Aioli restaurant by chris finnigan in County Durham

It was absolutely amazing. One of the best restaurants i have been to in a long time. I had the rump steak and it was cooked to perfection. My wife had the pisto stew and loved it. All the sides were so tasty and i really appreciated the little dish for the crackling so my wife, who is a vegetarian, could also enjoy the carrots. It was our 14th wedding anniversary and it was the perfect place to spend. I'm proud to have a restaurant of such high quality in the area where i live. Thanks for a great night

This was our first visit and we will be back. It’s my new favourite place. We had the Chateaubriand and it was tremendous. Melted in the mouth. Service was great as well, outstanding

Excellent again! Having previously been for the tapas (which were amazing also) we wanted to try the main menu this time. So we went for my birthday and had Cod and Sea bass for our main meal and they were a delight.

My wife and I had a meal here to celebrate our anniversary. We had a wonderful meal prepared with love and care by the head chef. Without doubt one of the best stakes I have ever eaten. Very highly recommended.

Amazing food and great service. Reasonable price too. A good range of vegetarian and vegan options too. Food is incredibly tasty, well presented and plenty of it. Good and reasonably priced wine and cocktail choices too. Cater for allergies and gluten free too. Chris is a former MasterChef semi finalist too.

Me and my husband finally got to try this place and we were very impressed. We opted for a starter and main, and wow very tasty. Can’t wait to try other things from the menu.

Amazing location for us literally 5 minutes in the car..we were not disappointed food amazing! Steak best I've ever had

First visit and absolutely lovely. The range of choice of food was very good. Staff friendly and helpful. For a small restaurant was impressed with amount of staff and their attention. Chris is happy to chat and discuss the meal, we did Sunday meal and very impressed

Sensational. Cannot fault this restaurant. The food is superb, the service excellent and the atmosphere relaxed but excited. Please give this place a try, you won't be disappointed. Believe it or not, it's pretty good value too.

This is a very small restaurant and gets book up very quickly. Book on the website well in advance. Also, keep an eye on the Facebook page for last minute cancellations. The food is simply gorgeous, the best we've eaten and we can't wait to go back. Drinks prices are normal. There's plenty of parking nearby.

heard great things about this wee place. we went for Sunday lunch 2pm sitting. you have to queue to get in while others a leaving as the venue is tiny. food was good, I wouldn't say fantastic, I had prawns to start, they were tasty, my partner had black pudding bajis, nice but tiny portions. I opted for pork, Mr had the beef, they came with side dishes of veg, unfortunately these were only lukewarm. my pork was pretty chewy and was cut into chunks instead of slices, Mr said his beef was lovely. he had rice pudding and I had cheeseboard, very nice, 2 beers, 2 glasses of wine £87, so very reasonable. nice atmosphere too. I wouldn't go out my way to go back, the venue itself isn't fantastic, and Birtley a bit outta the way for us, as we don't drive. glad we tried it though, and I would recommend trying it. nice to see a local lad come good too

Probably one of the best meals I’ve had in the last 10 years. Chris is an incredible chef and his staff mirror his standards. Can’t recommend enough… make the most of this place while it’s still there. Cant see this setup staying where it is, they are top top quality!!

Once again absolutely amazing food. The whole team always make you so very welcome, such a great place and a fabulous local experience.

By far the best food I have ever tasted, amazing service and everyone around the place seemed to be of the same opinion, Chris has an ability to make food you think you know, taste totally different to anything else, if you haven’t been, you need to try it, you can see why they are booked up for so long in advance

Just keeps getting better! My partner & I luckily booked a last minute cancellation & we were not disappointed! I absolutely love Chris’ enthusiasm when he’s cooking & creating dishes, which meant we opted for the Estilo Libre tasting menu. This is where Chefs of Chris’s calibre really show what they are made of, every dish served was perfectly cooked, well balanced & tasted unbelievable!! I had zero complaints, my fish was beautifully cooked exactly how it should be & the prawns just WOW! In fact every dish was bursting with flavour, it really was an incredible experience. Don’t listen to people who have blatantly discredited this restaurant due to the fact they clearly have very little experience when eating at finer establishments or taste buds & eyes as there is no Domino’s across the street & you would have probably paid more if there was one. The staff handled the gentleman very well, even though he annoyed a lot of customers in the restaurant at the time. No one was left standing in the rain, in fact when we arrived I’m pretty sure the table were sat under cover with drinks. As explained when booking people are asked to arrive on time, not too early due to tables maybe staying a bit longer than expected. I would like to give a shout out to the sommelier who makes fantastic Sangria, Tracy who caters to every need, all the waiters/chefs who gave great service. It’s not our first visit & certainly will not be our last!!

This is definitely on beautiful little jewel located in Birtley. The restaurant itself is very quaint, quirky and certainly very special. It’s ideal for meeting friends, birthday events and romantic meals. The staff are super friendly. The food is of the scale!! We enjoyed Tapas on our first visit and went back the following week for the normal menu. Stunning!! Highly recommended. This is one of the best restaurants in the North-East!! ☺️