Caffeine and Co, Manchester

I'd heard nothing but praise for Caffeine and Co, so I was looking forward to stopping in for a coffee and sandwich. A flying visit to Manchester the week before last gave me the opportunity.

Service was chatty and efficient, but a flat white and a sandwich were just slightly off-kilter on this visit. The coffee itself was an excellent blend, toasty and fruity all at once. The execution wasn't quite there though, the milk being just a little thin.

The reuben sandwich, despite not being a reuben, would have been a perfectly serviceable lunch option (generously filled, decent quality beef) had it not been toasted to buggery in the sandwich press. I've probably got myself to blame for that though, my default response to the question 'do you want it toasted?' being yes, when some sarnies are clearly better left alone.

Gripes aside I'm sure this is a quality place, and if I'd turned up on another day everything could have been perfect. The coffee is definitely worth a second glance and the cakes and other sandwiches all looked good. £2.40 for the flat white and £3.50 for the sandwich.

7/10

11 St James Square
Manchester
M2 6WH

https://www.facebook.com/caffeineandco/info

A summer round-up

I've been too lazy/busy (delete as appropriate) over this summer to blog about everything liked I used to. This is probably a good thing in many respects, fewer boring posts about nothing much of interest being the outcome, although it does mean that I've tended to focus only on the positive, lacking the enthusiasm to write about the mediocre or downright bad experiences.

To redress the balance a bit, here's a round up of some recent eating and drinking. Some of it good, most of it not very. A theme if there is one: why put something on the menu if you don't know what it is or can't be bothered making it properly.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment, in which I dine at Noma, go on a pintxo crawl around the backstreets of assorted small Basque towns, cook barbecue in Kentucky, hang out in Dalston's latest dens of vice/burgers, and buy a sausage roll from Gregg's in Stockport on the way home. Only some of this is true.

Baked, Derby

A bakery with café in Derby city centre. The bread is certainly worth another look....

..but the coffee was just ok. The flat white wasn't a flat white.

Soup, half a sandwich and slaw for about six quid. Half a sandwich isn't an unreasonable idea, but it seems a bit stingy to stick to it rigidly when it's cut from a very small loaf. a lovely nutty wholemeal loaf by the way, but nothing to write home about otherwise.

6/10

http://www.baked-derby.com/


The Swan, West Malling, Kent

Hi friends from work, this one's for you! The Swan was the dinner venue for our team meeting at the end of June. As with the previous dinner back in April we chose from the early bird set menu, but unlike on that occasion it was evident throughout that we'd gone for the budget option.

An asparagus starter was notable only for having hardly any asparagus in it. Three spears or thereabouts. Of the mains neither cooked to grey burgers nor a dry pork dish impressed much.

And Eton Mess for pudding was fine but had blueberries in it. Why put the only non-native berry in a dish that's supposed to show off the best of the English summer?

On a more positive note they have Curious Brew lager on draft, which is a wonderful beer. Beautifully clean, crisp and balanced. A glance at the website suggests the people in charge of the Swan and the people brewing Curious are one and the same; their core business being the Chapel Down Winery that arguably produces Britain's finest wines.

Maybe we were just unlucky at the Swan, the undoubted booze pedigree of the business might suggest they know a thing or two about food as well.

5/10

http://www.loveswan.co.uk/westmalling/bar/index.html


Smythson's Deli, Nottingham

A load of old rubbish.

The espresso in the coffee was good, potent yet smooth. Shame the milk was a mess. And it wasn't a flat white either (it was supposed to be, I'm not laying into a latte for not being a flat white).

A poor excuse for a sandwich. One word sums it up: meagre. I can't be arsed elaborating.

3/10

https://www.facebook.com/smythsons


Queen's Park Gelateria and Café, Chesterfield

This place is run by Frederick's, the dominant force in the ice cream world around these parts. Their vans are all over the place, which is no bad thing as their ice cream is good stuff.

They run the park caff in Chesterfield, which is also no bad thing. Instead of the tea and cakes set up you might expect in a park it's more of a pizza and ice cream and beer arrangement.

