Palace Garden - Dim Sum with the Royal Treatment

Sunday afternoon ‘high-tea’ has rapidly become a popular outing for the affluent and those wanting to take the mother somewhere fancy that involves feeding yourself too. But the Chinese have their own variant of ‘high-tea’ that’s somewhat more longstanding – dim sum Sundays. And Palace Garden is undoubtedly the absolute king of this delicious tradition. Although they have a highly comprehensive traditional Chinese menu and dim sum menu throughout the week, on Sundays they offer a highly convenient trolley service that really adds to the mysterious and magic feel of the dim sum dining experience.

With a pictoral menu, it’s very easy to select any number of interesting dumplings, steamy offal dishes and meaty wonders, made to order by the expert chefs at Palace Garden. Better still, speaking to the highly attentive and friendly serving staff will get you out of your comfort zone and trying some of their personal favourites, mooli cake and char sui baau are definitely two dishes worth a try. The numerous trollies, laden with bamboo hampers of beef, pork, fish and ‘other’ meat dim sum will provide you with a ‘YO Sushi!’-like eating format, where food is ever flowing, but without the associated costliness. Their thousand layer cake also abolishes the notion that dessert is absent in Chinese cuisine. And for those weak people lacking in culinary bravery, there’s plenty of ‘normal’ Chinese dishes available too.

Taking the outstanding quality of food, brilliantly personal service and stunning décor of the restaurant into account, it’s easy to recognise why this place is so a popular, there’s even an indoor pond with a bridge over it! Where, seemingly you can choose a sea beast to have cooked and served to you - ultra-freshness points there. The delivery of their dim sum makes Palace Garden simply the best outlet of this cuisine in Newcastle and if you have yet to pop your dim sum cherry, then it’s the ideal place to get broken into this wonderful and varied cuisine. 90%

Sky Chinese - Dim Sum Delights

Many people seem to be of the impression that the restaurants and cafes of China Town are all the same. Surely they all cook up the same standard Chinese dishes to satisfy all, what does one offer that the other doesn't? Wrong, there's a world of difference between many of the random venues on Stowell Street. Sky is so much more than a run of the mill Chinese buffet that is a popular regular dining experience for Newcastle's growing abundance of radgies. Sky is the very aptly awarded and indisputable king of Dim Sum.

For those that are unfamiliar with Dim Sum, it's essentially the Chinese analogue of tapas cuisine, small and flavoursome dishes, ideal for sharing with large or small groups.  It's more than just wicker baskets with rank chicken feet or testicle like squidgy balls filled with some dubious meat, which is what some buffet restaurants like to present in their shady and forsaken Dim Sum corner. There's much more variety and quality available at Sky. And their food is as real as it gets, so don't expect to like/understand/feel comfortable with every dish on the menu. As proper Chinese food is a million miles away from the typical Western approach on food. There are a few 'interesting' cuts of animal on the menu, but dining out is all about trying new things. It's not like they'll ask you to eat cat placenta, so just be adventurous. 

The host of steamed dumplings and the super special noodles (includes sizable chunks of every species from Old MacDonald's farm and more) are among the Fat Spoon's favourite dishes here. The service is as cheerful as most of Stowell Street's better restaurants, but unfortunately, despite the slow elevator ride to the restaurant you don't get a particularly great view of Newcastle as the name 'Sky' would suggest. The restaurant itself is nice enough and the fact that you can play 'spot the westerner' as you enter the restaurant validates that the food here is truly authentic. 83%

Sohe - Asian Amalgamation

Not all of Newcastle's culinary action resides in the city centre, a number of fantastic fine dining experiences have started to set up shop a little further out. And many of them, like Sohe, can be found in Jesmond, however there is something quite special about Sohe. It has dared to go in a direction that many others have tried but generally monumentally failed to achieve, Asian fusion. Fusion cuisine can be dirty word in cuisine. It's often an excuse to cut corners, utilise cheaper ingredients or just force flavours together that would rather have a fight. No, melting blue cheese on to my lamb tagine is not cooking innovation, it's vulgar and despicable. However, the creators of Sohe's elaborate menu know exactly what they're doing.

Their very successfully accomplished classic Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian dishes are delivered with contemporary class on par with many of Newcastle's heavy hitters. Yet they achieve this without deviating from the originals too heavily, keeping the hardcore Nasi Goreng and beef rendang fans very happy. Dishes that refined looking, that even your grandma would be keen to tuck in, but should she linger in the spicy sauces too long, she'll be hit in the dentures with a fist full of Asian amazement. They don't stop at savoury either, with the fusion incorporation extended to some fantastic desserts.

The restaurant itself is even more alluring and quite possibly the sexiest restaurant of Newcastle. They have combined a huge variety of decor components that should be visually offensive and burn your eye balls out of your skull. But somehow they've achieved another element fusion here, an explosion of vibrancy that creates an exciting dining atmosphere as well as a elegantly lively bar area. The service is very good and although the menu is a little pricey, they do offer diners club discounts. They even have a Vietnamese coffee machine that looks like R2D2 after it won the Euromillions. 91%