Roosting on Chilli Road 🪺
NEST (258-260 Chillingham Rd, NE6 5LQ) recently celebrated its one year birthday. Which honestly…I wasn’t sure would happen, seeing as it’s in that tough and expanding high-er end Newcastle market. It opened on Chilli Road. During lockdown.
A self-described ‘neighbourhood restaurant offering indulgent dining that doesn’t have to be daunting’, I guess it is aiming to be really good but accessible. What that means in reality is a tasting menu for £59 which is in The Patricia territory. Is it up there with one of Newcastle’s very best?
Chilli Road is firmly in its renaissance period — with Sobremesa, Flint, Bao Bar and more recently making it a genuinely brilliant area. Chef/owner and local lad Chris Wood has been through all the NE hotels before deciding to go it alone, and despite my increasing distaste for them, the local appetite for tasting menus remains very high 👇🏼
So tough market, but all the right component parts. It’s an open restaurant with a lot of wood and an open pass facing out onto the 30 or so covers. It’s cosy and bright with a lot of glass. Not groundbreaking, but it makes sense when you learn the owners were part of a restaurant fit out group, finishing it with that level of canny that many don’t see to be arsed about these days.
The main offering at Nest is an 8-ish course £59 tasting menu on evenings. They just launched an abridged lunchtime version for £35 which is just too good value to pass up, and an ace introductory way to experience Nest-lite. With people’s wallets taking an absolutely relentless beating in 2022 (and well beyond 🥲), its obviously welcome to see more places tackle affordable-but-great.
Yet to visit but I’m sure Durham’s Coarse is along similar lines, and then you’ve got Rebel not too far away, so the will and the want is there. Sure, I wanna go to Solstice, and Pine. But there’s only so many times you can treat yourself to spending £500+ on some bait.
There’s little in the way of formality, and indeed it reminds me of Peace & Loaf in its playfulness with dishes. So while the menu has tried and tested combos, they’re often founded in nostalgia (peach Melba), or just fun (curried lamb & pea echoing a Saturday night takeaway). Recently there was a Kentucky Fried Rabbit (yes please). Do not be expecting French foie, Alba truffle, or over-zealous use of tweezers here. It’s gutsy. Dare I say it, food that people want to eat.
The menu canters along, with everyone served at once. For lunch, it starts with Spice up Your Life. A silky sweet velouté topped with a savoury rosemary-tinged crumble which though not spicy, is a gentle reminder that we’re now in autumn. And while music does play throughout, there’s no Spice Girls or Sam Fender to be found.
Service sits on the right side of chatty and informal, with co-owner Jack leading front of house with a casual and unintimidating approach. We spent three+ hours languishing over the last few glasses of wine, and never felt rushed. Turning tables is the blight of the modern restaurant, and you’re welcomed as part of the brood here.
It all feels well judged. Best of the day was this stone bass, an underrated fish, cooked superbly. Not a HOLY SHIT kinda dish, but very well executed with a rainbow root hash that is all the best bits about a Sunday roast, and a silky cauli puree to pull it all together. Classic stuff.
A brief wine list has bottles topping out at ~£50. It fits the ‘nowt daft’ pricing philosophy, and so we got the wine matching for +£25 which is equally fair value. I say wine matching, there’s a sex on the beach shooter on there. More places need to shun wine only matchings and throw in a random imperial stout, or own-made cordial, or cocktail. The drinks world is far too vast and fun to be constrained to wine, IMO. Also good to see local tinnies from Rigg & Furrow. Wines made very accessible and fairly priced, so ✅.
Perfect snap on the sable biscuit here in thick set custard and peach purée, a sublime intermediate. Accompanying Sex on the Beach — fun but far too evocative of nights spent circa 20220 in Buffalo Joes 😱
The following pear tart (top) was a simple but strong finish to the sweets, rich but light and well baked. Cheese board features local cheeses (a tad chilled), and enough interesting bits to justify a supplemented £12 (between two, so really £6ea). I would have really liked to have seen a bread course, if even just for the kitchen to show off their bread-making, or flesh out the offering to six courses, but beggars can’t be choosers at this price.
I’m sure the evening menu is very much along the same lines and just as cosy. A lovely way to glide away for a few hours, Nest takes neighbourhood dining a step further marrying solid cooking with great hospitality, and leaving you feel like you wish every lunch could be like this.
Contact: nestinthenorth.com
Food hygiene rating: 5/5
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