Geordie Shore's Sophie Kasaei celebrates the opening of new Ponteland restaurant Ateesh
Geordie Shore’s Sophie Kasaei was in good spirits as she celebrated the opening of family restaurant Ateesh in Ponteland.
The venue – situated where Barclays bank used to be – hosted a private bash last night for relatives and friends.
Sophie posted a series of happy snaps and a video to Instagram, and congratulated her family for opening another eatery.
They already have numerous Mambos restaurants in the North East – the latest one opened in Ponteland – and run the popular BunBun in South Shields.
Ateesh, a Middle Eastern restaurant, has already gained more than 2,600 Instagram followers, and is due to open to the general public tonight (Tuesday).
A statement on its website says: “Symbolising regeneration, rejuvenation, generosity, and light. Ateesh is an elegant fine dining restaurant with an emphasis on natural, sustainable food, sourced from the UK’s most dedicated farmers and food producers.
"We create beautifully crafted Middle Eastern dishes, seeking out the best of British produce, with a passion to delight and share our curiosity and our love of artisanal food.”
Starters on the a la carte menu include lamb koftas (£8.50), curried scallops (£11.50) and Lebanese spring rolls (£11.90). For a main course, customers can choose from a range of beef or seafood dishes, or delicious kebobs (skewered meat grilled over fire).
The Istanbul chicken kebob is made up of chicken breast with red pepper paste, paprika and chilli (£15) and the lamb beyti is minced lamb wrapped with bread, Aleppo pepper, tomato sauce and saffon mayonnaise (£19).
To mark the launch of Ateesh, the restaurant is also running a competition on social media to win a trip to Dubai.