Time to ditch your meal deals.
Updated for 2026: When NE1 Lunch Club came back for 2026, there are now 34 offers. Some new places, for sure, but I guess the lower number of offers perhaps shows that places didn’t get much from the offer and are no longer taking part.
New places taking part:
- North Shore Coffee: £7.50 sandwich and a soft drink (assume coffee?)
- Sorcerer Coffee: £7.50 for breakfast sandwich and a coffee
- Fork Cafe: £7.50 pizza or pasta
- Flight Club: £10 burger and soft drink
- Uno’s: £10 pizza or pasta
- Pho: £10 soup noodle (inc. pho)
- Burger Drop @ Fayre Play: £10 burger & fries
- Kiss: £10 curry and rice
- Nudo : £10 offer (check site)
- Chop Chop: £10 meat bowl/veggie gyoza with rice
The latest initiative from NE1 is to get people out into Newcastle’s restaurants at lunchtime with some well-priced offers at £7.50 and £10. It’s on Tuesday afternoons only, which makes sense as one of the more popular ‘work from the office’ days. Of course, it would launch in the same week I’m no longer working in the city centre after six years…
It’s something I can really get behind. Anyone who knows me will know my absolute CONTEMPT for the ‘meal deal’ culture of the UK. Those fridge-cold, mean-filling, mayo-heavy UPF-loaded excuses for sandwiches and salads we eat SEVEN MILLION of each day make me so sad. We invented the bloody sandwich, and this is the best we can do? I can’t believe that people will say they care about food and eat these things day in and day out, usually at a desk, cos you know they’re SO BUSY.
I know, I know, they are an inexpensive way for people to get calories but christ, it’s just not food. And with rising costs, Greggs’ equivalent sandwich + snack + drinks is about £4.85. Tesco £3.85–£5.50, and Boots, who we have to blame for the whole thing are currently from £3.99.
Pay a little bit more and get something made fresh by local people, supporting local businesses in Newcastle, rather than companies that just care about ‘maximising shareholder value’. Please?
NE1 Lunch Club: Key facts
- Most places run the offer 12–4, but be sure to check
- 17 offers at £7.50
- 28 offers at £10, with some offering both
- Some supplements apply — check on the menu
- You don’t need to bring or prove anything to claim the offer
Information/offers correct as of 03/09/2025. View the full list of offers here
These are all great value offers. But keeping this site going does cost me a significant chunk of money each month, so thank you to Slotzilla and its fast payout for helping to make this post possible, and keeping this site alive without me having to be at the mercy of restaurant chains and other advertising opportunities that I’d rather stay editorially independent from.
Every offer, ranked
There are initially a ton of places taking part, with hopefully more to follow. Based on the items offered up, how much I want to go to that place, and the true cost of the offer, here’s how I rate the various offers at launch. Basically, lots of good ones, which is a pleasant surprise.
My favourite NE1 Lunch Club offers:
Having looked through every single offer, these are my favourites:
Fat Hippo: Main & a side £7.50
While a lot of the options within the offer are sandwiches, toasties, etc. which is totally fine, it’s nice to treat yourself to a burger sometimes isn’t it? The Fat Hippo offer might be more of a slider/baby burger, but it comes with fries, and is gonna set you back about half the cost of an evening slab of meat. Get your £7.50s worth, or slap on some frickles and a cookie dough pot if you’re a glutton.
King Baby Bagels: Bagel and a drink £7.50
One of a selection of classic picks from the Grainger Market, whatever you get from KBB, you’ll be sound.
Go for the 0191 (ham, pease pud, loadsa mustard), or the OG (smoked salmon, cream cheese) on an everything bagel — supple and will fill you for the rest of the afternoon. Normally about £8 so you’re getting a washer-downer as well. Class.
Dakwala: £10 Thali tray
You’re gonna wanna sit down and savour this one — Dakwala’s thalis hit the spot in so many ways (read more about them here), but for a tenner they’re even better. Supplements for lamb or prawn, but you’ll survive without. If you’ve continually walked past Dakwala on Grainger Street and put off trying it, this is your wake up call.
Firestone Artisan £7.50 offer
Firestone has often run pretty good lunch time deals, and this is no exception. For £7.50, a slice, chips (hit and miss), a dip, drink AND a cookie isn’t to be ignored. The pizzas are getting better each time I go as well, which is good to see.