Pizza and ice cream and beer in the park? Don't mind if I do. A shared ham, pepperoni and mushroom (good chewy crust, surprisingly good pepperoni) and a double scoop pistachio sugar cone makes a very fine lunch. Pizzas 6-7 quid, ice creams 2-3.

7/10

http://www.fredericksicecreams.co.uk/page/queens-park-cafe-and-gelataria/


Harvest Moon Espresso Bar, Chester

A coffee that meets its description! About bloody time.

The flat white here was properly made and properly proportioned, so I'll excuse them serving it in a glass (maybe they've been to Manchester, they do that there).

I'm not really sure what to say about the food though. I can't work out what they were thinking. A not really a Reuben sandwich was still quite nice in spite of not really being a Reuben. The bread was top notch and it was as stacked as you could reasonably expect for the modest price tag.

Why smearing the inside of very good bread with cheap sunflower spread seemed like a good plan is beyond me, and why serving it with stale tortilla chips and a completely undressed salad of lollo rosso, bits of cucumber and carrot and some damp cous cous seemed like a good plan is even further beyond me.

6/10

https://www.facebook.com/HarvestMoonEspressoBar

Cool River Cafe, Matlock

A recent opening in Matlock, could this be the local coffee shop of my dreams?

In a word, no. A moist, walnut-packed wodge of carrot cake with a pleasingly cheesy icing was spot on, but the coffee was crap, the advertised flat white turning out to be an oversized bucket of weak latte. 

They're still finding their feet so I'll give this one another try. The savouries looked on a par with the cakes, but the coffee needs some serious work.

6/10 (8 for the cake, 4 for the coffee)

http://coolrivercafe.co.uk/

Sandwich Quest {Volume 3}

Some sandwiches I've eaten recently.

Hot Roast beef cob, Hambridges, Matlock

A traditional butcher's shop effort. Thinly sliced beef, overcooked to dessication then redeemed with a generous slop of dark, lustrous gravy. Satisfying and messy. Sturdier bread would be better, reducing the mess and turning less rapidly to mush. I'd have another though. £2.60.

Bread 5/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 3/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 7/10

Total 30/50

Doner sandwich, Munich

German doner kebabs are ace. Even the cheapo ones are a far better proposition than their British counterparts. Better salad, better bread and better meat. We win on the chilli sauce front though, spice fiends that we are. About 3 euros. Maybe 4. Can't really remember.

Bread 7/10

Core filling 7/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 36/50

Toasted cheese, Bold Street Coffee, Liverpool

An expertly crafted sandwich, I wrote about it here.

Bread 8/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 4/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 37/50

Roast ham and pea hummous, Smythson's Deli, Nottingham

Rubbish. There's nothing worse than somewhere that gets your hopes up then doesn't deliver. A ridiculously meagre effort for around four quid. Roast ham and pea hummous sounds good on paper, and the ingredients might have even been good,  but it's difficult to tell when they're present in such stingy quantities you can barely taste them.

And look at the accompanying crisps and salad. Limp and miniscule, a complete waste of time. If you're in the area there's a Subway next door.

Bread 6/10

Core filling 3/10

Secondary filling 2/5

Sauces/condiments 1/5

Value 1/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 3/10

Total 19/50

Bold Street Coffee, Liverpool

Of all the coffee shops in northern cities I've been working my way around, Bold Street Coffee might just be the best yet.

The flat white was faultless. Beautifully crafted, perfectly textured, the espresso blend packing a punch but with a subtle fruitiness and hints of smoke too. A joy to drink.

A Monterey Jack, cheddar and onion toastie was also on the money. Generously proportioned and oozing loads of molten cheesy goodness, the sweet, sauteed onions were a nice touch, improving on a classic combination by avoiding the overpowering raw onion reek. The only thing I'd change would be to swap out the Monterey Jack for something with a bit more character, it melts well but doesn't taste of much.

£2.60 for the coffee, a little bit more expensive than the other independents I like, but still passes the 'cheaper than a shit version from a chain test' easily, and £2.95 for the huge sandwich seemed like a bargain. Also worth pointing out that the service was lovely, no hipster aloofness here.

