, Taste of Northumberland, is making it easy to find them.
From a converted cow barn with a Michelin star to a tiny seafood bistro on the Amble seafront, this county doesn’t just do good views, it does good cooking to match.
Food and drink generate £540 million a year here and support more than 5,000 jobs, so nobody’s cutting corners.
Whether you’re after a tasting menu built from whatever was foraged that morning or a Sunday lunch with a castle in the background, here are some of the best restaurants in Northumberland to book a table at.
WHAT’S THE TASTE OF NORTHUMBERLAND MARK?
Visit Northumberland, Food and Drink North East and Northumberland County Council have launched Taste of Northumberland, a county-wide quality mark linking nearly 100 producers, retailers and restaurants who guarantee genuine, locally sourced ingredients. Look out for the mark wherever you’re eating or shopping, and use the scheme’s microsite to book tastings, food trails and seasonal menus across the county.
NORTHUMBERLAND RESTAURANTS TO BOOK RIGHT NOW
Motte & Bailey, Bailiffgate Hotel, Alnwick
Bailiffgate Hotel, 2-8 Bailiffgate, Alnwick, NE66 1LX
Chef Paul Blakey brings over 30 years of experience to Motte & Bailey, and it shows in a menu built for slow dining with Alnwick Castle in view. Evening starters run to roast halibut with spinach and caper mousse and Oscietra caviar, or a confit chicken terrine with black truffle, finishing with an orange and almond cake and strawberries – a perfect date night destination.
What we love is that you don’t need to be a hotel guest, or even book, to drop into the suntrap courtyard for lunch, and the two-course lunch menu is £20. Sunday lunch runs from midday to 3pm, and afternoon tea is served daily.
Restaurant Pine, East Wallhouses
Vallum Farm, Military Road, East Wallhouses, NE18 0LL
Northumberland’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, and the only one to hold a Michelin Green Star too, Pine is chef Cal Byerley’s debut, set in a converted cow barn on Hadrian’s Wall. At the ear of Pine is provenance: much of what lands on your plate came from the on-site kitchen garden or was foraged from the surrounding countryside that morning, including dishes as inventive as a fondant cake built around the rare dryad saddle mushroom.
The tasting menu runs to £175 a head, with a chef’s table at £200, and sommelier Vanessa Stoltz pairs each course from a largely English, unusual wine list.
The Bosk, Breamish Valley
Breamish Valley Cottages, Powburn, Northumberland
Handmade chandeliers, vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling views of the Cheviots make The Bosk feel like an occasion before the food’s even arrived. Feast your eyes on the 8oz ribeye or sirloin steak deal with a choice of blue cheese, Diane or whisky peppercorn sauce, which sits alongside home-baked pizzas on Friday and Saturday nights and a proper Sunday brunch. Check their menu out here.
It’s part of Breamish Valley Cottages, so a day in the spa, sauna or on the tennis courts can roll straight into dinner, and there are three boutique B&B rooms above the restaurant if you’d rather not drive home.
Jaspers Bistro, Amble
8 Bridge Street, Amble, NE65 0DR
Jaspers Bistro is tiny, seats fill fast, and that’s what we love about this – the intimacy. Everything is cooked to order from an open kitchen using seafood landed along this stretch of coast.
Scallops with pork belly and black pudding are the starter regulars order first, and the fish pie, loaded with langoustine, brown shrimp, prawns and monkfish in a butter cream parmesan sauce, is the dish people come back for. With a 98% recommend rate from reviewers, make sure to book ahead, because word’s well and truly out.
Dobson & Parnell, Newcastle upon Tyne
19-21 Queen Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3UG
Technically this one’s in Newcastle, not Northumberland, but it earns its place here by weaving the county’s produce into its menu, from core ingredients to drinks. Dobson & Parnell reopened this year after a top-to-toe revamp for its 10th anniversary, with a new open kitchen and head chef Kyle Bowman.
They are all about a zero-waste, nose-to-tail philosophy running through dishes like citrus-cured mackerel with pickled fennel, BBQ pork belly with whipped pease pudding, and a vegan nduja bhaji, alongside shareable feasts such as a whole grilled market fish or a Beef Wellington for the table.
The Whittling House, Alnmouth
Northumberland Street, Alnmouth, NE66 2RA
10 characterful bedrooms sit above a restaurant built for roaring fires and long Sunday lunches, just back from Alnmouth beach.
We recommend the monkfish wrapped in Parma ham or the seabass with salsa verde, and the venison pie’s got a following of its own come colder months. Here you can make a night of it by staying upstairs without so much as moving the car, with front-facing rooms giving you a sea view for breakfast too.
The Courtyard, Pegswood, Morpeth
Longhirst Road, Pegswood, Morpeth, NE61 6XF
Set in an early 1900s building in Pegswood, The Courtyard trades in proper farmhouse cooking without any of the stiffness that phrase usually implies.
The pan-fried chicken supreme with dauphinoise potato, tenderstem broccoli and mustard sauce is the firm favourite, while braised partridge, venison and pheasant with Guinness and spiced red cabbage show there’s real ambition in the kitchen too. Expect a warm, farmhouse feel in a corner of rural Northumberland that doesn’t get nearly enough credit for its food scene.
The Corbridge Larder, Corbridge
Hill Street, Corbridge, Northumberland
Ok, so not strictly a restaurant, more a very good excuse for a coffee. The Heron Cafe at The Corbridge Larder serves breakfast, brunch and long lunches.
Think a proper full Larder breakfast with local free-range eggs and Northumberland sausages, or a Moroccan chicken flatbread with homemade hummus, right in the middle of Corbridge’s picture-postcard streets. And the deli downstairs stocks over 100 cheeses, hampers and small-batch Corbridge Gin to take home before you leave.
The Northumberland Arms, Felton
Felton, Northumberland
A proper Northumberland pub with six individually decorated boutique bedrooms named after local landmarks, The Northumberland Arms serves freshly prepared food built around the finest local ingredients. Whether you fancy Sunday lunch, small plates or hearty pub grub, there’s something for every appetite. Come for dinner, stay for the night, and don’t be surprised if a quick wine by the fire turns into a bottle.
Rachael Ellis
Head of Content
After gaining a first in her BA Media and Journalism degree at Northumbria University, Rachael worked at Newcastle’s leading regional newspaper with her stories being picked up in national and global newspapers. She spent two very successful years giving a voice to those communities across the North East who otherwise…
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