The Best Takeaways in Heaton

Some nights, nothing beats a takeaway. Heaton is well served for it: a compact NE6 grid where Chillingham Road and Heaton Road carry a genuinely good run of chip shops, curry houses, Chinese kitchens and pizzerias, most of them family-run and many within a few minutes' walk of the Metro. Here is our guide to eating in without leaving the neighbourhood.

Best for:

Almost everything below is on or just off Chillingham Road or Heaton Road, both a short walk from Chillingham Road Metro station. Opening hours vary through the week, so it is always worth a quick call before you set off to collect.

Fish and chips

The North East takes its chips seriously, and Heaton keeps the tradition alive. Gills Fish & Chips is the name locals reach for first, with two branches in the area: one at 173 Chillingham Road and another round on Heaton Road at number 64. A long-running, family-run chippie, it turns out the classics — cod and chips, fishcakes, the full menu of battered comfort — alongside a few crossover extras like kebabs and wraps for the undecided. It is exactly the kind of dependable, no-nonsense chip shop every neighbourhood hopes for.

Indian and curry

Heaton's curry houses are one of its quiet strengths, and most do a brisk takeaway trade alongside their tables. Café Spice at 111 Chillingham Road has been a family-run fixture since 1999, serving Indian cooking and street food to eat in or carry out. A short stroll away, the Bengal Curry Centre at 123 Chillingham Road handles the collection-and-delivery end of things with a broad menu of curries, baltis and tandoori dishes — a reliable choice for a Friday night order to the door.

Between them, the two cover most cravings, whether you want a proper sit-down build-up to your bhuna or simply a bag of foil trays to spread across the kitchen table.

Chinese

For a Chinese, The Peninsula at 183 Chillingham Road is the established local favourite. It is a proper Cantonese and Szechuan takeaway rather than a restaurant, geared around collection and delivery, and it has built a loyal following over the years for its salt-and-pepper dishes, curries and the sort of generous set meals that feed a household. Order ahead at the weekend, when the kitchen is at its busiest.

Pizza

Heaton's pizza scene punches above its weight thanks to Flint Pizza on Chillingham Road. Better known as a lively walk-in restaurant, Flint also does takeaway, turning out authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pizza cooked in around ninety seconds. The dough is the thing here — properly proved, blistered and chewy — and it travels the short distance home far better than the average delivery pizza. If you want a takeaway that feels like a treat rather than a fallback, this is the one.

Kebabs and everything else

Late-night and after-the-pub cravings are well catered for too. Shawarma Newcastle at 178 Chillingham Road is the go-to for shawarma, kebabs and wraps, open through the evening for collection and delivery seven days a week. It sits alongside a run of grill houses and mixed-menu takeaways on the same stretch that will happily sell you a kebab, a burger, a parmo and a pizza in the same order — the great democratic sweep of the British takeaway, all present and correct on one Heaton street.

Making the most of it

The beauty of Heaton is how close it all is. You can walk from a chip shop to a curry house to a wood-fired pizzeria in the time it takes most places to answer the phone, and nearly everything clusters around the Metro, so collecting on your way home is easy. Our advice: keep a couple of these numbers saved, rotate through them, and support the independents — they are what make eating in around here so much better than it has any right to be.

For more on the area's restaurants and cafés, see our guide to eating on Chillingham Road, and browse the directory for opening hours and contact details.