River Beat, Gateshead



River Beat


Pipewellgate, Gateshead NE8 2BJ


(0191) 477 0553


I'd never intended for this blog to be about anything other than Indian (or Bangladeshi, or Pakistani, or Sri Lanken) curries and the restaurants that serve them. But then I found myself going for a meal with friends to a Far East Asian restaurant which had, in among its various Thai and far eastern dishes, a section devoted to Far Eastern curries. And I have to say I was intrigued.

River Beat is probably best known for its Asian tapas which offers customers the chance to sample a wide range of dishes from countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Malaysia. It's an imposing place, perched right on the edge of the River Tyne close to the Swing Bridge in a rather splendid brick building that was once the headquarters of the local river Police (hence the name).

Inside is cool, modern and airy, the sort of place you'd be happy just to sit around in and share a drink with friends. In the daytime, the views across the river through the full-height windows are stunning and in the evening the twinkling lights of Newcastle add a pleasing backdrop. Inside is softly lit and comfortable.

Vegetarians might find the menu a little on the short side, though in fairness they do have a vegan tapas menu with no less than 8 different dishes, including crispy curried 5 spice tofu, truffle and cauliflower fritter and North Korean bibimbap 'mixed rice'. I had already decided to head straight for the curry menu, but I did raid the vegan tapas menu for my starter - I chose the Red Bengali Dahl which came in a hot and spicy vindaloo sauce with plenty of coconut. It was fragrant and delicious, as was the crispy herb roti bread which accompanied it and which I used to scoop mouthfuls of the soft red dahl into my mouth.

The Far Eastern Curries section of the menu offers 4 different dishes, but only two of those were available as a vegetarian option. I decided to leave the Yellow Thai Kelek with Asian vegetables for another visit and plumped for the Yellow Vietnamese curry which featured a combination of Asian vegetables, sweet potato, spicy pickled carrots and, surprisingly, lychees.

To say that its flavours were complex is an understatement. This was an intriguing and delicious dish, with soft chunks of sweet potato, green beans, chestnut mushrooms and peppers swirling around in a fabulously fragrant and spicy sauce. And what a sauce. I suppose I had expected something akin to a Thai curry with a thin, chilli-laced coconut-based sauce, but this was deep, rich and unctuous. And the addition of lychees gave the whole thing a unique and sudden sweet-and-sour flavour which riffed brilliantly with the hot dry chilli, like tiny perfumed hand grenades of flavour – unexpected, highly entertaining and totally delicious.

The dish was dressed with long ribbons of spicy pickled carrot which I had never eaten before. They were soft and fiery, almost like pickled ginger in their intensity and added yet another superb dimension to the curry. The dish came with a large bowl of sticky rice, with more available on request, which soaked up the rich sauce admirably.

Far eastern curries have a rather different spice base to Indian curries – spices like star anise, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and lemongrass all impart a slightly sweeter, fragrant and more delicate flavour, very different to an Indian curry – although South Indian food with its lemon, mango and coconut flavours, and the near universal use of cinnamon and cloves in much of India's food, shows there is definitely common ground. Similarly, adding lychees to a curry might seem a little unexpected, but its no more surprising than adding sultanas or mango to a dish, and I've eaten plenty of Indian dishes with those. It clearly works.


Thanks to its tapas menus, River Beat is a great place to explore some of the culinary flavours of the east and a great place to relax. The staff are friendly and informal, and the food is gorgeous. OK, so the vegetarian choice is fairly small (especially if you are looking for something other than tapas) but what's there seems to be very good indeed. If you are looking for a change of scene and you want to sample a curry with a difference, then I reckon River Beat is definitely the place to go.

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