Date Night in Hexham: Restaurants, Bars and Things to Do

For a town of its size, Hexham is unusually well set up for a good evening out. The old market town at the heart of the Tyne Valley has a genuine French bistro, a nationally ranked gastropub a short drive up the hill, a scattering of Italian, Greek and independent restaurants, and a run of characterful pubs where the ale is taken seriously. Add the Abbey Grounds for a pre-dinner wander and an independent cinema on the Market Place, and you have all the ingredients for a relaxed date night without driving into Newcastle. This guide gathers the best of them, whether you are marking an occasion or just fancy a change from a night on the sofa.

Dinner: where to eat

If you want to make an evening feel special, Bouchon Bistrot on Gilesgate is the obvious first call. Tucked just off the Market Place, this authentic French bistro brings Loire Valley country cooking to the Tyne Valley, with owner Gregory hailing from a family of French restaurateurs. A refurbishment created three individually decorated dining rooms full of French charm plus a two-floor rooftop terrace for summer evenings, and signature plates such as cheese souffle, steak tartare and confit duck have won it Best European Restaurant at the North East Restaurant Awards. Book ahead, especially at weekends.

Best for: Best for a proper occasion and a taste of rural France without leaving Northumberland.

For the setting as much as the food, The Rat Inn is worth the short drive to the village of Anick, just above the town. This eighteenth-century country gastropub sits on the village green with far-reaching views across the Tyne Valley, and it has featured for years in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs and the Good Food Guide. The daily-changing blackboard menu champions Northumberland produce, and you can eat in the cosy dining room, at the bar by the fire, or out in the garden when the weather is kind.

Best for: Best for a country gastropub with a view and a fire.

Back in the centre, there is plenty of choice for a sit-down dinner. Danielle's Bistro on Eastgate has been a Hexham favourite since 1996, a family-run room serving warm, generous Mediterranean and British cooking. Vercelli on Priestpopple is a family-run modern Italian with hand-stretched pizzas, fresh pasta and a cocktail bar at the front that hosts regular live music, which makes it an easy one-stop evening. And for something different, Stalida Greek Taverna on Battle Hill was brought to Hexham by a couple who spent eight years running a restaurant in Crete, with sharing mezze and an intimate upstairs dining area that suits couples.

Best for: Best for a dependable, generous dinner right in the town centre.

Drinks: real ale, cocktails and something a bit special

Hexham's evening drinking is friendly rather than flashy, which suits a date night just fine. The Victorian Tap on the corner of Battle Hill and Eastgate is a traditional Victorian real-ale house dating from 1883, with open fires, wood floors and six cask ale wickets on the bar. It is a characterful, unhurried spot for a pint before or after dinner, in a town regularly named among the happiest places to live in Britain.

Best for: Best for real ale and open fires in a proper old town pub.

If you would rather pair a drink with dinner, Vercelli's front-of-house cocktail bar serves handcrafted cocktails and mocktails alongside its live-music nights, so you can settle in for the whole evening in one place. For an escape into the countryside, the Dipton Mill Inn is a cosy country pub a few minutes out of town, set beside a mill stream in a sunken garden. It is the tap house for the Hexhamshire Brewery, brewing its own ales on site, and has taken CAMRA's Northumberland Pub of the Year honours. A summer evening in its streamside garden is about as gentle a date as the Tyne Valley offers.

Best for: Best for own-brew ale and a streamside garden away from the crowds.

Things to do together

The best free thing to do on a date in Hexham is simply to walk. The Abbey Grounds and the neighbouring park make an easy, pretty pre-dinner stroll, and Hexham Abbey itself, a Grade I listed church founded in 674 AD with a Saxon crypt, is well worth a look inside when it is open, with a programme of concerts and exhibitions running through the year. A wander round the Market Place, the Shambles and the narrow chares fills in the rest of the picture of one of England's oldest market towns.

For an evening that does not depend on the weather, the Forum Cinema on the Market Place is Northumberland's only full-time independent cinema, screening the latest releases alongside independent films and the occasional live theatre broadcast. A film followed by dinner at Bouchon or Vercelli, or a drink at The Victorian Tap, makes a compact and complete night out.

Best for: Best for a stroll round the Abbey Grounds followed by a film or dinner.

For a full date night you can string the lot together: an early wander round the Abbey Grounds and Market Place, a film at the Forum or a country drive up to The Rat Inn, dinner at Bouchon Bistrot, then a nightcap at The Victorian Tap. It is a compact town, everything sits close, and that is rather the point.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the most romantic restaurant in Hexham? For a special evening, Bouchon Bistrot on Gilesgate is hard to beat, an authentic French bistro with three charming dining rooms and a rooftop terrace. For a country setting with views, The Rat Inn at Anick is a nationally ranked gastropub, while Danielle's Bistro and Stalida offer intimate town-centre dining.

Where can you get cocktails in Hexham? Vercelli on Priestpopple has a modern cocktail bar at the front that serves handcrafted cocktails and mocktails and hosts live music. For real ale instead, The Victorian Tap on Battle Hill pours six cask ales, and the Dipton Mill Inn just out of town brews its own beer on site.

What can you do on a date in Hexham besides eat and drink? A walk round the Abbey Grounds and a look inside the Grade I listed Hexham Abbey is the classic free option, and the independent Forum Cinema on the Market Place screens new releases and live theatre broadcasts for an evening that does not depend on the weather.

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