Highly recommended. I'll be returning.

9/10

89 Bold Street
Liverpool
L1 4HF

http://www.boldstreetcoffee.co.uk/

Sandwich Quest [volume 2]

Sandwich Quest wasn't really supposed to be about mass produced motorway service station fodder. That wasn't the plan. The intention was to seek out and report upon the finest filled breads the North (and maybe the Midlands) has to offer. Well that's still the plan, but I quite enjoy whinging on about the rubbish stuff too, so here's a bit of both.

Rest assured I have some better sandwiches stored up for next time. I really do, honest.

Salmon, cucumber and watercress on oatmeal bread, Marks and Sparks, everywhere

I'm lucky enough to have begun my life on the open road (i.e. job that involves loads of travel) after the arrival of Marks and Spencer's Simply Food at motorway services. They are a lifesaver, in occasionally genuinely quite good but often crushingly mediocre form. Before they arrived it must have been nigh on impossible to avoid scurvy if you didn't remember to fetch a pack up, given that the non-M and S options consisted solely of the major fast food players and those utterly shite hot food counters.

That was a very roundabout way of saying that I eat M and S sandwiches far too often. I quite like this poached salmon one, the filling is decent enough, but two things grate. One; the bread is pappy rubbish, and two; they harp on about their exclusive to M & S Lochmuir salmon. Of course it's exclusive to M and S, they invented it. It's their own bloody trademark. It's like Mars showing off about their exclusive to Mars Mars bars. Twats.

Bread 4/10

Core filling 7/10

Secondary filling 2/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 2/5

Service 2/5

S-Factor 5/10

Total 25/50

Strange burger thing, Subway, everywhere

Ok, ok, I know I'm really scraping the barrel with this one. I admit it, sometimes I eat at Subway. I know it has a weird smell and all the meats will probably give you colon disease in later life, but surely there's some nutritional value in all that salad. It has to be a better garage option than a Ginster's pasty doesn't it?

I'd normally keep it simple with a turkey and ham, but this time I was lured into a special, the name escapes me but it was essentially an elongated burger. Imagine a microwaved Danepak beef grill on a salad roll. Yummy. Extra jalapenos were vital.

Bread 3/10

Core filling 2/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 2/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 3/10

Total 19/50

Tuna and rocket pesto on granary roll, Pickles and Potter, Leeds

Back on track with something a little higher in quality. I'm trying to find the best sandwich places in central Leeds and thus far it's proving tricky to find anywhere that's consistently first rate. I don't think Pickles and Potter is that place, sadly. 

Their tuna and pesto sandwich was just a but run of the mill for the £3.70 price tag. The bread was very good but other than that it barely stood out from a £2 tuna mayo.

Bread 7/10

Core filling 5/10

Secondary filling 2/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 2/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 6/10

Total 28/50

Filet-o-Fish, McDonald's, everywhere

Behold this and believe me when I tell you it is actually food. Not a toy rendered in plastic for a child's play kitchen, but actual food. Shiny.

For some reason you only get half a cheese slice in one of these. Seems a bit cheap. There's not a great deal of fish in the filet either, and god knows what it actually is? Pollock? Cod? Coley? Vietnamese river fish? Not a clue. The bread needs burger grease to make it viable.

Bread 2/10

Core filling 4/10

Secondary filling 1/5

Sauces/condiments 2/5

Value 2/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 5/10

Total 19/50

Red's True Barbecue, Leeds

Up until now I've not been hugely impressed with any of the on-trend meaty, American style, filthy food type of places. Be it burgers or barbecue (it's usually one or the other, or a combination of both) everywhere I've eaten that loosely fits this template has been decent enough, but I've always left with the impression they're paying lip service to the style. Menus that talk the talk but food that doesn't really match the billing, a pale imitation of what you'd hope to find in the States.

On the evidence of last weekend's meal, Red's is a little different. Everything about the smoked brisket sandwich and the sides suggested care had been taken to do things properly. I'm no barbecue expert but the meat made me smile very much. Slabs of dense, fibrous meat with a sticky, blackened crust, redolent of long slow cooking and imbued with a smokiness that permeated through each slice.

