Blackfriars Restaurant voted the ‘TopTable’ in Newcastle

The oldest purpose built restaurant in the UK has today been named the leading restaurant in Newcastle by a consumer destination website for restaurant bookings.

The award was conferred on Blackfriars Restaurant by TopTable, which enables customers to book a table at more than 4000 restaurants in the UK, derived its list from 340,000 reviews submitted by its diners and the 100 award-winning restaurants to receive the highest scores were given Diners’ Choice Awards.

Blackfriars was the only restaurant in Newcastle to receive the award and the news comes just months in the same year it received the title Taste of England’ in the North East England Tourism Awards and a three star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association and top Sunday Lunch by readers of the Independent.

London’s critically acclaimed Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was named Best Restaurant in the UK in the vote and chef Heston Blumenthal also secured two spots in the top five with his widely acclaimed The Fat Duck placing second, and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental Park Lane ranking fifth. Petrus, another critically acclaimed Gordon Ramsay restaurant ranked third.

Lucy Taylor, head of restaurant relations at TopTable said: “The ‘Toptable 100 best restaurants’ represents a collection of truly outstanding and wonderfully diverse restaurants across the UK, selected by Toptable diners. These restaurants are consistently getting it right on every level, and diners are taking note, rewarding their efforts with positive reviews and return visits.

“It is a fantastic achievement that Blackfriars is among the 100 best restaurants in the UK and the only restaurant to make the list in Newcastle. We are proud to know that these diners thoroughly enjoyed their overall experience at the restaurant and gave them such high marks.”

With approximately 4,000 bookable restaurants, TopTable is the leading consumer destination site for bookings in the UK, owned and operated by OpenTable the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations, seating more than 12 million diners per month via online bookings across more than 30,000 restaurants.

Blackfriars is the oldest purpose-built restaurant in the UK dating back to 1239 where it served as the refectory for the Dominican Friars. The restaurant serves traditional British food using seasonal produce from local farms and producers and also operates an ornate Banquet hall seating 50 people and a Workshop with regular events for all the family including bread making and dinner party cooking.

Andy Hook, managing director at Blackfriars said: “It’s been a great year for Blackfriars after winning the Taste of England as well and its testament to the hard work put in by our chefs and front of house team who work tirelessly to offer a great experience for customers. We’re glad it’s been acknowledged by diners of such a high profile website”.

The restaurant is also recognised by food critics across the country, having been awarded ‘Best restaurant in Newcastle’ by the Observer and the Metro Newspaper.