Nestled in the centre of the Granary Wharf area of Leeds, which incidentally has changed significantly (for the better) since I worked in the area some 15 years ago, is an establishment which get’s booked up week’s bordering on months in advance.
Vinny & Vito – Village Hotel, North Leeds – Finding a tasty bite to eat that won’t break the bank can be tricky these days. In my experience, restaurants often tend to come in two categories: cheap and nasty or expensive and superb. Treating yourself to a meal can be a veritable minefield.
Beef dripping and whale bones may not seem very PC or forward-thinking for 2013, but they provide one huge trawler-load of charm in Whitby. Often called the sparkling jewel in North Yorkshire’s crown.
The Street Food Phenomena – As much as I love a night at the football, it generally always leads to a real food disaster; not because there’s a lack of choice, far from it, the streets are littered with catering van after catering van – selling mainly what my brother refers to as ‘Rat Burgers’.
I don’t think of myself as a food snob, however I cannot help but be conscious of mass-produced food that sits for hours under heat lamps. This goes back to my chicken-on-a-stick in Dublin. I’m scarred for life, but I’ll spare you the details.
A couple of centuries ago, the wharf area of Sowerby Bridge buzzed with industrialised activity. Can you picture it? The canal, after all, was the main route across the Pennines from Manchester and Manchester was home to the ship canal and numerous goods that were transported for miles across the sea. A certain building in the wharf area famously, ‘as it says on the tin’, housed all of the salt brought in from Cheshire, but the busy buzz of industrialization has given way to something I happen to enjoy writing about. That old salt building now houses The Salt Bar and Grill, a restaurant that serves up good cuisine and pays loving tribute to its historical home.
With 3 days to explore, go to the theatre, attend a wedding and at some point relax our recent visit to Stratford Upon Avon was always going to be hectic, the sudden realization that we’d not booked a table for pre-theatre dinner left us scouring the internet for local eateries.
It would be easy to think that finding a small but elegant restaurant on the Andalucía coast would be relatively easy but hard on the pocket, but fear not.
