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

Bacon Sandwich Quest: April

Bet you thought I'd forgotten about Bacon Sandwich Quest. Sadly I haven't, the April round up is just running a little late. Things perked up a bit in April, there was an unusual coffee shop offering, a standard greasy spoon effort and of course I threw my own sarnie of champions into the mix.

The coffee shop curveball for starters, from Grind Coffee Lounge in Wakefield. A bacon sandwich toasted on a griddle, eaten in an independent coffee shop, reminiscent of those you get in the chain coffee shops. It was sort of good, flavour packed smokey bacon, but sort of wrong, as the bread was overtoasted making the whole thing rather crunchy. Bacon butties shouldn't be crunchy. Hmm.

Let's face it, if you want a job doing properly you're best off doing it yourself. It seems a little unfair to rate my own bacon sandwich, but given the generally lacklustre standard so far people obviously need some guidance. I don't mean to sound boastful but this is how it should be done. Anyhow I think I've been objective, docking myself a point for service on account of getting cold feet from the kitchen tiles whilst making it.

And finally, Pat's Cafe, Knowsley Industrial Estate's finest. Solid, reliable, unspectacular. No photo, but it looked like any other bacon roll (or barm as those crazy cats like to call it).This isn't the first one of these I've eaten, and it certainly won't be the last. Currently residing in the final podium place, but can it stay the distance?

Here's the leaderboard, formatted horribly but Blogger is driving me up the wall. Sorry. Here's to May.

The Castle, Wakefield

Pub Sunday roasts are something of a rarity for me. I used to eat them all the time but was usually left with a sense of disappointment, stuffed to the gills but not really satisfied, so in recent years I've rather given up. One or more of the crucial elements always underwhelms (overcooked meat, undercooked roasties, overcooked veg, stale Yorkshires, you get the picture).

So two roast dinners in the pub in barely more than a month is highly unusual round these parts, could The Castle's roast platter for two (£11.95 each) do any better than The York?

The first things to note are the Yorkshire puddings! Look at them. They unnerved me a little, putting me in mind of The Blob. Fortunately I think the heat had killed them off before they had chance to escape the oven and wreak havoc, but I made completely sure by smothering the bastards in gravy and eating them.

I quite enjoyed eating them too, though they were just a trifle past their best, in the way that pre-cooked and reheated Yorkshires always are.

On to the meat, the pleasant but not overly exciting triumvirate of beef, pork and turkey. Why no lamb? Why? Because you can roast half a tonne of boring turkey breast at minimal cost and with even less effort I suppose. Lamb is always a trickier prospect for volume catering. When will they invent a cow-sized sheep? Come on science, must try harder.

The turkey was predictably dull, the beef better, and the pork a pleasant surprise. Cut in thick slices from (I think) a rolled loin it was moist, packed with flavour and the best of the three by far.

The vegetables didn't disappoint being neither underdone (roast potatoes) nor over (everything else) and they also hid a little bonus cluster of pigs in blankets, which pleasingly were not made with lowest common denominator sausages. The whole lot held together well with a competent gravy, supplied separately in a jug of generous proportions.

We shared a pudding, which was a good job as it was gargantuan, a rhubarb and apple crumble (£5.50) easily suited for two. The crumble was a little bit dusty, more butter please, but the filling was good. Not overly sweetened, letting the tartness of the fruit shine through and mingle well with the creamy custard.

I enjoyed this. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but the good things outweighed the bad. The bill came to around £35 including soft drinks and service.

7/10

343 Barnsley Road
Wakefield
WF2 6AS

http://www.thecastlewakefield.co.uk

Kev's of Eastmoor, Wakefield

My constant moaning about the poor standard of takeaway food in these parts doesn't extend to fish and chips. Credit where it's due we know what we're doing in West Yorkshire when it comes to chip shops.

They're not all excellent by any stretch of the imagination, but I can confidently predict that I'm more likely to walk out of any old Wakefield chippy with a satisfying meal than from the curry house or Chinese takeaway next door.

I'm not really sure why Yorkshire excels at fish and chips above all other regions, it just does. The best chip shops are here, and even some of the mediocre ones put the best efforts of certain other areas to shame.

Kev's is an archetypal example. Basic but effective. Unshowy and friendly. Smells delicious.

Fish and chips were good, though not great. A long, chunky haddock fillet (very long. Look at it! It doesn't even fit in the picture) was fresh, moist and flakey. Crunchy batter, maybe a smidgen too thick but still a pleasure to eat.

