The Baltic Café-Bar

The Baltic Café-Bar
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, South Shore Road, Gateshead Quays
Tel: 0191 440 4948

Opening times: 9am – 6pm
Ambience: Lively
Alcohol licence: Yes
Food: A wide range of freshly prepared hot and cold food
Price of standard coffee: £1.75

Initial thoughts:
As the first thing you are greeted with when you enter Gateshead’s iconic Baltic, you’d expect a lot more from the Baltic’s Café-Bar. The trendy lighting and lime-green walls can’t mask over the tired and scruffy furniture and uncleared tables.

The Lowdown:
The Baltic’s Café-Bar is inconsistency on a plate. While its great location on the Baltic’s ground floor makes it a top destination café, I can never help but feel slightly cheated when I visit. The food is always good, and the menu is varied enough to cater to all tastes, but in a building which prides itself on avante-garde contemporary art I’d expect something a bit more adventurous than a Full English Breakfast for £6.99.
While the lunch menu is comprehensive and you can just as easily sit down to a bowl full of thai noodles as you can grab a sandwich to go, the menu smacks of unoriginality which is only amplified by the inspiring building it is served up in.
A delightful sweet selection and the range of teas and coffees accompanying the cakes, scones and biscuits make for a great pit-stop, especially if you’ve been pounding the 6 floors of stairs that make up the gallery.
The bar is well-stocked, with three draught beers, a range of local bottled real ales and a great selection of wines and lagers from around the world.
This isn’t enough to redeem it however, the slow and stoic staff delivering the ultimate in impersonal experience while the rather exorbitant pricing is not unexpected but feels unjustified given the general experience customers receive.

The Verdict:
Both the food and drinks are of a very high standard, but the lacklustre environment and uninspiring menu undermine otherwise good work. You want to be bowled over, especially considering the price, but you can’t escape a nagging feeling of disappointment.

Rating: ☻☻☺☺☺

TOM LOWENSTEIN