Born and raised in Birtley where my love of food began, starting with my Mam’s home-cooking. At 18, I left to work for Raymond Blanc at his prestigious 2 Michelin starred “Le Manoir Aux Quat Saison” in Oxfordshire.
Spending the next 20 years working in some of the UK’s top award winning hotels and restaurants, Focussed on building on my experience and knowledge.
In 2022, I took on the challenge of MasterChef the Professionals, making it as far as the semi-finals.
After this I only had one goal left… to open my own restaurant, in the most important place to me, my hometown!
Whilst raising the funds for the restaurant, I ran Food by Chris Finnigan furthering the brand I had started, primarily by doing pop up events & private chef work all across the North East of England.
In November 2024 we saw in one year of Aioli, and I couldn’t be prouder of our successful restaurant in Birtley. The support we have received from the locals ( as well as those from further afield) has been truly overwhelming. I appreciate every one of you! Whether you have been, plan to visit or even those who simply shared our posts, you are all amazing! Thank you!
Being Chris’s favourite place to visit as a child and still to this day, Spain has played a huge role in Aioli’s identity. As soon as you walk through the door, the décor and music create the perfect
ambience transporting you straight across to the mediterranean.
We believe Aioli is the perfect place to take you on a culinary journey and bring the nostalgic feeling of being in the med. Our cooking style can be described as modern Spanish, classic French, contemporary British and rustic Italian, serving simple food using simple ingredients but treating them with love, care and attention to make you want to keep coming back time and timeagain.
We hope you love Aioli as much as we do.
* All menus subject to change
Our a la carte menu is available lunch and dinner Thursday to Saturday. Although this menu changes seasonally, you’re likely to always find some of Chris’s signature dishes such as his black pudding bhajis on the starters and apple tart tatin for dessert.
On a Friday and Saturday lunchtime, we also have the ‘Menu del dia’. This is a 7 course tapas menu which is written on the blackboard and changes daily. This menu is £29.95 and includes a
glass of house wine or beer. We love tapas and think it’s such a great way to eat, socialising over some fantastic dishes to share.
There is also our ‘Estilo Libre’ menu which means Freestyle. This menu is great as you can try so much more of the a la carte menu at an affordable price of £55 per person and is most certainly our recommended menu. (Available Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings) Our chefs will decide your menu and you will be served a selection of our favourite starters to share, followed by some delicious mains and then mouthwatering desserts to follow.
Sunday is the highlight of the week where we offer the most amazing Sunday lunch with all the trimmings. You’ll find dishes like our rump of beef which is sous vide cooked, changing the texture to as tender as fillet while retaining the pink colour, as well as our delicious rump of lamb with homemade mint salsa. All our roasts come with a delightful cheese and potato gratin, roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding. You’ll then be presented with an abundance of side orders, sharing style. Our vegetarian roast will be given as much attention to detail as the meats, as we believe everyone should be entitled to a proper feast on a Sunday. As we keep our bookings limited on a Sunday, we are usually fully booked and therefor pre-booking is essential.
Finally, most Sunday evenings we have our infamous and highly sought after tapas evenings. The tapas evenings are priced as £34.95 and start at 18:30pm with live music and food served from 19:00pm. You will be served a blind menu of up to 15 courses, while one of local singers provides some fantastic entertainment. These evenings sell out as soon as they are released but keep an eye on the website as we do sometimes get cancellations.
Monday – Wednesday Closed
Thursday – 19:00-23:00
Friday – 13:00-23:00
Saturday 13:00-23:00
Sunday 12:00-22:00
Private hire available 7 days per week
Please contact us
Aioli Restaurant
10 Arndale Houses
Birtley
Gateshead
DH32PG
To speak to us about the restaurant, to book a large party/private hire or with any other queries, please email us info@aiolirestaurant.co.uk or call us on 01913 03 90 30
Please be aware that we may not be able to answer the phone during our service hours as we are a very small team and
usually fully booked.
The best way to book for parties under 8 people is by booking here on the site.