What really sealed the deal was the bread, a quality hoagy roll with chew and heft to the crust, sturdy enough to support the meat throughout. I think the bread supplier was listed as secret on the menu, at a guess I'd say it's from Dumouchel.

Sides were also good, the pick of the bunch being an excellent macaroni cheese; - all unctuous cheesy goo and rib sticking carb. Seriously addictive when it's freezing cold outside and you're hungover. The deep fried pickles also rate a mention because deep fried pickles are the future. Only the fries were on the average side.

A word on the sauces before I finish. I'm a barbecue sauce hater. Barbecue sauce usually equals teeth itching sweetness and artificial smoke flavour, so all credit to Red's for making me think again. None of the sauces fit this mould, and all of them had some merit. The pick for me was the vinegary Carolina one, like a sharper, slightly sweeter and milder Caribbean hot pepper sauce and a great foil for the brisket.

Red's is deservedly popular, so you can expect to wait both for a table and for your food after you get seated. Be warned that London-style 'no reservations queue for your supper' style dining has arrived in Leeds. It's not something I'm a fan of, but good luck to any restaurant that can drum up the popularity and buzz to make it work, as Red's is obviously doing right now.

You could off course just do what we did, wander past at noon whilst hunting for breakfast,
head inside on a whim (brisket, macaroni cheese and deep fried pickles are perfectly acceptable breakfast foods are they not?) and grab a prime booth spot straight away.

Prices seem perfectly fair for the very good food (brisket sarnie with two sides is £8.95), service is friendly and the booze offer looks very tempting.  Recommended.

8/10

Cloth Hall Street
Leeds
LS1 2HD

Sandwich Quest

Bacon Sandwich Quest is proving a hard act to follow. I probably ought to leave well alone, write a few reviews and the odd recipe, keep the blog plain, simple and challenge free. But I just can't help myself.

An uncommonly tedious obsession with lists combined with a healthy appetite and a job that sees me ranging all over the North (and the Midlands nowadays, recently swapped with Scotland) is all pointing in one direction:

Bacon Sandwich Quest.

I eat a lot of sandwiches. I already rate them mentally against an assortment of sandwich criteria. I eat them all over the place. Let's do this.

Before we begin I should acknowledge that this is a wholly unoriginal idea. Others do it better, and have been doing so for ages. Better written, better sandwiches, far better photography. There's the Serious Eats sandwich a day strand, there's Burger specialist Burgerac, there's the Londonist's (possibly defunct) Sandwichist, there's the inspired Scanwiches and probably finest of all, given that its author, Helen, has just written an entire book about sandwiches, is the London Review of Sandwiches.

I'm not sure anyone is really chronicling the finest sandwiches of northern England (and maybe the Midlands if they get lucky) though, so that's what I'd like to do. If I'm wrong about this, and someone already is working on this thankless task for the good of humanity, then do let me know.

I'd like to know where to find the finest sarnies the North has to offer. I'm casting the net far and wide, with the barest minimum of restrictions. The rules are simple: is it a filling between or somehow within any variety of bread? Yes? Then it's a sandwich.

From the humble triangle pack, through the sourdough deli-made special to the wrap to the burger to the inevitable bacon butty, all are fair game for sandwich quest.

Without any further ado let's get the ball rolling. Here are a few sandwiches I've eaten recently: a photo, a quick description, and a score out of fifty comprising a rating for the bread, the core filling, the accompanying fillings, any sauces or condiments, value, service and something I've decided to call the S-Factor.

Sometimes, for reasons difficult to define, a sandwich is far greater than the sum of its parts. The bacon sandwich often displays this phenomenon. Budget sliced white, cheapo bacon and Daddies are not a winning formula taken in isolation, put them together and the magic happens. This is the S-Factor.

The sangers I write about might appear only here on Sandwich Quest, but you might see them popping up in other posts too if they're part of a whole meal that's worth writing about.

