On Monday (24 November), teams from Newcastle restaurateur Kenny Atkinson’s two city-centre restaurants discovered they had been included in the tenth-anniversary edition of La Liste, the prestigious international ranking that highlights the world’s top 1,000 restaurants across 200 countries.

At an awards ceremony in Paris, La Liste revealed the 83 UK restaurants recognised in its 2026 global ranking. Among them was Solstice, Atkinson’s intimate open-kitchen, tasting-menu restaurant, which entered the list for the first time with an impressive score of 83/100. The Michelin-starred restaurant, opened in 2022 and led by head chef Scott Hodgson, has quickly become a standout favourite in Newcastle’s fine-dining scene.

Meanwhile, Atkinson’s flagship venue, House of Tides, his first restaurant in the city and also Michelin-starred, celebrates its third consecutive year on the list, achieving a score of 82.5/100. They sit alongside other top regional names, including Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall (82.5), Hjem (81), and Forge at Middleton Lodge (77.5).

Founded in 2015 with a single list of 1,000 restaurants, La Liste has grown to cover 200 countries and now also publishes an annual ranking of the world’s top 1,000 hotels. Its scoring system is based on a rigorous aggregation of reviews, guidebooks, national and regional media, and trusted digital platforms, including customer-review sites.

For its tenth-anniversary edition, La Liste assessed more than 33,000 restaurants worldwide, drawing on over 1,150 international sources before curating its final selection of outstanding global dining destinations.

Chef Owner Kenny Atkinson

Both teams are over the moon. For Solstice to be listed for the very first time is great news for Scott and his team, and deserved recognition for what they’ve been doing. For the team at House of Tides to be featured for their third year is amazing and a testament to their hard work week in, week out.

The North East as a whole has come on leaps and bounds from a restaurant point of view in recent years, and it’s amazing to be part of what has rapidly become a real foodie destination. To have nine of the UK’s 83 listed restaurants in the region shows just how much is happening locally. Chefs have long recognised the quality of the produce available here, and they’re voting with their feet and coming home, and that’s great to be part of.