Coffee outside the core

Just remembered I have a blog. Once upon a time I used to update it several times a week, with [exciting and informative] [rambling and tedious] (*delete as applicable) reviews of all manner of drinking and dining establishments across the north.

That's gone slightly awry for two reasons; firstly I haven't been eating out much, and secondly I've just moved to Derbyshire, which in case you hadn't noticed isn't in the north. So my blog is now both inappropriately named and lacking in subject material, which isn't a great recipe for success.

The upshot is that I did consider retiring it, but only for about ten minutes. Who cares if it's increasingly off-topic, I like writing it. Onwards and upwards then (or at least sideways, hopefully), to the subject of coffee outside the larger cities.

I know I can get coffee that I really bloody love in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and anywhere else you'd realistically term one of our major cities (London, Bristol, Glasgow etc). Beyond those? It seems to me to be more of a struggle. I can usually find somewhere good but not great.

Good is still a far better prospect than the chains though, whose general awfulness I was reminded of on my motorway travels this last week (boobie prize for utter shite goes to a Starbuck's flat white: burnt coffee, cheesy milk, wrong texture, almost three quid).

Here are two of the better places I've found. Both are good, neither are great. Suggestions welcome for great coffee away from the city?

Coffee Evolution, Huddersfield

A single shot cappuccino was a pleasingly small size and made with a dark, strong espresso blend. Bitter but not burnt. No flat whites on offer.

Coffee cake had properly buttery icing but was a bit dry. Good value at less than two quid for the coffee and around two quid for the cake.

7/10

9a Church Street
Huddersfield
HD1 1DD

http://www.coffeevolution.co.uk/

Peli Deli, Matlock

The sign above this place proclaims 'amazing coffee' which sadly isn't true. It's well-made, pleasant coffee but a couple of notches below amazing.

The flat white started with a good, velvety texture but reverted into latte territory before the too large cup was finished. Flavour-wise there's a hint of fruitiness, but it's too gentle and needs more oomph.

A mini Victoria sponge was a great little cake; moist sponge, fruit-packed jam and a generous wodge of buttercream. £2.40 for the coffee, £2 for the bun. Just realised I wrote about this place back in January, this time round it was better.

7/10

Crown Square
Matlock
DE4 3AT

http://www.pelideli.com

Bengal Spice, Holmfirth

I was out for curry and beers with a group of friends who live in and around Huddersfield on Saturday night. We started out with a couple of pints in the Nook (a pleasant mild and a pale ale that tasted a bit farty, not great) then moved on to Bengal Spice for the curry.

Essential equipment

It's an old school curry house, one of those with a little bar area where they ply you with booze and bombay mix while the table is prepared. It took an age for us to be seated even though we'd booked, but we were kept well lubricated with pints of Cobra (some of which I'm sure never appeared on the bill).

Classic curry house setting

We stuck to poppadums and a serviceable pickle tray for starters, then moved on to assorted curries, most of us choosing lamb in one form or another. I shared a lamb jalfry balti, a lamb saag, pilau rice and a couple of chappatis.

Lamb saag

Everything was ok, nothing more really. The sauces were moderately spicy and were at least quite distinct from dish to dish, the garlicky saag being the better of the two. The balti dish suffered from the inclusion of great big slices of undercooked onion and was a bit greasy.

The chapattis were good, quite thin and elastic, perfect for mopping and scooping. I didn't try the nan breads but they looked a bit rubbish.

Service was good, friendly if a little slow and the final bill was insubstantial given the amount of booze we'd consumed (only around 15 pounds each). Not a bad place to go in a group on a weekend night, the atmosphere is lively, but I wouldn't make a special trip for the food.

6/10

Unit 2/6 Victoria Arcade
Dunford Road
Holmfirth
HD9 2DP


http://www.bengalspiceonline.co.uk/

Hinchliffe's Restaurant, Netherton, Huddersfield

Hinchliffe's is one of the new breed of über farm shops appearing in the countryside. Not just a shop selling produce from the farm, but a shop selling produce from the farm, baked goods, beers and wines, expensive pickles and jams of every imaginable variety and all sorts of other posh comestibles. There's also an ice cream counter, a restaurant and an open farm where you can feed the goats and such like.

