The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear*

Sunderland, Tyne and Wear Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• Restaurants are becoming much better. Plenty of good Italians (La Positano on Vine Place is excellent - quality food and happy hour prices all night). Cafe Spice, 11 Tavistock Place, Brasserie 21, throwingstones are all superb aswell.
• La Cantina behind the libary is a nice little italian place..
• Brasserie 21 - the quayside at the bottom of High Street - food and surroundings are unbelievable, but a little pricy (even by London standards) Cafe Spice - Duro terrace, Ashbrooke - amazing Indian cuisine with surprisingly low prices in first class surroundings - Ashbrooke(sunderland) makes Jesmond(newcastle) look like coronation street.
• Try Ro-Manson for Italian/English Cuisine. (it's in high st just round the corner from Joplings). They do a quality lunch-time menu,4 courses for £3-90.
• Best places to eat are The Ropery - Loyalty cards are now available - food out of this world, Johnny Ringos - free entry into Finos nightclub if you dine late on, Mr Spare Rib - buffet style eat as much as you like chinese next to fitzgeralds, Lucianos above idols and lots of new restaurants opening down the quayside and a few good ones at Seaburn!
• Do not go to resturants in Sunderland. They are all useless, go to Newcastle or take a picnic to one of the many sandy beaches
• McDonnalds
• AMALTHI'S iTALIAN IS GOOD. nICE FOOD, NOT TOo EXPENSIVE AND REALLY NICE STAFF. The Oriental experince on Chester road is a brilliant Chinese take away... where I work! Excellent food and staff!
• It baly needs a KFC but 'The Ground Floor' opposite 'Chaplins' does great Sunday dinners and steak sandwiches AND they sell Belgian beer.
• OOOH, well there's the legendary Food Giant (guess who used to work there!!!)

Pubs

• Ivy House is good
• The Ivy House is a good starting point for a night out, if you can find it.
• Vist the Borough - Park lane - the are serving "Double maxim" again - the only true North east Brown Ale and the original - if you are not from the north east, do not be fobbed off with newcastle brown - this is the stuff the north east exports, we keep the good stuff for ourselves. Fitzgeralds - older crowd - slpit in two - one side trendy, the other Real Ale - both mix well.
• The Pilgrim in Fawcett Street is really cheap compared to some places
• thorney close variety club,yea right if ya looking for slappers and dicks loads of fights makes bosnia seem quite
• Laings is great to watch the footie as it has plenty of screens. Also try Chaplins as this is OK for watching footie and a decent pint.
• Huxters, The Borough, Laings, Chaplins, The Ivy House, Mr Blue, Fizgeralds, Baroque, Transporter, McCanns, Masters, Dun Cow, Black Bull, Londonderry, Flairs, Brogans, Idols, Lazi Pig, Boulevard, Bar Mondo, Vestry, Pilgrim, William Jamesons, Yates, Funky Town.
• Theres a new one around the corner from Idols called Brogans. Quite new and excellent at night. Always got the matches on and plenty of dance music. They have cocktail barmen at the back too.
• Huxters & Brogans are both great places to go, Brogans can get a bit crowded on a Saturday night though. WJ's is an OK place to go for a quiet cheap drink but you sometimes get dodgy looks off the old people!
• Royalty, Wearmouth Bar (Student Union), Ivy House
• To many to mention
• Marlows (Homeside) The Vestuary Digby's
• salt grass, Fitzgeralds
• lots of good ones although most in city centre are bars really, check out new one Barque
• New additions of Huxters (mainstream and nice) and Baroqu
• The Transporter is a top pub with a good atmosphere.
• A typical pub crawl around Sunderland would go something like this... Start at the Borough for a few pints of Labbats, on to the Londonderry for a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and put 50p in the juke box. Next stop, the Museum Vaults and then on to Boulivard and Gillespies to oggle the pretty young student girlies and finish the night off throwing your guts up in Chambers. I nearly forgot: the chinese near the Borough serves beautiful traditional North East food!
• Student central (well for the youthful drinkers at least!!!) is The Ivy House.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Cafe Latte - vine place - traditional italian coffe house with food and alcohol. Laid back staff - service sometimes slow but worth the wait. Louis cafe in park lane - really cheap and at the lower end of the arket, but a cup of excellent espresso will set you back 73p. cafe venue - inside debenhams store, the bridges. - make sure you get a card - then you get a free coffee after every six purchase - great place to watch the girls go by If you want to save moiney - go inside the careers building in fawcett street next to the library - you can read the papers and have a cup of filter coffe for only 10p. A Costa's coffee shop will open soon inside Ottakers bookstore in the bridges
• The Refectory on Foyle St., near the city centre, is a bit hard to find but the food is realy good and realy cheap. However it does get busy at lunch times.
• Purple Olive obviously. Good for veggies/vegans. Nice atmosphire. Nice Mod decor.
• The purple olive
• Wilkinson's cafe -- its top! One of the waiters is rather nice too...

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Last updated: 2008-07-03