*This is a collaborative post but all views are my own
I have a long history with The New Bridge pub. It was the first stop on my Ouseburn Pub Tour and the Manors stop for my Metro Pub Crawl (there’s a theme there right?). Anyway, the point is, it’s somewhere I’ve been quite a few times and I was so pleased to see it’s reopened with a brand new food menu, which is, quite literally, eye wateringly good.
We were invited along a few weeks ago to try their Dorty Afternoon tea. We were spending the day in town anyway and this was the ideal place to start off. I’m not sure about you, and it could be because of the pandemic, but the centre of town seems to be over flowing with chain bars and restaurants and, whilst everyone still needs to make a living, more so than ever now, I’m really keen to show support to more local or independently run places.
One thing I always forget about the New Bridge, is exactly how close it is to the centre of town. I mean, it’s right next to Manors metro if you’re on public transport but if you’re walking from town, it’s straight down John Dobson Street, past the Laing Art gallery, up the spiral staircase and over the bridge. It took us 8 minutes to walk from Monument metro if that puts it into context. Quicker than getting to the Quayside for sure.
It was quiet when we visited but it was lunchtime on a Tuesday so that’s to be expected. It’s got really nice decor with a good balance of old style northern pub and quirky neon signs. We were even tempted into a game of Shufl while we waited for our food, which is kind of a mix between air hockey and curling. And something I was surprisingly good at. And that’s saying something when you’re married to someone who’s good at everything.
One female victory and a bruised ego later we sat down to get down to business; The Dorty Afternoon tea. Before I go into detail, I’ll break it down for you; two burgers of your choice, 4 portions of fries, 12 chicken wings in either sweet and smokey BBQ or ‘hot AF’ sauce (or a mixture of both), tater tots (more on those in a minute) and warm chocolate fudge brownies. Say whaaaaat?!
For the burgers we wanted to try a bit of everything so ordered the ‘Cluckin’ Good’ (crispy butter milk fried chicken, smashed tots, hot sauce, ranch dressing and salad on a black brioche bun) and the ‘Bacon a Reet Mess’ (Double angus beef patties, double cheddar cheese, maple bacon, sweet & smokey bbq sauce, bacon mayo and chipotle relish). I preferred the beef whereas Dave liked the chicken better (that’s why we’re so well suited). For me, amazing and succulent as the chicken was, the hot sauce as a little on the sickly side, especially as we had it on half the wings too, but the beef burger? OMG the beef burger was insane! I know there’s been a bit of a resurgence of burger places in the city recently and these 100% hold their weight against established favourites like Meat Stack. The meat is fantastic quality and it’s not too overloaded with extras that it becomes sloppy.
Crinkle cut fries are also an inspired choice (the fact they’re ridged means the grooves create more surface area for the seasoning to get into, therefore they’re way tastier than a straight fry – fact fans) and the chicken wings were massive and crispy without being dry. We opted for half sweet and smokey and half hot AF (it’s not so hot it blows your head off but definitely has a kick so probs best avoid if you don’t like da spice!) A moment of silence needs to be given however for the humble tater tot, which were a surprise welcome addition for me. Dave and I had a lengthy discussion about what a tater tot actually was, since you don’t see them over here so much. I originally thought they were more akin to a croquette however after sampling are much more like mini hash browns. And they’re bloody beautiful.
All of this was rounded off nicely with the most perfect gooey pieces of warm chocolate brownie, which were amply sized in themselves however nice to have something sweet after all of the meat and potato we’d just consumed.
Listen, you know I love my food, but even this was a mountain too high for me to climb, but luckily enough we were able to box up our left overs and bring it all home to have that night for tea. Or, you could just bring an extra couple of people with you, it’s definitely enough to share between four, if you don’t mind arguing over which two burgers to have.
At £29.50, and for the amount of food you get I think the Dorty Afternoon tea is exceptional value. It’s also worth noting as well, that should you want something cold and refreshing to wash it all down with, they have a good selection of local ales plenty of white wine options which kept me happy.
I’m so pleased to see The New Bridge back open again after what’s been a crippling 18 months for the hospitality industry, and we’ll 100% be back to tackle their next challenge, or perhaps just for Dave to regain his pride for a rematch of Shufl.
If you’re interested in booking a table you can contact The New Bridge Neighbourhood Bar via their Facebook, website or Instagram
Address: The New Bridge Neighbourhood Bar, 2-4 Argyle St, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6PF