Fluffy-centred chips with crispy edges here and there. Great tasting but an extra minute or so in the fat would have given them a more generous loading of crispy bits.

I didn't have peas, being in the mood for curry sauce, which was a little gloopy though fine flavour-wise.

Service was with a smile. Fish, chips, curry sauce and a can of Ben Shaw's pop was £4.70. I was a happy man.

7/10

120 Stanley Road
Wakefield
WF1 4LR

Rahman's Balti House, Stanley, Wakefield (takeaway review)

It's time to delve once more into the underwhelming world of takeaway curry. Would tonight be the night I finally came up trumps? Would Rahman's Balti House turn out to be the elusive hidden gem? Would the 35 of 36 people who reviewed it enthusiastically on Just Eat be proven correct?

No, no and no. I didn't really come up trumps, it wasn't a hidden gem, and sorry to sound like a snob and a know-it-all but all 35 of you are wrong. It was ok, but I could have guessed everything that would be wrong with it before I started.

A mixed starter of seekh kebab, chicken tikka and onion bhaji. The fault list:

Greasy bhaji - check
Red food colouring on the chicken - check (although not an obscene quantity of it to be fair)
Plastic bag containing sweaty iceberg lettuce and a mealy wedge of tomato - check
overcooked lamb - check
watery mint yoghurt sauce - check

On the plus side every component did actually taste ok, it was all quite nicely spiced and the chicken was moist and not at all overcooked.

A fish masala, a tandoori roti and a chapatti. Again, the predictable faults:

Far too much ghee in the curry - check
doughy bread, either not rolled thin enough or not cooked at a high enough temperature - check

It wasn't all bad, the sauce did have a pleasing warmth and a good garlicky tang. The flavour of the fish wasn't overwhelmed but it wasn't particularly good quality, soft and a bit mushy rather than firm and flakey. The roti was pretty crap, the chapatti better.

Just short of £12 all in. Delivered quickly. Ho hum.

5/10

Rahman's Balti House
213 Canal Lane
Stanley
Wakefield

http://www.just-eat.co.uk/restaurants-rahmansbaltihouse

Robin Hood Fisheries, Robin Hood, nr Rothwell

The first chip shop visit of 2012. In some ways highly impressive, in others a touch disappointing.

I'm slowly working my way through the multitude of chippies strung out along the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield. If you're not familiar with the area, it's mostly one long stretch of nondescript suburbia lacking anything particularly interesting (although maybe pit wheels and whale jawbones deserve a mention). What it doesn't lack is Chinese takeaways and fish and chip shops.

Of the latter I've already been here and here, and last Thursday night after football it was the turn of Robin Hood's finest.

I didn't have enough cash on me for peas, having to copper up just to reach the magical £4.50 necessary for fish and chips. So there it is, plain and simple.

Good points first: the fish was freshly fried and absolutely gargantuan. And I mean huge. Extensive in length but I think it was also the thickest fried fillet of haddock I've ever eaten. I'm actually a bit worried because at £4.50 it's doubtful it came from sustainable stocks and if not I think I might have eaten the Queen Haddock. The Mother Haddock, the progenitor of the species. Haddocks are doomed on account of my moment of greed.

Fingers crossed that's not the case, but either way it tasted great. Flaking away into lovely pearlescent slivers, fresh and sweet.

Onto the bad points: the batter was a smidgen too thick. Lovely crunch and bite at the edges, just a little soggy towards the surface of the fish. The chips were past their best, being rather chewy and aged. I was so full of fish I didn't really care about this much though.

I'll have to rate this one highly, purely on account of that fish. I haven't a clue whether they're regularly serving up such colossal portions but I somehow doubt it. I've a sneaking suspicion they bunged me in a special by mistake.

8/10

Robin Hood Fisheries
Leeds Road
Robin Hood
WF3 3AJ

La Rocas, Wakefield

FREEBIE ALERT

I rarely dine out in Wakefield even though that's where I actually live, as it's in such close proximity I never think twice about heading straight into Leeds. That's not to say I wouldn't eat out in Wakefield more often if I found a few places I liked. With that thought in mind an invitation to La Rocas for a night of free tapas sounded like fun.

A small group of six of us went along on Friday and got to sample a fair amount of the menu. We were looked after by Craig (apologies if I have his name wrong, I think it was Craig) who was in charge of front of house for the evening. There was no introduction or little talk from the owners as seems to be the case at many blogger events, but that didn't bother me. It's probably a little ungrateful but I often don't really care about the restaurateurs ethos and vision, I just want to know whether his chefs can cook me a great meal.

