Dobson and Parnell — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

21 Queen Street in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is an address with a foodie provenance. It was here that Newcastle’s version of Rick Stein had his original restaurant (it’s since moved to another location) before he took over a myriad of other eating locations in the city.

These days, its home to Dobson & Parnell and I ate there just before Christmas with family members. I’d looked at the menu on-line before making a final decision about where to eat and, frankly, I wasn’t overly impressed. Its seemed to be offering bog-standard bistro type food and didn’t particularly excite me. The reality was somewhat different.

After a drink, in a nearby bar, we arrived to a very warn welcome and were shown to a table at the back of the dining room. It being the season of office parties, there were Christmas crackers on the table – not a good thing! The restaurant though at that stage was quiet and there was only one table which was obviously an office group out for their Christmas shindig. Although they got a bit noisy they soon moved on to a more lively venue.

My starter was black pudding with pickled mushrooms and a poached egg. Tasty enough, it was nothing special. I’d chosen duck breast for my main course and having ordered it ‘pink’, I was, to be honest, expecting something overcooked and grey to arrive. I didn’t take any pictures, apart from the starter, because I didn’t intend to write about this place as my expectations were low. I don’t remember how the duck was served either but do remember than it was perfectly cooked and full of flavour – exceptionally so. And then the moment when I felt a tiny piece of shot in my mouth! This wasn’t intensively farmed duck, it was wild duck shot on the wing by someone with a gun. Wonderful! I felt as though I’d won the lottery. I’ve racked my brain and I’m certain that the menu didn’t say ‘wild duck’. I wonder why not. It makes all the difference in the world to the taste and the texture. It was delicious.

The other great thing about this restaurant was the guy who welcomed us and looked after us throughout the meal. We interrogated him without mercy about his life, work, education and his interest in shooting ducks in Yorkshire and he kept us entertained and looked after us very well. His name is Charles.

If you’re in Newcastle go to this place and don’t be put of by the ‘normal’ of the menu. They obviously know what makes a great product and, unusually for these days they don’t oversell it. In fact understated seems to be the hallmark of Dobson & Parnell. If you end up being served by Charles, you will be very...

This is an amazing restaurant and deserved each and every one of its five stars and here’s why;

We first arrived at the restraint and was greeted by a very friendly and welcoming member of staff, when we arrived they were setting out table so we waited at the bar. Here I ordered an espresso martini. But by the time they had made the martini the table was already ready so we were asked if we wanted to be seated or remain in the bar. We chose to be seated and the server offered to carry our drinks for us which was helpful. Once seated in this gorgeous and comfy booth we were handed our menu with a wide selection of delicious sounding meals. I ordered the Mushroom ravioli for starter followed by a halibut dish which was served with fresh black truffle. This is where I ordered another drink - a mojito (which was lovely might I add) - which was brought to me swiftly. Before we were brought our starter we were each served a cod liver cream thing which name I have forgotten and I think it was served as a palette cleanser, it was delicious. After enjoying this pre-starter we were then brought the starter we ordered which was absolutely lovely. After this our main followed which was again absolutely amazing, the food served here has been some of the best I’ve had in a long time. The menus were handed out again and we ordered our desserts. I ordered a selection of ice cream and some petit fours. Before the dessert came we were brought a predessert which was a caramel chocolate mousse which was again delicious. The ice cream followed which was lovely and creamy and full of flavour. The petit fours were served in a wooden box that had a look of a cigar humidor and was served on a bed of cacao nibs. The petit fours were a lovely end to a lovely meal. All of this also came at a respectable price, being under £250 for 4 people. We tipped very graciously and were given our coats. Let me just say I was definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone and it’s definitely the best restaurant I’ve been to so far in Newcastle. I plan on...

We go out for Sunday dinner once a month to somewhere different each time. I was really looking forward to this one after reading all the positive views.tge good stuff first: Large Yorkshire puddings that were nice, crispy roast potatoes that were a little hard in the middle but the crispy outside was delicious. 2 of the staff were lovely, very attentive, honest about dropping our dropping and this being why it took so long to be served (can't hold that against someone, everyone makes mistakes and having the integrity to admit it to customers is a very good and rare thing.) The negatives: while the roast potatoes were very hot, everything else was cold. The mash potato in particular was like warm at best. The veg was all soggy, as if it had been sat in a pan for far too long. The pork came without any crackling or stuffing, (which if I'm honest is the only reason I order pork) and was more like a school dinner slice of pork then what I'd expect on a roast. The 2 male servers were lovely but there was a female waitress who ignored us twice, once when we said excuse me to order drinks and she looked at us and walked away, and again to ask for the children's meals to come out early, and she walked away again. When our meals were dropped unfortunately the last pan haggerty was also dropped which a vegetarian in the group had ordered. The staff were lovely about this but the replacement was a tiny circle or what looked like potato with nuts on top. He had to ask for veg to go with it and got a ball of soggy greens. He ended up at MacDonalds on his way home. The last negative is the price. They kindly took off the cost of 2 kids meals which lowered the price from over 60 a person to around 50 a person. Considering the quality of the food we were left very disappointed. We had the same type of meal at Spanish city last month for around 35 a person and the food was much nicer. Very...