Babucho Quayside — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

My wife and I visited on Easter Monday. Although the decor and atmosphere is beautiful. The food was a real let down. Being from a fine dining Italian background myself, I can truly say this was the worst Italian food, we both have ever had. Garlic pizza mozzarella. Pale and under cooked. Potato skins with "yogurt dip" and some sort of Asian sweet chilli sauce over powered by Chinese 5 spice. Topped with fried rocket. (Why) Wild mushroom risotto was mush and sticky over powered by garlic and too salty from the amount of "grana padana" used. Would of been nice to have the mushrooms through the risotto, not dumped on the top. Onto the carbonara linguine. What was that. Sauce brown from the pan being too hot when rendering down the pancetta. Pasta was over cooked, cream was reduced too much causing it to split. Pasta was a bowl of tasteless grease. My wife had 3 fork fulls of her risotto and I could only manage to eat 1/4 of the pasta. We both had a cocktail each from the premium menu. Also a let down at £12 a pop. The menu pricing is ridiculous for what it is and ontop of that a 12.5% service charge. Taking the bill to close to £100 for a two course monday lunch. The only service was, to carry plates to our table. There was no actual service and I had to ask for a spoon to to eat my pasta. Come on guys, it's the little details like a spoon to be put down when a guest has a dish with a long strand pasta. The food is back street Italians at most. If it wasn't for the decor and ambience the place wouldn't have as much popularity. (Fact). Babucho has always been nothing but Italian so why now has it started adding in middle Eastern dishes, with bought in packet flat breads, even most Middle eastern takeaways now make fresh flat breads, Confusing but never mind, we will never be back. Food is same level as a sambuca for half the price. If you want good food and don't mind the decor go elsewhere and and save...

Wow wow wow Come come come and try the food at this restaurant, I don't often give a 5* but these really do deserve it. I loooooved this place❤️I am a bit fussy, teeny little bit lol🙂 but from entering this lovely restaurant you are greeted nicely by the friendly staff. It is really clean and tidy with lovely decor, so modern. Toilets are sooo nice and clean, which is a must for toilets. So modern. They have wheelchair accessible entrance, a ramp down into the restaurant, so you can sit where you want and they have accessible toilets also. The food is absolutely lovely. I had spicy chicken for starters dolled by sea bass, Wow I wasn't disappointed, couldn't mange the pudding. My friend had onion soup which is served in big cobbler bread, well you won't be disappointed if you order this as its really nice, I had to try it. They then had the fish cakes and fries, Wow again really nice, yes you've guessed I tried again then chocolate pudding followed, I didn't try but boy I was assured it was lovely. Yes it's bit pricy but if you can afford it go for it and try or as special treat try hear. The staff was lovely and friendly also. Few people were in so must be quite popular, you can either eat in or out. I have already recommended this place to my family and friends when I saw them today I WILL be back🙂 So I would just like to add little something extra to my review today. A lady lorna took bad at the restaurant, and the staff at the restaurant went above and beyond to help her today, they all did especially Alex. He helped me to look after this lady after she got separated from her friends and took ill. He was really lovely and helpful and phoned a taxi and made sure she got in ok. He assured her it wasn't her fault as the lady felt embarrassed for taken ill. It was nice to see they all rallied round and Alex kept checking on her to see if she was ok Well done Alex...

I don't visit Newcastle every year unfortunately, but as often as I can. By chance, me and my father stopped by this restaurant in April 2012. We were walking in the Quayside area early on a Friday evening, we were hungry, and completely randomly chose to try this restaurant. There were few people when we arrived, but when we finished eating, it was packed. The food and drinks have always been of high quality and the staff have always been welcoming, pleasant and helpful. In addition, it is a very nice venue. The decoration with the empty wine bottles on the walls is something that really catches my eye. The vibe and atmosphere is good, plain and simple. I was in Newcastle again in 2013, 2014 and 2018. And I went to eat at Babucho each time and the quality has never disappointed. I was going back in 2020 also for my own 40th birthday, had reserved a table, but it was corona time then, so it was not to happen. Anyway, we came again in 2024, Bank holiday weekend. This time I went for a pepperoni pizza. I have to confess that I'm a bit picky about restaurant pizza, but this was the best pepperoni pizza I've ever tasted, without a doubt. Funnily enough, he who is the general manager at Babucho, I recognized him from all my previous visits. Incredibly nice to see that the same person is still there, ever since my first visit in 2012. That's a good sign of a good restaurant. On the way out, after we had eaten, I had to ask to take a selfie with the manager, to thank him for the good pizza. We had a little chat and had the photo taken with me, so it's a nice memory to take home. Thanks for now and I look forward to my next visit to Babucho. Hope it won't be long. Cheers...