I'd love to be able to say we had a great meal, but sadly I'd be lying. Everything we ate was mediocre at best, and some of the dishes were really not very nice at all.

On the plus side, everything on a couple of mixed cold platters was ok, and of the tapas dishes the potatoes were nicely cooked and the pork ribs tender and meaty. Dense, dry meatballs and a jambalaya with overcooked, mushy rice were really a bit grim though.

After dinner we were invited up to the bar to sample a few cocktails. A Long Island iced tea was pretty good, but some of the others contained far too much blue stuff for my taste. Never trust blue food. Or drinks.

The cocktails were a fun end to a night in good company, and we were well looked after by Craig. Thanks to La Rocas for the invitation, I'm just sorry I can't be more positive about the food.


18 Wood Street
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF1 2ED

http://www.larocas.co.uk/

Taste of Arabia, Wakefield

An unexpected treat for lunch on Saturday, and the discovery of another food based social enterprise.

After the thrill of Wilkinson's I thought I'd grab some lunch in town before heading home for an even more thrilling afternoon of DIY. There was a bowl of stew with my name on it at the Country Kitchen Bakery, but when I arrived a lengthy queue was forming and I couldn't be bothered waiting. Casting my eyes around the food hall I noticed Taste of Arabia next door, which enticed me in mainly because it was completely deserted.

One plate of shawarma in pitta with chips and salad for £3.99 later I was rather glad I'd been so easily swayed. It doesn't look all that great, but everything was spot on. Spicy shreds of slightly chewy but very tasty lamb, heavily spiced with salt, chilli and possibly sumac, stuffed into a perfectly toasted pitta and doused in yoghurt and chilli sauce (out of cheap catering pack bottles but what do you expect for 4 quid). Everything in the carefully arranged salad was very fresh and provided cooling contrast to the spicy meat. Even the chips were good. They were the budget freezer pack variety served by crappy chain pubs the nation over, but actually fried properly (they're nearly always underdone in pubs for some reason) they went down a treat.

I have no idea what the particular aims of this social enterprise are, but they do have the tagline 'bringing distant cultures closer'. In the half hour or so I was there they didn't have a single other customer, so it was more 'distant culture being completely ignored by the local culture'. The nice Turkish man doing the cooking said they were there permanently, so please do pay them a visit before someone pulls the plug. What better way to bring distant cultures closer than by selling good kebabs in Wakefield market?

8/10

Taste of Arabia
Wakefield Market Food Hall
Union Street
Wakefield
WF1 3AD

Takeaway home delivery: Is there anybody out there?

Despite the so-called foodie revolution in this country, there is still an awful lot of rubbish out there. Mass produced, catering pack pub food is probably the most popular dining out experience in the nation. Walk into any one of the multitude of branded pubs adjacent to a Premier Inn, and it will almost certainly be busy with diners, and the food will almost certainly be crap. I should know, work has taken me to dozens of them over the last few years (can't fault the hotels). I'm not singling out Whitbread here, there are plenty of other chains offering exactly the same sort of dross.

'Foreign' food is often no better. In most of our town centres you can often still find Indian and Chinese restaurants serving up the very worst anglicised version of these cuisines. Luminous red masalas flavoured predominantly with stale powdered spices and ghee. Even more luminous achingly sweet and sour sauce with indeterminate protein in stodgy, greasy batter. All still readily available.

These places don't bother me too much, because they are usually avoidable. I've only dined in so many poor pubs through a lack of time and effort, such meals provide essential fodder when sustenance is needed. In most towns there is a decent curry or a home-made pub meal to be had. You just have to make the effort to find it sometimes.

What does seem to be completely lacking in many areas is good quality, home delivered takeaway food. Over several years living or spending a lot of time in WF1, LS6, LS15 and LS26 I don't recall ever having any food delivered that was better than mediocre. It's been a few years since I've spent much time in some of these places, but on Sunday night's evidence not much has changed.

I should note at this point, I'm not talking about takeaway food in general, but specifically home delivery. There are a lot of decent restaurants providing takeaway, but not a lot of those offer a delivery service (Red Chilli II in Wakefield and Saengarun Thai in Leeds are is just a couple of one examples off the top of my head). Sometimes only a delivery will do. When you're tired and hungover, or generally slobbing about, or drunk perhaps.