I'm not sure how I feel about this sort of farm shop. It's a lovely place to visit on a Saturday afternoon, but it's rather removed from what was so great about farm shops in the first place. Namely, the opportunity to buy quality food direct from the producers, cutting out the middle man and all of the other overheads associated with transporting the food, running a nice store to sell it in, marketing it and so forth. This meant you could buy the same food for a far better price than in the regular shops elsewhere.

When the farm shop itself has a large and well appointed store, stocks loads of products made elsewhere and obviously has a not insignificant marketing budget then the prices tend to creep up and not always in line with the quality. We bought cheese, oatcakes and sausages on this visit, all of which were good but not good enough to reflect the premium prices. The oatcakes were a slightly ridiculous £3.25 for an average sized packet.

Things were the same in the restaurant, where all of the food was nice, but no more than that. Hot roast beef and gravy sandwiches were served with dripping fried chips and salad. The beef was served in the keep-the-Yorkshire-pensioners happy style, i.e. very well done but still tender thanks to a good dousing in gravy. Cooked pink would have been far better but I guess that's not what the target audience are after.

The chips were a disappointment because they weren't chips, rather wedges almost veering into roast potato territory. There was a good dripping fried crust, but the innards were a bit mealy as they almost always are when cut so fat. The salad was nicely dressed and was gobbled up rather than being left wilting in the corner of the plate.

I've no idea about anything else on the menu as all four of us ordered the same thing, but the two toddlers with us had sausage and mash which went down a treat judging by the remnants of it all over their mouths, noses, eyebrows and cheeks.

Puddings were ok. A slice of Victoria sponge looked the part but was a little bit dry. The same could be said for a ganache coated chocolate cake with a marmalade filling. A hot chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream was the best of the bunch, chocolatey and massive.

On a more positive note, the service was lovely. Friendly, helpful and great with the kids. The food we ate was all rather dull, but maybe there are better things on the menu. I paid around fourteen pounds for the sandwich, cake, a ginger beer, a filter coffee and a tip.

6/10

Hinchliffe’s Farm

Netherton Moor Road
Netherton
Huddersfield
HD4 7LE

http://www.hinchliffes.com/

The New Inn, Sowood, Halifax

The New Inn sits on a hill overlooking Elland and Halifax. The view from the tables out the back is marvellous and well worth an hour spent gazing out over the moors with a pint (if you ignore the pylons in the foreground). A friend and I did exactly this on Saturday evening, before it started to get a bit nippy and we headed inside for food. The downside to the lofty location is that it's usually freezing.

Inside it's very much a traditional pub interior, and obviously very popular. It was bustling with a mix of both diners and drinkers. The chap in charge (the landlord at a guess) was friendly and efficient, proffering menus and taking our orders as we waited at the bar for our table to become available.

My starter of poached salmon came all sort of mushed up, so that it had the texture of tinned salmon. I'd have preferred it just gently flaked but it was still pleasant to eat; soft, mellow and well seasoned. My companion's chicken liver paté was pretty good, very smooth and served in a ridiculously huge portion. It's not an exaggeration to say it would have stretched to three servings without appearing stingy.

I'm a glutton for punishment so ordered a 10oz sirloin steak for my main course. Steaks invariably seem to be disappointing in pubs (rubbish meat, overcooked, not rested and so on). I find pies are generally a safer bet. This one was probably better than average. It was cooked rare as requested and was tender and juicy so had clearly been rested. Whatever they cooked it on wasn't hot enough though, as there was very little crisping or charring of any description resulting in a rather dull and pasty finish. The accompaniments were a mixed bag too. The onion rings were lovely, sweet and soft onion in a really light, crunchy batter. The chips would have been great if they'd had an extra two minutes in the fryer. Pepper sauce had congealed and didn't seem to have any pepper in it. The tomato, in line with expectations, was pointless and the mushrooms were fine.

Across the table meat and potato pie was going down well. I sampled a mouthful, the meat and gravy were very good but the pastry a bit stodgy.

Everything was very generously proportioned so we didn't have room for dessert. A couple of coffees were provided free of charge as we were asked to move so they could re-arrange the tables to accommodate another group. Not a problem as we were about ready to leave anyway.

I'd eat here again. There were enough good things about the food to make it an enjoyable meal and the service was excellent. It's quite expensive for what is fairly standard pub food though. Our bill came to £46 before service for two courses and two drinks each.


6/10

The New Inn
Forest Hill Road
Sowood
Halifax
HX4 9LB

(2 minutes drive from Junction 23 on the M62)

http://www.thenewinnsowood.co.uk