North East Veggie Curry

The Last Days of the Raj Main Road, Dinnington Newcastle upon Tyne (01661) 598181 http://lastdaysoftheraj.co.uk It's unusual for a restaurant to up-sticks, gather up its pans and move lock, stock and karahi to the next town, but that's exactly what The Last Days of the Raj did in 2015. This previously well-respected and popular Gateshead restaurant decided to forsake Low Fell and re-locate to a former mining village on the northern outskirts of Newcastle.  Their new restaurant in the village of Dinnington is a substantial, stone-built affair, the classic English village pub exuding an attractive old-world charm. It certainly looks inviting, so perhaps this wasn't such a strange move after all. Inside, it's clear that whatever they may have left behind in the move, they clearly didn't forget their slightly old-fashioned panache to which their Gateshead customers had grown accustomed. Theirs was the only Indian restaurant I'd ever vi

New New Bengal 232 High St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1HH 0191 285 6706 newnewbengal.com The curiously-named New New Bengal on Gosforth's High Street has an interesting history. A familiar local landmark (there's been a restaurant here since at least the 1970's), the then-named New Bengal leapt to prominence late one night in September 2014 when a passer-by reported that the restaurant was ablaze – like, 'flames raging out of the front of the building' sort of ablaze. You might have thought that was curtains for the New Bengal but the owners clearly had other ideas and f rom the ashes of the old sprang a new Indian restaurant, this time with a cool, modern and obviously very new interior and with a name that seemed to capture it all perfectly – yes, it was the New Bengal, but it was new. It was, in fact, the New New Bengal. We decided we had to try this unusually-named restaurant for ourselves so we duly booked a table for five