Rudy's Pizza Napoletana - Newcastle Upon Tyne — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

I’ve been to a few of these now so, when in Newcastle, I was a bit torn between here and Pizza Punks opposite, as I’ve never been to one of those. They looked quite similar though, so in the end my sense of familiarity won out and I opted for this Rudy’s. The other one also had some odd looking customers sitting in the window.

Premises probably an old shop or bank, inside it’s the usual mixture of eclectic furniture, exposed concrete and wood. - retro shabbiness. Whatever they call that style. Looks less like an actual building site than the York one though.

Very quiet restaurant, with about six occupied tables, so surprised to be offered the ‘pizza bar’ to sit at - I know I was only one, but who wants to sit with their back to the room.. no thanks. Requested a table instead, which was offered. Note to self though, not a place to visit alone when actually busy, as wouldn’t want to sit at the counter.

All very polite, although I suspect this was the ‘least favoured’ table as it was by the door, but I rather liked it, could see why was happening. probably less good when restaurant is busy.

Service was very good, as you’d expect as there were lots of staff and it was quiet. Drink and food ordered and received quickly. All present and correct.

Opted for the triple pepperoni, which comes with some lush meat and. Hot honey drizzle. Tasty. The pizzas here are fresh. But I can never finish them… very big 😆 No sides or pudding, for I was full. Some interesting looking specials - a pizza with bolognaise always sounds good, but not with aubergine…

Anyway, this is a decent pizza place, I’d come here again. I don’t come to Newcastle much these days, but it’s always been a good place to go out for a meal, nice to see...

Had a lovely lunch here yesterday and took advantage of the free pizza deal. I've eaten at the Birmingham and Durham branches and it was the best pizza I've had outside of Italy so I'm very excited to have a local branch!

The dough is usually perfect, though my partner's crust was a little overdone. The garlic aioli is a dream and actually has enough garlic in it! This time I found the pizza sauce could have done with a little more salt, but there's no denying the quality of the tomatoes. Also, they went a little overboard with the mushrooms 😂

I'd also like to see more vegetarian/vegetable topping pizza options, and I'd love it if they'd reorganise the menu layout and put meat pizzas in one column and veg pizzas in another to make it easier to see what the choices are.

Additionally, I have a few friends who are gluten intolerant or coeliac, and I'm sad not to be able to bring them as there's no mention of gluten free alternatives on the menu. I assume the salads are gluten free, but really they can do better than that.

The alcohol-free peach cocktail was perfect! Would love to see more mocktail options next time.

The atmosphere is great. They really have created a beautiful space, with the perfect lighting levels. And we loved the bank vault toilets!

My only real niggle about our visit was that we were seated by the door which was quite draughty and made my pizza cool down more quickly.

I'll definitely be going again, but will request a table further...

Have visited twice and experienced really disappointing service on both occasions. Wanted to reserve judgment after our first visit, but unfortunately had the same issues repeated on our second visit.

On both occasions we booked for 7.30pm on Mondays. On arrival, we were told on both visits that our table wasn’t ready and taken to the “bar” at the back of the restaurant but weren’t able to order drinks.

On visit one, it was ten minutes before we were sat at a table and on our second visit, it was 20 minutes before we were sat a table that had been empty since we arrived. We’d also seen two other couples arrive in that time and seated immediately.

On our first visit to be served a sharing starter and two main pizzas, our time in the restaurant 2+ hours. It was very difficult to attract the attention of staff to ask about our order which felt even more frustrating when other tables who arrived after us were served before us, particularly as this was a special occasion. Two drinks were removed from our bill to acknowledge the long wait.

On our second visit, we received our drinks 30 minutes after first arriving.

The food IS amazing, but based on two very similar and disappointing experiences, we unfortunately won’t be back. It’s even more frustrating when there are so many reviews complimenting the service and communication - maybe we were just really unlucky to forgotten...