It's going to be an open ended quest, with round-ups appearing from time to time. I'm not promising to write them monthly, as I lost the will to live doing that for Bacon Sandwich Quest.

Bring on the butties....

Chicken pesto on granary, Philpott's, Leeds

I'd never been to Philpott's before. I was under the mistaken impression that it might be good. It's not. Bread of the 'pappy crap disguised to look like proper bread' variety. See Asda speciality bread if you don't know what I mean. Manky, shredded chicken in an inexplicable shade of orange. Limp mixed leaves. Bleurgh. £2.95.

Bread 4/10
Core filling 3/10
Secondary filling 2/5
Sauces/condiments 2/5
Value 2/5
Service 2/5
S-Factor 3/10

Total 18/50


Fishfinger butty, The Midnight Bell, Leeds

As with all of the Leeds brewery offerings, reliable but unspectacular. Decent slices of bloomer hide fingers hewn from an ogre, thick and gnarled, putting Captain Birdseye to shame. The batter is crisp, the fish moist, the tartare sauce a little bland. £5.95, including chips.

Bread 6/10
Core filling 7/10
Secondary filling 3/5
Sauces/condiments 3/5
Value 3/5
Service 3/5
S-Factor 6/10

Total 31/50


Smoked beef brisket hoagy, Red's True BBQ, Leeds

An early contender, and a place that deserves a post of its own (which it will be getting, tomorrow with any luck). Thickly sliced meat with an intense smokey flavour permeating right through each wedge, sweet onions and pickles in abundance. All in a roll of unexpected quality, somehow both dense and light, and chewy like a sub roll ought to be. House made BBQ sauces on the side are also a revelation in that they taste of something other than sugar. Excellent. £8.95 including two sides.

Bread 8/10
Core filling 8/10
Secondary filling 4/5
Sauces/condiments 4/5
Value 4/5
Service 4/5
S-Factor 9/10

Total 41/50

Create, Wakefield

If there's one restaurant in Leeds that I really regret failing to dine it while I had the chance, it's Create. At this point I could launch into a lengthy and fawning report on the Create organisation, explaining the great work that they do and why you should all give them your support, but given that I didn't bother giving them mine up until now, I won't. It would be patronising and I'd probably be preaching to the converted anyway.

On the off chance you didn't already know, Create are a social enterprise, widely lauded for their work with vulnerable people, sort of like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen without the super-celeb backing. Their Leeds restaurant recently closed for a refurbishment and restructure, from which I hope they return as soon as possible. News of the closure did seem a little ominous though, with talk of 'today's harsh economy' and 'tough commercial realities'.

The honest and truthful reason I hope they're back soon, any guilty feelings aside, is that the food sounded bloody wonderful. Praised by bloggers and critics alike, I don't think I read anything negative about the place, and the menus always read beautifully. You know the kind where deciding becomes a chore as it all sounds so damn good?

From the most recent menu, still online at the moment, how about 'Salt cod fritters, sweet pickled onion salad, radish, sourdough' to start, followed by 'Char-grilled skirt steak, wild mushroom gratin, chips, watercress'. And for pudding: 'Sticky toffee pudding, parkin crumble, caramel sauce and milk sorbet'. If that doesn't get you salivating there's something wrong with you.

So the Leeds restaurant may be on hiatus, but Create have also opened a new cafe in Wakefield One, the new building housing a range of council services including the city's museum and central library. First thing to mention: well done to Wakefield Council for giving the concession to Create, and not going for the obvious choice of either a) Costa, or b) one of the anonymous but equally crap giant catering co's.

I stopped in there for coffee and a snack last week, and was pleased to discover it lived up to the high expectations I had for the brand. The coffee, a flat white, wasn't particularly well made, coming from one of those funny auto-espresso machines, but still tasted pretty good as they're using quality beans from local roasters Grumpy Mule.

To eat, an Eccles cake. It might not look much, but what do you expect from currant stuffed pastry? Reassuringly mis-shapen, and a buttery delight to eat, I think it's safe to assume that they're making the food from scratch so I'm keen to return and try the lunchtime offerings.

