Solstice is the second restaurant from acclaimed Newcastle chef Kenny Atkinson, and it takes fine dining a step further than debut restaurant House of Tides, with a 15-18 course tasting odyssey that focuses on quality ingredients, seasonality and sustainable practices.
You’ll find the restaurant right in the heart of Newcastle’s historic Quayside, just minutes from the Newcastle Tyne Bridge. The dining room itself is sleek and modern, with wall-mounted lamps echoing the restaurant’s sun logo, and pressed white tablecloths lending the restaurant a slightly more formal air. That said, the experience is still relaxed - there’s no strict dress code, for example, and the atmosphere is intimate - the restaurant only allows for bookings of four people maximum.
The menu keeps lots under wraps, presenting each course simply via the primary ingredient. Dishes are precise and complex, but aim to present each primary ingredient in its purest form. See for example a lobster dish where lobster tail is slow roasted in lobster oil, made from the shells and head of the lobster, then poached in brown butter and finished with fresh fennel pollen and a yuzu kosho butter sauce. Another dish centres around Northumberland honey, and serves honey parfait and tuile with bergamot curd, toasted grain ice cream and bee pollen.
A wine pairing is also available, and begins after the snack courses, giving you a chance to also try one of Solstice’s house mixes. Cocktails include Hepple Gin, King’s Ginger, pear and lemongrass, Vivir Tequila, fennel, Poire William and vermouth, and Suntory Toki with plum sake Bramley apple and Sacred Amber vermouth. The drinks menu also includes beers, spirits, non-alcoholic drinks and an extensive wine list with bottles from all over the globe.