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A smart restaurant in the increasingly thriving North East offering good Italian food and interesting choices of pizza and pasta. The antipasto misto makes an excellent starter, rousing the tastebuds without killing the appetite. The rack of lamb cooked in rosemary, garlic and white wine sauce may seem fairly commonplace but I do find that as often as not the Italian version has a piquancy not always carried by others. The dessert is no contest, once I see chocolate rum truffle with crème Anglaise everything else can go home.

Quality house wine at £9.95 and a wine list of mainly Italian origin look after that department very well, particularly as I love the wines grown on the volcanic soils of Italy and they have a Lacryma Christi Caputo on the list. The price of a meal very much depends on whether you are opting for pizza or pasta, in which case it might well be quite a bit less than the figure given, or for more ambitious fare.

A Review from The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle:

If tasty Italian cuisine is your style, coupled with a lively atmosphere, you will love Spago. A friend and I decided to sample what was on offer on a busy Friday night. We hadn't booked but a table was quickly found for us by the window where we could people watch to our heart's content. And a busy Friday night in Osborne Road certainly throws up plenty of people-watching opportunities as people stagger past, in various stages of cheerfulness!

If you want a quiet, candlelit, romantic dinner, Spago isn't really for you. But if you love the buzz of a busy Italian, where waiters compete with the constant lively chatter to shout orders and laughter fills the air, then this restaurant will be just what you are looking for.

While the waiters are rushed off their feet, they still find time to fit in some personal attention and we found that hardly had the wine touched our lips, when a friendly Italian appeared miraculously by our side to refill our glasses.

The choice at Spago ranges from your usual Italian fare - potato skins, pastas and pizzas with any topping imaginable to a selection of meat dishes in various tasty sauces. We opted for the exotic sounding bucce di patate (potato skins with garlic or barbecue sauce, £3.25) and insalata caprese (tomato, mozzarella and basil with virgin olive oil, £3.60) for starters.

The dishes were generous and filling but, fuelled by a constant stream of red wine, we decided we could still manage a hearty main course, choosing pollo Spago (chicken breast cooked in garlic, rosemary and white wine, £10.25) and a pizza calzone (£5.95), a folded pizza with mozzarella, ham, mushrooms and tomato.

The dishes arrived swiftly and were consumed in record speed. At £10.25 for a main chicken dish, prices are a little bit more than your average town Italian, and you will have to decide for yourself whether it's worth it or not. We certainly enjoyed our food but, with happy-hour prices in town to compete with, Spago has to work hard to keep up the high standards and fight off the competition.

Located next to the Osborne Hotel, in a building that formerly housed the Apollo, Spago certainly has location on its side, with Osborne Road becoming more and more popular not just with the students but with locals, too, who flock there for the pubs and restaurants.

And Spago certainly looks good on the outside, and in, with Art Deco style rich red walls, Italian furnishings and eye-catching paintings. It's glamorous and sophisticated, and yet friendly and cosy, maintaining the atmosphere of a family-fun, friendly eatery where the regulars are welcomed like old friends. The bill for the two of us, including copious amounts of red wine, came to a reasonable £26.10.

Evening Chronicle - Feb 13 2002

Greenhouse Brasserie is set just minutes from The Sage Gateshead and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art on the Gateshead Quayside. It's a wonderful place to enjoy good food in a relaxed setting.

Head Chef, Graham Johns has developed an enticing menu that consists of traditional dishes with a contemporary twist. Diners can be sure of the best advice on wine to accompany their meal, as Leo Battaglia, Restaurant Manager brings more than ten years as a sommelier to bear on his work

The Venue offers modern British food made from local and seasonal ingredients and is open for mid morning coffee, cakes and pastries and also offers an early evening menu. Start the evening with a trio of melon, chilled melon and fig suspension finished with apple-foam, and butternut squash soup served with freshly baked foccacia bread. The main course section offers some well-proved favourites along with a range of delectable new dishes.

The word 'Shahirahi' means 'The Royal Path', and this restaurant, which offers guests authentic Indian cuisine, aims to provide service and cuisine fit for a king. The interior features comfortable wooden seating and ample lighting while the menu reveals the best and most popular dishes from the subcontinent.

Among side dishes consider curries made of spinach and potatoes, mixed vegetables and cauliflower bhaji. To accompany, order coriander nan and puri. Follow it up by cashew nut rice and chicken tikka pilau ending with banana fritters and rasamalai. Specials appeal with crowd pleasers such as diced chicken cooked with a lot of garlic and fresh chilies garnished with tomatoes and coriander and barbecued chicken in a hot spicy sauce with lemon zest, peppers, onions and garlic. Sea food lovers can pick king prawns with a thin textured sauce that carries a hint of herbs, spices and tomatoes, garnished with coriander.

In the bustling city of Newcastle upon Tyne, culinary delights are a plenty, but for a taste of the exotic Orient, then At Bangkok Café will do very well indeed. Simple, unfussy and informal décor serves as the perfect foil to fresh and authentic Thai food, while the friendly service adds to their appeal.

You can savour delights there such as home made spring rolls, chicken satay, spicy minced pork salad with mint, fresh lime juice, and ground rice or king prawn tempura for starters. Follow that up with duck in Thai red curry with pineapple and tomato or chicken in coconut milk soup with herbs for main course. Steamed jasmine rice or glass noodles go very well with these curries. For dessert, you could try the khanom chun, a green layered confection or look choop, miniature fruits made from a paste of nuts and sugar.

For some time I made the mistake of thinking that no group of restaurants in the region of 200 locations could hope to maintain the quality for which I was looking.

Then one day I decided to put my prejudices to the test, walked into Oxford Ask! and discovered that I could not have been more mistaken. Their claim to serve freshly prepared quality food in stylish and comfortable surroundings with friendly and efficient service proved to be absolutely spot on.

Since then I have also discovered that a degree of consistency seems to operate throughout their restaurants, and that certainly does take some achieving, implying a degree of management that is enviable. They are perfect places for an impromptu snack, a bit of culinary grazing, or the full works, and families are catered for particularly well.

Their trendy décor usually comprises tiled floors and black furniture with well set tables that sparkle with glass, silver and spotless linen. Ten starters include crostini and bruschetta, followed by a range of salads, pasta and al forno, oven baked pasta, some with chicken.

The pizzas are stone baked in the oven, creating a crisp, authentic and delicious flavour, and they all come topped with mozzarella and tomato. Calzone introduce a touch of opulence with a folded pizza baked in the oven and topped with garlic butter and melted grana padano, whilst inside expect to find chicken or a vegetarian mix.

Amongst the specials may I warmly, in every sense, recommend the polpette al forno, a popular Milanese dish of beef meatballs sautéed in garlic with fire roasted peppers, caramelised onions, chilli and pomodoro sauce, with penne pasta, topped with cheese and oven baked.

An enticing selection of desserts list banoffee pie and tiramisu amongst them, and the coffee tastes like coffee, which may sound banal, but I guess you know what I mean.

Thanks to a well selected wine list speculative drinking can offer handsome dividends, even with prices rarely crossing the £20 barrier.