The Sausage Emporium, Newcastle

 It's NE1's Restaurant Week and we decided to try somewhere new and make the most of the deals on in Newcastle. I'd heard lots of good things about The Sausage Emporium but never been...until last night. This is a whole different league to your 'pub grub' bangers and mash!
The Sausage Emporium is hidden away at the bottom of Westgate Road in one of the arches. It's a humble sized restaurant offering a take out service as well as sit down meals.
We definitely got along at a good time (just after 8pm due to traffic - oops) as we were shown to our table immediately and given menus to browse. I'd already had a quick browse online and as you may guess, there's a range of sausage based dishes on offer. Gluten free and veggie options are clearly labelled and there's a great variety to cater to different requirements.Starters were served very quickly, Aromatic Crab Cakes for me and the Pulled Pork Slider for Andy. The crab was really soft and almost melted in my mouth, seriously yummy. I had a little taste of the pulled pork and it was really good, not too tough and I happily polished off the guacamole lime salsa.Onto main courses now and obviously we both opted for the speciality; sausages. Andy chose Giant Bratwurst, served with sauerkraut, gherkin fritters and bratkartoffel (potato slices fried with bacon and onion). We'd tried 'proper' Bratwurst in Berlin and this was seriously good.I'd already decided before we got there that I would be having the Onion Bhaji Sausage. It arrived served with sweetcorn and pea fritters, spiced rice, homemade naan (that definitely had some kind of ale in it) and curry sauce for dipping. It may not look like a lot on a plate but it was seriously filling. The blend of onion bhaji flavours and spices with the sausage meat was really unique and I'd definitely pay the full price for it outside of Restaurant Week.We both managed to save a little room for dessert; 3 courses for £15 was too good of an offer to pass up! Andy picked the Chocolate Melt In The Middle Soufflé while I went for the Fruit Crumble Cake. The soufflé was incredibly moreish and tasted even better with a small scoop of ice cream from my dessert. We both think it should be served with a little dish of ice cream! The Fruit Crumble Cake was lovely, the pieces of apple were soft and warm and the doughy base made it a unique dessert. The blackberry sauce drizzled on the plate was really good for dipping the crusts of the base in and the vanilla ice cream went down a treat too. A good twist on the classic crumble.A lovely meal, excellent service and a really welcoming atmosphere; we'd both definitely go back to The Sausage Emporium and I'm wondering why it took us so long to visit in the first place! There's a little long-haired dachshund called Hannah who you absolutely have to meet! We got a quick glimpse and she's so cute. If you can't wait to go to see her, check out their website for a quick introduction.If you can get along whilst NE1's Restaurant Week is on, you're in for a serious treat!