Me and my mate toddled up to Newcastle for my hen do the first weekend of September, and since the world was conspiring to make it a low key affair (two-thirds of those who said they'd come had to pull out, for one reason or another) we thought we'd act like civilised young ladies and eat somewhere grown-up. Before we got into the swing of things and started drinking sambuca and vomiting into our handbags, of course. Since my mam and dad had just moved back up to the north-east too, and we had so few people coming, I decided to invite my mam to eat with us too.
My bridesmaid (the Party Planning Princess or PPP) had visited Newcastle with her boyfriend many times, and had eaten in Sabatini's near the Quayside on a couple of occasions, so recommended we go there. Since it was close to our hotel (shameless plug for my upcoming review on the CopthorneHotel, Newcastle!!!) it seemed ideal. She booked us a table for 4 and that night we got dressed up and she booked a cab. I'd looked at the A-Z and it wasn't that far from where we were, and I knew it wouldn't take us long to walk it, but she reasoned that since we don't really know where we're going, it pays to get taken there. I didn't want to argue, despite the fact that we were staying on the Quayside and the restaurant was downriver. Not exactly difficult to navigate the route, but then she can't find her car in the Trafford Centre car park and thus her confidence levels at actually being able to read a street map were quite low.
The cab ride lasted 3 minutes and cost us less than £2. Don'tcha just love Geordie cabs? The same thing in Manchester would have taken 15 mins, 12 sets of traffic lights and a 6 mile detour. Anyway, I digress.
The restaurant can be found at 25 King Street, if you're walking
from the city centre it's right down at the bottom of the hill near the river. Bear this in mind for the return journey, as steering yourself up that hill if you have mobility problems, or after you've had a few (especially in heels), can be a bit of a mission.
Pulling up outside the restaurant was a pleasant surprise, as it looked for all the world like the entrance to an office in a huge, smoke-blackened Victorian building, you know the sort, they populate most Northern cities and are the old banks, merchants premises, warehouses and such that sprang up because of the Industrial Revolution. I'm not sure what I'd been expecting but since most good Italian restaurants in Manchester are of the stainless steel and plate glass school of architecture, I'm guessing I wasn't expecting to have so much history and character on offer. Walking through the door you arrive in a lobby area that is open to the main room of the restaurant on the left, or another smaller room on the right, with the original stone staircase rising in front of you to the first floor, where you'll find the toilet facilities.
We arrived at the restaurant about 10 mins early, but there was a bar so we figured we'd buy a bottle of vino to get the night off to a good start, and wait for our table. Little did we know that it would take us 10 mins to actually attract the attention of one of the 20 or so staff that were milling busily around. We found this to be a problem throughout the evening, and the place wasn't excessively busy as it was still relatively early on a Saturday.
Once we had managed to establish with them that we had booked a table and were actually here for a meal, and not just sloped in to get out of the cold, we were shown to our table in the main room. The restaurant is split into two areas, the main room which also houses the bar and the wine cellar, and another smaller room which I assume may be available for private functions but on the night we were there was full of general diners. It's decorated with "italian" flourishes like trompes l'oeil of Tuscan landscapes, etc, but it's been done in a subdued, "antiquey" way and there are no plastic vines in sight. The tables are nicely set, with good silverware, plenty of glasses, real cloth napkins and tablecloths and none of the frilly silly stuff that takes up space, just one simple hurricane lamp as a centrepiece.
We were left with our menus and no wine (boo hoo) for a good 10 minutes before anyone remembered that we were probably there to eat - despite the repeated "excuse-me-we'd-like-to-order-now" thrown out at any person in a pinny who walked past our table. After a bit, a nice young woman came to take our order, and we TRIED to order a few bottles of wine (we weren't taking any chances. If we doubled up on the plonk at this point, we wouldn't have to try again later on when we were getting desperate) but she told us she'd send the Wine Waiter over. I've Capitalized him in honest-to-goodness Enid Blyton style as I feel that anyone who has "wine" in their job title deserves respect.