The guy who served me was also lovely and friendly, and prices are very fair (cheaper than both the big chains and the more upmarket independents).

To sum up, let's hope Create can continue to succeed, and here's to the re-opening of the Leeds restaurant. I for one won't be missing out next time around.

8/10

Wakefield One
Burton Street
Wakefield
WF1 2DD

http://www.foodbycreate.co.uk/restaurant

Bean and Bud, Harrogate

We stopped off for a late lunch in Harrogate a week last Friday after a trip to Fountains Abbey (lovely, best bit the mill, need to return in less miserable weather). It was way past proper meal time, especially given that we were heading home for a steak dinner, so sandwiches and coffee seemed like the best bet.

Bean and Bud served a pretty good flat white, texture-wise spot on, smooth as you like and balanced between coffee and milk. It was just a little bland for my taste though, not really delivering the complex flavours advertised. There were a choice of two espresso blends with quite differing descriptions, one fruitier and the other darker with more pronounced bitterness. We chose one of each but I couldn't discern the difference. Under-strength coffee or maybe my palate is shot? I'm not really sure.

The sandwiches were all pre-made and cling film wrapped, but didn't seem to have suffered as a result. Cheese and tomato tasted fresh and was made with good quality bread and something sharp and a bit crumbly (either a cheddar or an older, more mature Lancashire or similar) from local suppliers the Cheeseboard. A basic sandwich but a good one, like what you'd make to take to work on a 'can be bothered' sort of a day.

Worth a visit if you need a caffeine fix in Harrogate. I'd certainly like to give the coffee another chance to find out whether I was having a tasting off-day. Prices about average for an indie coffee shop, that being a little bit cheaper than the biggest chains (but a good bit better).

7/10

14 Commercial Street
Harrogate
HG1 1TY

http://www.beanandbud.co.uk/

Tea Hive, Chorlton, Manchester

On a brief visit to Chorlton last week I ended up having lunch at Tea Hive completely by chance. I was planning on picking up a few bits from Barbakan deli and it just caught my eye as I'd almost walked past, the white on black signage meaning I almost mistook it for the Marble Beer House a couple of doors down.

I'm glad I took the time to investigate further, as lunch there was very good. A flat white was well made if a little too large for my tastes. I've definitely come to the conclusion that the smaller 6oz cup size is the best, anything larger (this was an 8oz I think) and it verges into latte territory where the milkiness starts to drown out the character of the coffee. Bonus points for the novel artwork though!

My sandwich took an age to arrive, but the tardiness was acknowledged and handled well. An apology and a free drink to tide me over were offered before I'd had the chance to chase up the order.

When it did arrive, the Cheshire smokehouse hot smoked salmon with lemon mayo and rocket on granary bread was well worth the wait. Generous quantities of rich, firm fleshed, moderately smoked fish was balanced perfectly by the acidic dressing and peppery rocket.

A really fine sarnie, with one additional plus point: good butter. It's surprising how many otherwise quality sandwich shops and cafes think it's fine to use cheap sunflower spread. Don't do it. Butter or nothing at all please.

The side salad was also a proper salad, with multiple components and a balanced dressing, and as a result the £4.95 price tag for the sandwich seemed fair. The flat white was £2.35 so all in all not a cheap lunch, but a very good one, served in pleasant surroundings by nice people.


8/10

53 Manchester Road
Chorlton
Manchester
M21 9PW

http://www.teahive.co.uk

Peli Deli, Matlock, Derbyshire

I might, whisper it, be leaving the North. Last time I did that I moved to south east London. Nothing quite so drastic is on the cards this time but it's highly likely I shall end up residing in that strange netherworld known as the MIDLANDS.

Not ideal for a blog named Northern Food, especially when I've already had to ditch the M62 bit, my preferred transpennine route being the Woodhead pass these days. I shall probably get away with it though, Chesterfield is hardly in Kent now is it?

The upshot of all this upheaval is that I'll be blogging from Derbyshire with increasing frequency, and what better place to start than Matlock. An exploratory trip to the region ended up with us stopping for lunch there, with Peli Deli looking like the best of a limited supply of cafés (it was a Sunday afternoon, and much of the town was closed).

