The Broad Chare, Newcastle Upon Tyne

The Broad Chare is a pub in the Quayside area that I haven't visited for several years. I've found in closed on previous Tuesday visits, but despite what the WhatPub website says, it does now open 7 days a week again. Housed in what looks like an old docks building, the interior is far more modern, with a bar to the right-hand side and the room split into two distinct sides. Food appears to be popular with a separate restaurant upstairs, but there are 4 cask ales including the house beer (Writer's Block) from Great North Eastern. On our visit, guests were Timothy Taylor Landlord, Anarchy Flat Out & Out There Intrinsic Energies. Craft beers were Funky Fluid Mango Sour, Lost & Grounded Wanna' Go To The Sun & Arbor Wish You Were Beer.

Decent selection of ale in this one without it breaking any records. Would probably revisit if in the area.

Set slightly back from the Quay, between the Tyne and Millennium bridges, this is a rather fancy looking pub and restaurant that seemed an oasis of calm on a Saturday night compared to the antics on the other side of the Tyne Bridge. You enter into a smart main bar area with some nice mosaic tile flooring giving way to plain bare boards. The servery is down the right hand wall and has a fairly standard counter and a pump clip lined bar back. Seating here is limited to a few high stools under the front windows and along a ledge opposite the bar. The ledge forms part of a partitioning screen which obscures the bar from a comfortable lounge on the left hand side of the room. Here you will find long padded banquettes and some standard chairs in a pleasant space decorated with dried flowers, eclectic photos and various objets d'art. Elsewhere, décor includes horseshoes, blackboards and straw animal heads - all a bit eclectic and odd but it works relatively well in creating a slightly off-beat look to what is otherwise quite a straight-laced establishment. The first floor houses a restaurant that seems to garner favourable reviews, although I didn't manage to get a proper look up there as I wasn't eating. I could also hear what sounded like the thump of a bass drum, suggesting that live music might be playing somewhere, but I was not able to establish whether this was the case or not. There were four ales available on handpull on my Saturday evening visit - Out There The Writers Block and Space is the Place, Mordue Workie Ticket and Bootleg Lawless. I plumped for a pint of Space is the Place and thought it was in reasonable shape without being truly memorable. Two real ciders were also available and the staff were prompt and courteous without really offering the warm welcome that had otherwise characterised my time in the North East. This is a pretty good pub that does a number of things well - the beer range is interesting enough to appeal to drinkers and the food seems to have a well earned reputation should you want to visit for a meal. The place has a fairly universal appeal in terms of its layout and décor without really brining too much to the plate in terms of originality. A good place to enjoy with the other half, but not up there with the best the city has to offer.

Official site of The Broad Chare - www.thebroadchare.co.uk

Official site of The Broad Chare - www.thebroadchare.co.uk

Modern bar set in an old grain store/warehouse. Ground floor bar is split in two by a dividing screen (with lots of china dogs lining its shelf). The main bar is modern and fairly spartan what with its charcoal grey tones but the mini chequerboard tiled floor is of note. The banquette seating behind the divider is a much more agreeable place to sit. Upstairs is a restaurant area which I didn’t explore. Nice bogs with an unusual trough sink. Four ales on - mainly local, my Cullercoats was decent if slightly listless. Two real ciders in addition. A ‘coming soon’ cask ales board listed some interesting choices. It’s fair enough but not one I’d be prioritising next time. 6.5

The ground floor has two areas divided by a screen, one side has the bar where the seating is mostly at stools, more comfortable seating around the corner where there are proper tables and banquette seating. A room upstairs seemed to be for meals only so I nicked a quick look and left it. There is some unusual items of decoration, carved wooden dogs abound, there are framed prints of cutlery items, one other of flatfish plus the more usual local scenes. Wooden floors as is becoming the norm, light and airy inside, not a bad little place at all. As well as the meals they do some interesting bar snacks of the old fashioned variety including pig's cheeks, oysters and home made pork crackling. The gents' toilets have an array of misty eyed Newcastle United memorabilia, I can't vouch whether equality applies in the ladies. Thornbridge Brother Rabbit, Wylam Writer's Block, Mordue Dark Inception plus one more I can't see thanks to my crappy photo on my phone. A nice and smart quayside pub, seemingly popular for lunch with older groups who were arriving during my short stay.

Smallish bar close to the Quayside,with 4 cask beers on tap, three of which were from The Wylam Brewery.There is a dining area upstairs,and on my visits here the pub seemed to be doing a good trade