Newcastle - Food & Coffee Scene

mycuppa

Newcastle has a special place in my heart.

Being my hometown and having surfed every beach, reef and channel break up and down it's coast I absolutely love the place to bits.

The highlight of my year is heading back home on quick visits to see what's changed.

Yes, the CBD has been in decline since the earthquake and the boring shopping centres expanded in the burbs.

Such a shame actually as the City has some wonderful potential with a harbor, beaches, hills, period architecture, etc. but almost every second shop space is empty, up for lease or trading items that are less appealing from a retail perspective. I don't spend enough time there to analyze why. I did stay at the new Sebel at Newcastle Beach and confirmed my opinion that Newcastle City is continuing to shift from retail/business to luxury living as per the trend from Carrington, the Wharf and across the vast waterfront tracts of land.

But I digress. What has astounded me most in the last few years is the decline of food quality from reputable dining establishments. I'm not going to name any, but we did sample many places again and maybe we are spoiled in Melbourne as it's just so easy down here to eat yummy food just about anywhere. 

I really struggled to get a decent meal - despite spending a fortune over 6 days. Some may argue it was the silly season and best chefs and produce are not easily available, but I left Newcastle shocked and disappointed by the food scene.

On the upside was the coffee quality. Massive improvements every year. I would have to say there were a couple of places that could match it with the best of Melbourne cafes. The overall standard of coffee being served, the equipment used (not necessarily a metric, but does contribute towards the how serious a place may be towards coffee), the range, the fitouts, the basista skills and knowledge..........all good and very surprised.

Maybe it's a cycle thing.....coffee up, food down.......but the places we went for coffee were not the places we ate food.

C'mon Newcastle..........get your food mojo back please. Man cannot live on coffee alone !

(I'm bound to cop a lot of flack for this........).

Dry_bean.

What a timely though I must say not entirely welcome post. My daughter along with her husband and two kids is moving to Newcastle (actually Thornton) from Melbourne, literally, as I am typing this, removalist's have been packing and loading over the past couple of days and Michelle and family left Melb by car this morning. unfortunate to hear the CBD and food scene is in decline, boring shopping centre's certainly won't please Heather. Guess on a positive note it's good to hear the cafe/coffee prospects are promising. Anyhow, as they say, I can see frequent trips by SWMBO and myself to Newcastle in the future, the first is fast approaching, we leave on the 11th Jan to help them move in. Will report back with my observations on our return around the 20th Jan.

shape_shifter

It's a sad, bad place unfortunately, I really am not fussed about Newcastle at all, love Merewether beach but that's about it. I'm seriously trying to remember somewhere that I've eaten and have said 'wow' about the food.  I honestly think that OH and I make better food at home than we've had anywhere else (when we cook :P). I know when the Depot opened in Hamilton the food was great, we went there again and the same food was ok.  I copied one of their meals at home for Christmas 2010 and think I did better. The major industrial areas are now Thornton and Tomago and that is where a lot of businesses have migrated to. What I find strange is that yes it seems to be all about luxury living but as you said Jeff, where are the supporting restaurants?  They just don't exist. Dry Bean, depending on the type of people they are, they'll either love it or hate it and also depending on where in Thornton they have moved to. 45 minutes minimum to the beach, if you get stuck in traffic it can be double that.  My OHs mother lives out near us and works in Newcastle, it can take her 2 hours sometimes. In saying all of this, my OH LOVES it here, is Maitland born and bred and is Newcastle hearted through and through.

Dry_bean.

Oh dear, just gets worse, well perhaps not, they have been up there and checked it out, real nice house on couple of hectares, looks to be quite rural. He's with the RAAF so posting will be about 3 years. They still own their own home in Melb so may well finish up back there. His previous posting was Pax river, Maryland and Jacksonville Fla in the U.S., that was pretty nice, we spent almost 3 months over there all up, over three or four visits, very nice, guess you cant win em all.

paranomia

on 1325401585:

I'm seriously trying to remember somewhere that I've eaten and have said 'wow' about the food.

Well... I did say 'wow' about the food at Restaurant Deux recently (although I'm probably going to be shot down in flames as it's only 2 blocks from the Sebel).  Mind you, I'm not much of a restaurant frequenter so apply appropriate quantity of salt and I certainly wouldn't question that it is much easier and cheaper to get a great feed in Melbourne.

shape_shifter

LOL Dry Bean it could just be me...I want to move to Melbourne, or surrounds anyway but it'll never happen, well not if I want to stay with OH and I sort of like him a bit too much  :angel: Jeff I was talk to OH about central Newcastle and his words were, "the earthquake kicked them and they never got back up again".  He was telling me that DJs was always packed out in the boxing days sales, as in not being able to move and the mall was alway full of people.  Now obviously DJs is gone and the mall is empty majority of the time. Oh and Labour of course, all the money is made through the coal in the Hunter Valley and exported out of Newcastle but none of it stays here.

Dry_bean.

Here we are in New South Wales (Newcastle actually) shearing sheep as big as whales (apologies to the Clancy Brothers http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=2TEACjM8RNs&gl=US) wer