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Here is an extract from the latest 2017 guide to South Tyneside…

Whether you’re after fish and chips on the coast or Great British classics from one of the many brilliant pubs in pretty towns and villages dotted through the landscape, South Tyneside has a globetrotting foodie pedigree.

Everyone knows that South Tyneside is as stuffed with great food as a particularly generously-proportioned raviolo (the restaurant-lined Ocean Road being perhaps the best-known example), but it’s easy to stop at just the fish and seafood which is hauled out of the North Sea every day, and not see the full depth and breadth of the international flavours on offer here.

Take, for instance, Radhuni, an Indian restaurant on Ocean Road where Head Chef Sharif Ahmed’s command of flavours from across the subcontinent mingles with fantastic local seafood to make a really unique take on classic Indian plates – see the monkfish papeda, cooked slowly in methi, tomato, onions and spices, for proof. Still got a hankering for some spice? Zeera, on Ocean Road, won the North East Restaurant of the Year at the English Curry Awards last year, and Spice Garden and Asha Balti House are both worthy additions to South Shields’ spice stable too.

You want ice cream? Try Minchella’s, who’ve got many years of experience in the art of frozen deliciousness, or visit the younger pretenders to their throne at Creme De La Creme. In this war of deliciousness, the winner, surely, must be the ice cream connoisseur.

Down on the seafront, there’s even more to explore: take afternoon tea at The Boardwalk Restaurant in the Little Haven Hotel, grab some beachside drinks and some chilli mussels at The Sand Dancer Beach Bar and Crab Shack Kitchen, and find quirky treats at Mac ‘n’ Alli’s. Lime and courgette cake, anyone?

For a little twist of heritage with your food, head to Marsden Grotto, built into the cliffs in Marsden Bay, which specialises in tapas and cocktails and has an ace beachfront terrace, or to The Rattler, a repurposed intensely funky 19th century railway carriage which overlooks the beach. Harbour Lights pub, too, is a great place to drop in for classically-inclined food as well as a couple of drinks.

Or how about some healthy veggie and vegan food? Roots Cafe has earned admiring notices since it opened up, being full of bright, fresh flavours and a breezy, friendly atmosphere. Plus, it does the only thing better than a full English breakfast: a full Scottish breakfast, which includes veggie sausages, homemade veggie haggis and potato scones.

One of the most vibrant parts of South Shields is the Mill Dam, which has a range of great restaurants and bars, including The Green Room in The Customs House and The Waterfront, which serves Asian fusion food and boasts an excellent range of cask and craft ales. The Steamboat, The Riverside, The Trimmers Arms and The Alum Ale House are all popular real ale pubs.

It’d be remiss to get all the way through our guide to this part of South Tyneside without – ho ho – going overboard about the fish and seafood at the venerable Colmans on Ocean Road. They celebrate the best of traditional British cooking and North Eastern produce.

It’s going to expand this year, too, with the Colmans Seafood Temple making its eagerly-anticipated entrance on Sea Road right on the beach.

This village packs in a lot for its size: there’s well-wrought Indian dishes at Lasun, or enjoy the tasty dishes at Hedworth Hall’s Otto Restaurant. Momo’s Mediterranean flavours remain a big draw too, and after you’ve had your fill you should head over to Nine for a glass of one of their many champagnes, or to The Monte Carlo Cocktail and Prosecco Lounge. They, you’ll be unsurprised to note, do cocktails and proseccos, and very good ones at that.

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