I went to one of Newcastle's best Greek restaurants and got a real taste of the Mediterranean

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We took advantage of restaurant week to try out a place our writer had never eaten before - and he was left with a new city centre option to return to.

It is far from a new phenomenon, but Greek restaurants are arguably at their most popular in the mid 2020s - and no place is a better example of this than Newcastle.

Although nationwide brand The Real Greek departed the city centre site on Eldon Square Green, other brands are holding strong and are arguably more popular than ever.

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Food at Simply Greek in NewcastleFood at Simply Greek in Newcastle
Food at Simply Greek in Newcastle | Jason Button/National World

In addition to the increasingly inevitable Acropolis, which now plays a prominent role in almost every street food market from Berwick to Teesside, the Bigg Market is home to two sites offering top options.

These come in the form of Kafeneon, a self described Greek kitchen and cocktail bar which has been a mainstay of the city centre since 1998 and a new name to Tyneside, Simply Greek. It was the latter of these my partner and I took advantage of to bring an end to Newcastle Restaurant Week.

Over 100 eateries took place in the event which ran throughout the second full week of January - a time which is traditionally quiet for restaurants across the city.

I think it is fair to say my partner and I are well versed on Greek food. One of our favourite eateries in the UK is Glasgow’s Halloumi and ongoing wedding planning includes a street food stand rather than a traditional sit-down meal. With that in mind, expectations were high.

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Turning up in Newcastle around Saturday lunchtime we arrived at the site, which sits on the corner of the end of the Bigg Market and the Cloth Market just in time to avoid the masses leaving St James Park - which would soon fill up the restaurant - and were seated quickly with drinks coming soon after.

For me, the easy way to spot what a restaurant is like is to check out who else is there. Sat by a wall, we had a group of women seemingly starting their Saturday afternoon out with wine and food, then a large family get together behind them. It was a good start for a site which would turn out to be continuously open to all sorts of groups during our time in the building.

Inside, the site looked as though it had been there for two, maybe three times as long as it has. Images, faded by the sun, lined the walls and offered some real character to a site which was only opened earlier this decade.

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The restaurant week menu was far from limited, and offered as much as many regular menus in the city may, with items being available within the £15, £20 and £25 barriers set in place for the week long festivities, even for us vegetarians.

Looking to keep things cheap - as is the idea of how to get people back into restaurants after the new year, we restricted ourselves to the £15 two course options and were still left with ample options. We both kicked off with a feta and spinach pie, which could also be described as a traditional spanakopita which was exactly as you would hope from a starter, while the flavours of the option were balanced perfectly with each other. If I was to be very harsh, I may say the starter was thin compared to other similar meals we have had in the past, but it made way for the latter food.

We then moved on to the main - where we both reverted back to our street food favourite of a halloumi wrap - we were hugely impressed. Arguably the most halloumi we have had in a wrap of this type, it was an ideal way to finish up a quick lunch before moving on to the remainder of our weekend - and with two high quality courses for £15 plus the post of drinks, there was barely a dent left in our collective bank accounts!

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