River Beat is located on the Gateshead side of the Swing Bridge on Newcastle’s quayside and the perfect location for a restaurant.
I always have a peek here and there but it’s been a while since I visited a restaurant on the Quayside but when I was looking for recommendations for our last summer with the girls before lockdown, this place was a firm favourite.
The restaurant offers a brilliant twist on tapas, Asian tapas. With, you guessed it, lots of seafood options.
The Food
When 4 become 3 we were still super excited to visit. The menu was not what I expected. I thought there would be only lots of small tapas style dishes but there is so much more.
You can choose from far eastern classic curries, specially curries and even pad Thai noodles. Whilst we we there fore some Asian food we were really interested in the tapas style dining.
They menu offers gourmet tapas as well as vegan tapas too. Between the three of us we decided to order the whole of the Gourmet style tapas menu and share.
From the bottom you can see the Spicy Vietnamese beef stir fry, not spicy at all rather packed full of flavour. To the middle dish on the left is the Pink Salt and Pepper Squid with plum and tamarind dip.
Moving on to the top right dish you can see the Chicken Satay Peanut Sauce which was smothered in sauce to be honest. For me the least favourite of the dishes but that’s a personal peanut dislike of mine. To the top left were the Tempura King Prawns with a smoked nouc charm dip. The prawns were exquisite! The coating on them were light and the prawns were really big. the dip was just a perfect combo.
Another firm favourite of mine were the fresh crispy pork and king scallops in caramel sauce. A brilliant arrangement of flavours. If I were to go back for a drink I’d have this as a little side because it was delicious. The best I’ve had in Newcastle.
The last of our tapas dishes were the Thais Basil Pork crisp leaves to wrap and Lamb sang choi bau with leaves to wrap. These were really lovely as a tapas dish. Perfect for sharing and the meat was delicious.
Final Note
For pudding i had the delicious local ice cream from Doddingtons and trust when I saw the Lemon Meringue is to die for!
Overall I really loved the vibe at River Beat AND the amazing dishes! I’d thoroughly recommend for any occasion even a drink on the terrace outside. They have plenty of blankets to offer and a view money cannot buy!
