I’m staying at the The Royal Hotel, Whitley Bay, with a fantastic view of the sea.

Next door is Noir, a lounge bar and tapas restaurant. I wasn’t massively hungry and this was really close (I didn’t even have to leave the hotel) so took my chances for a quick bite to eat and a cocktail before retiring to my room.

There’s only 6 cocktails on the menu so it wasn’t like I was spoilt for choice. I opted for the Cherry Fizz, a cherry spiced dark rum, with pepsi, fresh lemon and garnished with cherries. Apart from the fact they served it with lime, it was delicious. I loved the two cherries and saved them for after my food!

The tapas menu is pretty varied and it look me a while to decide what to order.

I went for patatas bravas, fresh catch skewers and deep fried squid rings.

The patatas bravas came and I hadn’t read the menu properly. Manchego cheese covered them. I was gutted!! I managed to pick out one potato that wasn’t cheesified, and it was lovely. Hot and crisp and tasty. The tomato sauce was really lovely. I did explain to the waiter that I hadn’t read the menu properly and they offered to get me some without cheese but it was my own stupid, tired fault so I declined.

The fresh catch skewered were perfect. The king prawn, cod and scallop were lovely and juicy and had been cooked fantastically. The only issue I had was getting them off the skewer. It’s amazing how far a prawn flies when you attempt to get it off! The only issue I had was that the sauce was tasteless.

The squid rings were lovely too. Cooked perfectly with no chewing required. The paprika coating gave it a pleasant kick and the sweet chilli dip was lush.

I’d definitely go back (and order the cheeseless dishes!) if I stay here again. They also offer afternoon tea and have live music on certain days.

The decor was lovely and the soundtrack to my food was right up my street. MGMT and M83 featured and it was really pleasant to listen to as I enjoyed my dinner. There was a little wall separating two parts of the dining area which had lots of trinkets on, including a model aeroplane and a crown. No idea why but it looked pretty with the fairy lights wrapped around it. There were lots of little booths and the cutest older couple in the next one. The bar tenders were also nice to look at, although could barely answer any of the questions I asked, such as ‘how long as this been open’