I’d normally go for two slices (above), but one with a load of extra bits will see you through those office days. Carb coma on a Tuesday afternoon is a bit of me.
Grey Owl: Tapas, side, and an (alcoholic) drink £7.50
A lot of the offers on this list have a drink included, from the dire (cordial), to The Grey Owl’s brilliant, ‘why not’ alcoholic choices, which are few and far between. The £7.50 deal is decent in itself, but if you’re stopping for a drink as well, might as well stretch out your lunch hour.
I’d be ordering some hummus & flatbread, side salad and slaw, and a cheeky one, of which you can get: a pint, 125ml wine, soft drinks, fruit juices, coffee, or even The Grey Owl’s cocktail of the week. If that doesn’t give you a taste to skip the rest of the work and make an afternoon of it, nothing will. 👏🏻
Mason + Rye: Two salads and a hot drink £10
At the heart of NE1, Fenwick have added a few offers (there are others available at EL&N and FRED’s), but Mason & Rye is my healthy-ish pick. It’s usually on the pricier side of things anyway which makes this an even better offer. I’d wager that a couple of salads will do you the world of good compared to your normal lunch, and you can pick up your sourdough and some tea from the food hall afterwards.
Colmans at Fenwick: £10 for small fish & chips and a pot of tea
It’s not always easy for city dwellers to get down to the coast during the week, and fish & chips is severely underrepresented in the city centre. You simply won’t find a better fish and chips in NE1, so while Colmans is one of Fenwick’s many food & drink outlets, there’s not a better time to make the most of it. You’ll get a smaller fish than the above at the Seafood Temple in South Shields, but it does come with a mug of tea, so lash the vinegar on, and everything will be alright.
Zapatista Burrito Bar: Burrito, fries, chicken tender, dip & drink £10
Available at both Grainger Street and Ridley Place, this is just a good pile of food. Zapatista’s burritos aren’t exactly Mission-sized, and they can be a bit mean about charging extra for things, so for a tenner here, you’re getting a steal. That’s with chips, chicken, dip and. drink too. Mex and even Tex-Mex are still thin on the ground in the town, so when that hankering for a burrito comes, hopefully it’s on a Tuesday because this is good bang for your buck.
Meat:Stack: Burger, fries, chicken tender, dip, drink £10
Still the best burger you can get within the city centre by some distance, you’re also getting one a FEDs exemplary chicken tenders as well. The best beef fat fried chips, and a drink as well, it’s hard to ignore.
Not the ‘true’ full-size Meat:Stack experience, but you’re not gonna complain for a tenner are you? Perfect for a work gathering that’s a bit more than just five minutes in and out of Subway 🥴, you could sit in and have a yap, or takeaway and make your colleagues jealous. Winning, either way.
OK PLEASE! Main, side and a Rubicon £10
It’s Dabbawal’s actual street food side hustle so you should know what to expect. Sure, you have to go into Stack St. James during the day which … but you know you’re gonna get a good bite, and you’ve got a few other choices in there for people, as well as the option of another beverage (seeing as you’re here…). Go for the chicken tikka wrap, which comes with some spiced fries, and a tinny of sparkling mango.
The rest, and my hopes for the scheme
That’s just ten of 40+, and there aren’t many duds. Some of them are into marginal savings, like ‘oh you’ve chucked in a cap of pop, cheers’. My advice to vendors would be to think outside of the box here, can you chuck in some poppadoms, a flatbread, rice, anything to increase the value proposition without getting the bottom line. Some of these offers are good value and may affect lunch time trade, so you’d better be competitive.
Speaking to a restaurant owner last week, they bemoaned that Stack was taking their trade. I get that, but on balance I think people do want / can increasingly only afford more casual grab and go offers. With this in mind, I think for a Tuesday lunchtime, the amount of people wanting a grab and casual go from the likes of the Grainger Market or even Stack vs. a sit down three course meal will increase for a while yet. About 40% of the offers at present are from places that I would deem as only offering grab & go anyway, so hopefully we see more ‘proper’ restaurants sign up to Lunch Club.
Can Blackfriars put on a fish finger sandwich? Will niche venues join in — maybe The Town Mouse with a sausage roll and a pint of cask? Can Central Oven do a Margherita for £7.50? Will a big hitter like Café 21 join in? I hope so. It’s a great initiative, and with the economic situation we’re in, offering a quick bite to eat at a good price is paramount.
I implore you — stop getting a Tesco meal deal and try one of the above instead.