On Sunday night I was very much in the tired and hungover camp. Surely it must be possible to have a good curry delivered to the north side of Wakefield? Having nothing better to guide me than the ratings on Just Eat, I opted for Taste of India (where it gets 6/6 for service, 5.5/6 for quality and 5.5/6 for delivery).

I ordered online and waited, fingers crossed for something decent. The food arrived promptly, actually a couple of minutes before the stated time, so no issues there. Depressingly that was the high point.

A seekh kebab was pointlessly red, and largely devoid of flavour. I left half of it, which says it all. I bloody love a good seekh kebab. This wasn't a good seekh kebab. The accompanying salad was at least quite fresh.

Next up, a chicken masaka, which according to their description was: 'Marinated chicken cooked with channa dall, fresh green chillies and garnished with fresh ginger, coriander and spring onions'. Well the chicken was indeed marinated, but in the same red food colouring as the kebab. Food colouring is not a marinade. The lentils were present and correct, albeit swimming in too much ghee. I'm not sure what happened to the fresh green chillies, fresh ginger or spring onions. They must have forgotten them. There was a little bit of something green in there though; presumably coriander. The overall flavour was not unpleasant, sort of a muted, sweet generic curry taste.

Starch came in the form of a couple of passable chapattis, and a portion of vegetable pilau rice. The rice also tasted sweet (sugar is obviously their 'go to' spice) and most of the vegetables in it were potatoes.

All in all not very good at all. If this was a normal review I'd give it 3/10. I've actually had much worse than this too. Most delivered takeaway meals I can recall would rate in the range 1/10 up to 5/10. Surely there must be better out there?

Part of the problem with takeaways is finding reliable sources of information. Restaurants are often reviewed by professional critics and trusted amateurs (the army of bloggers), takeaways rarely are. Call me a snob but I just don't trust the man on the street when it comes to food. Too many people like the aforementioned crappy pub grub, and too many people comment favourably about rubbish like Taste of India. On Just Eat it is described variously as 'the best Asian food in Wakefield', 'absolutely amazing food' and 'cannot recommend highly enough'. Really??

It may be that the ratings system on Just Eat gives some insight into the mindset of people using it. Equal weight is given to Service, Quality and Delivery. Assuming quality to mean 'is the food any good', that leaves service and delivery covering 'any problems placing your order and did it turn up on time?' Personally I'd happily deal with a convoluted ordering process and late delivery if I could guarantee the food was good.
To sum up, the food from most takeaways with a delivery service is very poor, and there is little reliable information to tell you which ones are better. I don't believe there is nothing decent out there, finding it is the tricky part. I have two local (Leeds) delivery services in mind for starters, both of whose food I've tried although not had delivered. They are:

Box Pizza - Leeds (http://www.boxpizza.co.uk)
Manjit's Kitchen - Leeds (http://www.manjitskitchen.com/)

What else have we got? Comments and suggestions welcome.

Edit: I have just found a menu for Red Chilli II in Wakefield. They deliver. I am an idiot. Three options covering two cuisines in two cities still isn't many though.....

Red Chilli II - Wakefield

Mocca Moocho, Wakefield

I was hoping for a late breakfast on Saturday, but everywhere in Wakefield city centre seems to stop serving them at 11.30am on a weekend morning. Too early if you ask me, I want bacon and eggs available until at least 2pm, and preferably all day.

I did like the look of Moocho though, the outside tables were inviting in the pleasant sunshine so I decided to make it an early lunch. Quiche was about the nearest thing available to breakfast (it's mostly eggs right? Sort of like a cheesy breakfast pie) so I ordered a cheese and tomato one with salad (£4.95).

The quiche was very generously proportioned with a nice thin crust and a wobbly, cheesy filling. Unfortunately I'd made the mistake of saying yes when asked if I'd like it warm. What they actually should have asked is 'would you like us to blast the shit out of it in the microwave for five minutes?' Limp, soggy pastry was the end result. As we all know, pastry and microwaves do not a happy marriage make. The filling was still nice though.

The salad was artfully arranged but flavourless given the complete lack of dressing or lubrication of any sort. I'll excuse them that because the clientele were mostly getting on a bit, and elderly Yorkshire folk seem to be suspicious of salad dressing. The honourable exception to this rule being salad cream, which I like, but which isn't really dressing at all, more a special category of matter all of its own. I should have requested a sachet but didn't.

