I thought it was worth saying that McCoys have now left the BALTIC. The restaurant is currently closed, but I hear that they have a good Chef lined up to take it over from December 2008.

On Saturday 16th December 2006 I had the experience of dining at McCoys restaruant which is situated on the rooftop of the Baltic Flour Mill in Newcastle. The restaurant itself has fantastic views over the Newcastle cityscape and Milleniuim Bridge etc - this is probably the restaurants best feature. Expections were high - although the chairs looked more like patio furniture.

The menu itself is priceless - quite literally! For some bizarre reason absolutely no prices are quoted? However, they have channelled their energy into the explanations of each dish which are unbelieveable! Its like war and peace! It definately wins the award for the most long winded pretentious menu I have ever encountered. Shame that the actual dishes just didn't deliver. For my starter I ordered King Scallops of which I actually had two on my plate - I couldn't help thinking this is why the plural was used! Thinking about it 'King Scallop' would have sounded a little odd wouldn't it? The dish was overly fussy - there were too many things on the plate including 'foam' which I have to say actually unbeliveably looked like someone had spat on my plate! Seriously! It was completely hideous - what was the chef thinking? All in all the flavours did not compliment each other and the plate was an over fussed mess. Scallops have a beautiful, unique taste - the dish would have been much nicer kept simple. The main course arrived. I'd ordered venison. I received two 10p sized medalions and again a huge variety of other bits and pieces. There were three of us dining and the waitress couldn't make up her mind who was having what. Plates were put down and picked up and moved around. Serving 3 people can't possibly be that difficult? Pretty unprofessional. Again my plate was overly fussy and none of the flavours worked together. It was trying to be clever and failed dismally. Even then, the chef had managed to overcook the venison. Thats more or less impossible to do! We decided to have dessert, probably because the portions were so small we were still hungry! When this arrived I actually couldn't contain myself and acutally burst out laughing when it was placed in front of me. The big stripe of chocolate across the plate looked absolutely disgusting. If I hadn't laughed I would have cried. Oh yes, they'd served our coffees before the dessert arrived too. Nice touch!

It possibly is the most over priced, over rated restaurant I have ever been in. The food is awful, the portions are tiny and it is presented really badly. The icing on the cake is the service being particularly poor too. What a pity...I can see the potential. Top tip - get a chef who can cook and doesn't play with the food! Bon Appetite! disappointed