It turned out ok, but I wouldn't rush back. A flat white was more like a latte with a pattern on top, too big and milky and lacking that beautiful velvety texture you get from a good example.

A salt beef sandwich brought generous slices of high quality, tender meat in fresh, nutty bread. All good but let down by the use of some sort of spread rather than butter, and a bright but completely undressed side salad. 

It's not cheap here, but I suppose Matlock is one of the pricier parts of Derbyshire. £4.25 for the salt beef sarnie, £2.40 for the coffee, and over a fiver for A's cheese and ham panini.


6/10


1 Jubilee Buildings
Crown Square
Matlock
Derbyshire
DE4 3AT

http://www.pelideli.com/ 

Marmadukes Café Deli, Sheffield

A Twitter recommendation brought me to Marmadukes in search of good coffee. They use a Monmouth espresso blend and that quality really shines through. My flat white was a beauty, smooth with a bold, fruity flavour. Excellent stuff.

Other than the coffee there are good looking cakes, sandwiches, savouries and salads to be had, and the café is an attractive place to sit for a while, either inside or at one of a few tables outside on Norfolk Row, a pleasant pedestrianised side street. Blankets are provided to keep out the chill, a nice touch.

I ate on this visit too, quiche lorraine and salad. The quiche was perfectly fine but the salad was no more than a garnish. If you're charging £1.50 extra for salad, then a spoonful of some of the proper salads behind the counter might be a more appropriate choice than a very small handful of limp leaves, even if they are properly dressed.

The added leaves brought the cost of the food up to six quid, which I wouldn't take issue with at all if it was a proper plate of savoury with salads, but it wasn't that. The coffee was marvellous though, so maybe stick to that and give the cakes a try.

7/10 (a combination of 9 for the coffee and 5 for the meal)

Edit: see comments - Tim the cafe owner says the lack of a proper salad was their mistake, I should have been offered one from the counter. I'll pay another visit sometime soon, defo for coffee and maybe for food too.
22a Norfolk Row
Sheffield
S1 2PA

https://www.facebook.com/marmadukescafedeli

Bragazzi's, Abbeydale Road, Sheffield

I discovered Bragazzi's completely by accident while checking out what Abbeydale Road had to offer. The original plan was a dosa lunch at either Dhanistha's or East and West, but both were deserted and I wasn't in the mood for completely solitary dining. The south Indian fix will have to wait for another day.

It turned out to be a very happy accident, Bragazzi's is an Italian deli and café of unusually high quality. A small cappuccino was easily the equal of anything I've had in the recent influx of independent coffee shops, beautifully made with a complex, roasted flavour.

A mortadella, mozzarella, pesto, olive and tomato sandwich was also marvellous. I did wonder whether having it toasted was going to be a mistake, I always instinctively say yes when offered but toasting a good sandwich can be a bad idea when it ends up overdone; - the bread dessicated and the filling too hot to taste. 

I needn't have worried, this was just gently pressed so the cheese had melted. Layers of paper thin sliced meat with mild, milky, stringy cheese, salty olives and bright, herbal pesto. The best sandwich I've had in ages.

The café would be a great place to while away a few hours with the papers, or you can takeaway. Prices are more than reasonable for the quality, the coffee was £1.80 and the sandwich £3.60. Highly recommended.

9/10

220-226 Abbeydale Road
Sheffield
S7 1FL

http://www.bragazzis.co.uk

Béres Pork Shop, Sheffield

Beers, Bears, Beresh? I'm not quite sure how you pronounce Béres. The latter perhaps, I know it's Hungarian and that sounds to my linguistically challenged brain to be the most Mitteleuropa way of saying it. Beers might be the more Sheffield way though.

Whatever it's called, of all the myriad wonders I've been discovering about Sheffield, an entire chain of shops devoted to pork sandwiches was one of the most intriguing. I'd been looking forward to a visit for ages. Mmmm pork.