After she'd been gone 5 minutes, the Wine Waiter came over and we ordered the wine. He was back in seconds (this is a man that I could easily grow to love) with a bottle of red and a bottle of white - forgive me for not remembering which they were, but they were about £11-14 a bottle. He'd recommended the red to us, but PPP had ordered the white, and it was awful. But that was no problem for Wine Waiter, he came back with three similarly-priced alternatives and let us sample each before plumping for a bottle of La Cala D.O.C. at £14.50.
The first course arrived shortly after the wine - despite the length of time it took to order, it took very little time to actually get the food. We ordered 2 starters for the 4 of us, garlic bread with tomato for £2.75 and avocado in tomato vinaigrette for £4.95. They arrived on two large platters with four side plates, without us even mentioning that we'd like to share, so bonus
Pictures of Ristorante Sabatini´s (Newcastle)
Outside
points for ingenuity! The garlic bread was perfect - lightly cooked, red hot and just garlicky enough to repel Vlad at the disco later on. It was so nice we ordered another to have with our main course… The salad, which was my choice as I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE avocado, was brilliant too, very fresh and tasty.
Once we'd finished the starters Wine Waiter came back to see how we were getting on. I was starting to regret my impending marriage to the lovely Mr Mango, when I could have had this Bringer of Booze instead… We ordered another bottle of La Cala to further help us debate the matter. Again the staff seemed to disappear and it was another 5 minutes before the Wine Waiter noticed our table hadn't been bussed and despatched a lackey to attend to it with aclick of his fingers. Fortunately we didn't have long to wait for our main course.
My mam is a massive fan of fish, so ordered the grilled trout at £10.95. I couldn't get a definite comment from her for this review, but since she virtually licked her plate clean I think we can safely assume she enjoyed it. My sister-in-law was getting over a jippy tummy so decided to stick with the vegetarian options, and had Melanzane alla parmigiane (baked aubergines and parmesan) at £5.95. She's since told me that it was absolutely beautiful, and she's been trying in vain to replicate the recipe. I'd better drop my brother an email and see if he'll stretch to taking her back! The PPP had chicken and mushroom risotto at £6.95, she hates cheese so never eats pizza or lasagne and is always on the lookout for worthwhile alternatives. She loved it, and reckons it's the best she's ever tasted. I had scaloppine di maiale pizzaiola (or pork escalops with capers, onions, garlic and tomato sauce to you and me) at £13.95, and I could not fault it. We didn't have afters/pudding/sweet/dessert but the menu was again very varied and very tempting. Italian cuisine can sometimes be a bit hit and miss for me, but I could happily eat at Sabatini's every day for the rest of my life.
And to be honest, I probably could do that without getting bored. Even if I avoided the dishes that I couldn't bring myself to eat (ie those involving mushrooms or asparagus) I could probably eat something different every night for at least 3 months, such is the variety in the menu. Add to that the various specials (and the Christmas menu) and it'd keep me quiet for a while!
While the prices aren't overly expensive, averaging at £7 for a 10" pizza or pasta main course (or £13-odd for a pesce or carni dish), it's not a "happy hour" place with special offers on weeknights etc. There is a children's menu, which consists of smaller portions of adult meals rather than the usual and depressing array of chicken nuggets and burgers, but to be honest I couldn't tell you much about it as I didn't really look at it - not being a child or having children it's not high on my list of things to look out for, sorry. While there were no children in the restaurant while we were there, I'm not sure if this was just because nobody had taken their kids out that night, or whether it's not particularly child friendly. So if anyone knows what it's like for children, please let me know! I've rated it as "good" for families though as I've never ever been to an Italian restaurant that didn't welcome them. I also don't know if they do a student discount, although I suppose you could find that out with a phone call.
The atmosphere in the restaurant is great, very relaxed, and nobody wanted to rush us out; although the staff seemed to enjoy rushing around and there were quite a few imperious finger-clicks from Wine Waiter and his cronies to get the busboys/girls moving (although the poor beggars were already working hard).
We really enjoyed our meal at Sabatini's, and I would DEFINITELY recommend it to anyone visiting Newcastle, in fact my mam enjoyed it so much she's taken my dad there since.
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