A cappucino was ok (about £2). What looked delicious, but I didn't try (too full of quiche) were some scones jam-packed with whipped cream and strawberries. There were also plenty of other cakes available, all of which appeared to be good quality.

Despite the microwave mishap I liked it here. I'll go back for tea and cake at some point, it looks a better option for this than Costa next door.


6/10

Mocca Moocho
10 Cross Square
Wakefield
WF1 1PQ

Country Kitchen Bakery, Wakefield Market

Continuing on the market related theme, what has become of Wakefield market? From what I recall the indoor market was always a bit dull, and now it's just a bit dull in a nice new building.

The outdoor market however was a different matter. Quite large, and always lively with a slightly raffish air, particularly in the far corner where there was a sort of mini funfair section. This had a couple of rubbish rides, a few vans selling doughnuts and burgers, and plenty of youths hanging around. For a short while in my mid-teens I spent every Saturday operating the kiddies roundabout in return for £12 a day and a burger. What I remember most about this is the lingering smell of cheap cigarettes, stale fat and sweating onions. That and the sound of screaming kids who couldn't quite cope with all the excitement that forty pence could provide on a damp afternoon in Wakey. That and the fact that I had to push the roundabout to get it going otherwise the ancient motor would burn out.

As you've probably realised by now, this isn't going to turn into eulogy for the lost wonders of Wakefield market. Given the not particularly fond memories recollected above I'm actually quite glad they eventually bulldozed the lot and built a shopping centre on top of it.

What is disappointing is that the Council didn't see fit to bother with much of a replacement. The new outdoor market consists of a few stalls squeezed into the gap between the new indoor market and the Bus Station, with the new foodhall at the back of the stalls. Both seem to have plenty of vacant space despite being much smaller than the old market place. Where did all the other traders go?

The outcome is that there isn't a proper outdoor market place in Wakefield anymore, it was essentially designed out in the process of redevelopment. Which is a shame.

So, in an even more roundabout way than usual, to the original purpose of this post. In the little foodhall you will find the Country Kitchen Bakery, where for the price of a crap sandwich at many other places you can get a decent quality hot meal. With bread. And a drink. £2.95 is what a large bowl of beef stew, a basket of buttered (well alright marged) bread and a steaming mug of tea cost me. While not the finest stew I've ever tasted it was flavoursome, nourishing and obviously made from scratch with fresh ingredients.

This is why markets are always worth investigating, and are always worth supporting and saving. In amongst the rubbish there are always some hidden gems selling great produce, or cooking good food, and almost always at a better price than anywhere else.

8/10

Country Kitchen Bakery
Wakefield Market Foodhall
Union Street
Wakefield
WF1 3AD

Tony's Fish and Chips, Outwood, Wakefield

This blog is getting really repetitive at the moment. I eat curry, then I eat fish and chips, then I eat curry, then I eat fish and chips. If you're getting sick of it, please stay tuned as I'm going to be out and about in Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester all in the next ten days or so. Hopefully I'll have something new and exciting to write about after that lot.

But first, back to the fish and chips. I was tired and hungry, I'd just got back from football, my kitchen isn't going to be sorted out until next week, so last night I accidentally went to the chip shop again.

This time I tried Tony's, just up the road from the Empire and pretty much the exact opposite in scale. No drive through, no restaurant, just this hut:

 Photo credit: Betty Longbottom

I found the photo on Wikipedia, courtesy of Betty Longbottom. Wonderful name, wonderful hut.

Here is the lowdown on the fish and chips:

Fish - not cooked to order, but not overcooked, small but pleasant.
Batter - bit too thick, but pleasingly crunchy on the outer layer.
Chips - ok, had better.
Peas - good. Sweet and sloppy.
Scraps - yes please.
Value - Cheap as chips. Cheaper than chips in fact. £3 for fish and chips. £4.10 with peas and a can of Ben Shaw's pop. How do they make any money?

The verdict: Not bad, especially for the price. I'd go again.

6/10

653 Leeds Road
Outwood
Wakefield
WF1 2LU

Red Chilli II, Wakefield

Last weekend I was mostly eating curry. After a veggie Indian meal on Saturday, Sunday was a rather meatier affair. Red Chilli II is one of a mini chain (others in Castleford and Bradford) of well regarded Indian restaurants, not to be confused with the fantastic Chinese Red Chilli group. I was a regular at the Wakefield outpost when I last lived in the area, so I thought it was worth a visit to see if it still passed muster.

Sunday night is buffet night, all you can eat for £8.95. It's always quite busy so there is a swift turnaround of food meaning nothing is hanging around too long.

There was a choice of three starters; veg pakoras, shami kebabs and something that I think were labelled vegetable shatkoras. I've just googled shatkora and it turns out to be a type of citrus fruit, so I've not a clue why they were called that. In practice they were just unusually shaped samosas and very good too. Densely packed with assorted vegetables not cooked to mush, and really well spiced. Cumin, fennel and mustard seed were all prominent. The kebabs and pakoras were ok but nothing special.

On the curry front there was one lamb curry, two chicken, a saag aloo and a channa dish. The lamb was the star, a really concentrated, rich roasted spice curry with soft, moist strands of meat. It was reminiscent of the haandi goat I ate at Delhi Grill earlier in the year. Of the chicken options one was a lurid looking tikka masala that I didn't try, and the other a pleasant and exceedingly garlicky offering. The chicken was a bit dry though, I'm not sure chicken lends itself well to a buffet as it drys out too readily. The chickpeas were good but the saag aloo was a bit bland. Carbs were provided by pilau rice and nan bread. The rice was fine but the nan just re-inforced my view that the only nan worth bothering with is fresh from the tandoor.

Unless something exciting and new has popped up elsewhere over the last four years this is probably still the best curry house in Wakefield. The buffet is good value, our total bill was just under £30 for three including a couple of soft drinks. A la carte is more expensive, but still very reasonable as the standard is generally high and the portions huge.

And finally, in matters completely unrelated to the rest of the post here is a photo of the Hepworth Wakefield. The new gallery opened on Saturday. It's a remarkable place and an outstanding asset for the city. You should pay a visit, whether you're an art buff or not (I'm not).



7/10

148 Kirkgate
Wakefield
WF1 1TU

The Empire, Outwood, Wakefield

Fish and chip quest continues. A bit of a disappointment this one. I had high hopes for the Empire, mainly because it's the only drive-thru fish and chip shop that I know. Fish and chips without ever leaving the comfort of your own car. Fancy that.

As it happens the drive-thru was closed. It wasn't yet 9pm and the website claims it's open until 10pm daily. Fibbers. So I had to struggle from the car (muscles were seizing up from football, I'm not morbidly obese) and go inside.

Fish, chips and mushy peas was a fairly standard £4.70. The main problem was that both fish and chips had obviously been sat around for too long. I know that few chippies cook everything fresh to order, but there are limits to how long you can keep it warm after frying before it's way past it's best. The fish was very overdone, but the batter had gone a bit soggy. A real shame as it was a lovely chunky piece of haddock. The chips were dry and mealy. Good peas though.

The food from here is probably a whole lot better if you turn up when it's busy and turnover is rapid. The basic ingredients all seem to be good. Having said that just because it's quiet when you arrive doesn't mean they should serve you up something fried two hours ago.

5/10

550 Leeds Road
Outwood
Wakefield
WF1 2DX

http://www.empire-restaurant.com/

Deli Central, Wakefield

I'd planned to head back over the Pennines to spend the day in Manchester today, but my mate Barry had a few hours to kill before meeting friends in Leeds so I agreed to accompany him on a tour of the splendours of Wakefield.

Before you laugh there are some splendours in Wakefield, honest. The civic quarter has some solid victorian architecture, the cathedral is pleasant, the chantry chapel is historic and interesting, the new Hepworth Gallery is opening in May, and the marvellous dereliction of Kirkgate railway station is not to be missed.

Sorry, forgot this was a food blog for a moment. Back to the comestibles. Before the grand tour we popped into Deli Central for a bite to eat. It's a very good looking little place, all blond wood and posh chutney for sale. I rather unimaginatively opted for a ham, cheese and tomato panino and a pot of tea. Just a pot of tea for Barry who was still full after dining on fish and chips, curry, trifle and beer the previous evening.

The panino was generously proportioned and tasted fine, but was otherwise unremarkable. The leaf and tomato salad on the side was limp and undressed, but the potato salad (cold new roasted potatoes with sun dried tomatoes, spring onions and some sort of dressing) was good. The pots of tea were loose leaf and very nice. At £5.45 for the sandwich and £1.80 for the tea it wasn't cheap.

In summary a decent option, but a bit expensive. Quiches on the deli counter looked good though.

6/10

Deli Central
20 Northgate
The Bullring
Wakefield
WF1 3AA
http://www.deli-central.co.uk/