It was an expertly crafted sandwich. The Middlewood branch was a well oiled machine, the staff churning them out in a steady production line: bread sliced and smeared in meat juices, then on goes thinly sliced pork, stuffing, crackling and apple sauce to taste.

I can't say I loved it though. The crackling was great, shattered into little salty shards, and the stuffing and bread were fine. The meat itself was just a bit bland though, making the whole thing slightly heavy going.

£2.25 for the standard size pork sandwich. I'd have another, but not in a great hurry. Back to the bacon methinks.

6/10

8 branches around Sheffield

http://www.beresporkshop.co.uk

Costello's Bakery, Headingley, Leeds

Someone on Twitter suggested Costello's to me as somewhere I might find a good cake. I didn't find a good cake there, but I did find a very good lunch deal so thank you very much whoever you are.

It was a little incongruous sat eating this on a warm sun dappled afternoon, it's probably more one for the dismal winter months, but who am I to turn down pie, mash, gravy and a drink for £3.50? I got the choice of ordinary or special mash, special being ordinary with added leeks and bacon. Entirely predictably I chose the special.

I enjoyed the pie, a sturdy affair of short pastry and tender, stewed beef. The mash and gravy weren't half bad either and there was bloody loads of it. Give it three months until there's a nip in the air then get yourself down there. In the meantime the sandwiches looked good too.

7/10

61 Otley Road
Headingley
LS6 3AB

http://www.costellosbakery.com/

Pink Lane Coffee, Newcastle

I chanced upon an excellent little coffee shop in Newcastle last week. In need of a quick bite to eat before the train home and with only a few minutes to spare I'd almost given up hope of finding anything decent. A station pasty beckoned.

Pink Lane came to the rescue. I drank a top notch flat white, smooth and strong. It was served in a glass which I'm not a fan of, but tasted delicious which is the main thing.

I ate a tuscan ham, grana padano and rocket sandwich, also very good. Generously filled with high quality ingredients, herb edged cured ham in thin, delicate slices and sharp, salty cheese. The bread was slightly past its best, probably as it was teatime. I doubt that would have been the case at lunch.

Prices are about what you'd expect. The coffee was £2.20 (I think) and the sandwich £3.40. They only had one other customer in the ten minutes I was there so I hope they're getting more trade earlier in the day. The place deserves to succeed. Highly recommended, go check it out.

8/10

Pink Lane Coffee
Newcastle
NE1 5DW

https://twitter.com/PinkLaneCoffee

Bacon Sandwich Quest: June

Bacon! Coming at ya! I'm on the ball this month. No dilly dallying until the second week of July for June's porcine instalment. Here it is you lucky people.

There were two bacon sarnies in the month. I got off to a flyer with back to back butties in week one, then failed miserably to push on from there. Weak.

The source of this little beauty: Cumbernauld's very own Old Inns Café. The bacon rolls in Scotland are different. The bread is usually crustier, more chew and heft than you'll get in England. Maybe it's the auld alliance at work. Whatever the reason, I like it. The sturdier bread matches the powerful bacon hit within. It's smoked, and coarsely cut, and delicious.

Sauce bottles are provided allowing you to dispense your own perfect measure, and uniquely Scots accompaniments are available should you wish. The tattie scone carb double whammy being a particular favourite of mine.

Service here is also far cheerier than you could reasonably expect from some blokes who spend their life in a wooden hut in the corner of a garage forecourt next to a motorway in a town once voted Britain's ugliest. Excellent, but not enough to knock me off number one spot. £2.20 for the straight bacon.

And this one: Westmorland Farm Shops at Tebay services on the M6. It flatters to deceive a little this place. The quality of the food is markedly better than at most motorway service stations, but that only means it's not completely shite, and not that it's actually much good.

An 'any two breakfast items' sandwich costs £3.95, and isn't really worth it. The bun was a bit stale as well as being too small, and the portion control isn't really designed with construction of a sensible sandwich in mind. Not enough bread, not quite enough bacon and a year's supply of mushrooms. I exaggerate but you get the idea. Good bacon and mushrooms though.

Leaderboard time: