Elland Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: Chef-patron Eric Paxman trained under Marco Pierre White in London and Bill Granger in Australia, and has cooked for luminaries including Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vowed ‘I’ll be back’ – a sentiment shared by numerous guests at the venture he opened in his hometown 14 years ago. “Lunch and early-bird evening specials are an exceptional bargain”.

2024 Review: “An airy space with unusual dishes and great cooking” – this comfortable independent opposite the civic hall scored highly in this year’s annual diners’ poll. The focus is on small plates, some of them very original: who’s for ‘honey, soy and gochujang roast carrots, toasted sesame, with tahini satay’?

“Gosh, that was good!!” – Mark Kemp’s “relaxed small plates restaurant in Sowerby Bridge” (a converted boozer) excites nothing but full-on raves from reporters for its “welcoming environment” and “refreshing”, “unfailingly impressive” food at “incredible value prices”. One brave Lancastrian who “put his armour on and risked a trip to Yorkshire to sneak in a Wednesday lunch” only wishes his own county had somewhere like this – an unusual outfit which offers “randomly eclectic, tapas-y food taking in Spain, Yorkshire and Southeast Asia”. “Service is just how you want it” too – “never intrusive but at your elbow when you do”. Top Menu Tip – “Cauliflower and manchego croquetas were merely a foil to an eye-opening Worcestershire sauce caramel; Bahn me prawn toasts are a really superb dish; Moroccan spiced lamb is pulled and comes with pillowy maneesh bread, a rather heavy hummus, dee-licous giant couscous, lightly pickled onions and other stuff. Best posh kebab I’ve had in a long time”.

Well known as “a gorgeous getaway spot” ten minutes’ drive from Halifax, this old corn mill has served as a “warm and cosy” inn for more than a century, with a “lovely restaurant” that offers a “good range” of modern British dishes “cooked to a high standard” (available in either tasting or à la carte formats, plus sandwiches at lunchtime). There are 11 “beautiful rooms upstairs” for overnight stays.

“Superb, homemade Indian food” is the hallmark of this vast, 500-cover curry house, founded by Mumtaz Khan as a tiny Kashmiri shop in 1979 and now a Yorkshire institution with a branch in Leeds and national brands of ready meals and halal babyfood! – “there are a number of good Indian restaurants in Bradford but this is different”, and “the decor makes it suitable to entertain guests”. Top Menu Tip – look out for the ‘Mumtaz Differently’ dishes, playful takes on pasta, lasagne and doner kebabs.

2023 Review: “A popular local staple for many years”, this posh and hugely successful pub has been run by the Truelove family since 1968 and – much extended over the years – is known for its “consistently good food and service, with a great atmosphere”. Supporters reckon it is currently “back on form and, though expensive, a great meal is guaranteed (potted shrimps and shellfish superb!)”. A contrary view is that “the dining room decor is in a time warp, with no hint of frivolity to brighten the dullness”, while the “surprisingly long menu could do with being edited”, and the dishes arrive in “generous portions, but lack finesse”.

“If you want to know how the best Pakistani curries taste, come to Akbar’s” – a “fun and buzzy” spot that, according to one local reporter, is “the curry house I always tip to visitors” (“the authentic section of the menu is full of the most incredible flavours”). Charismatic founder Shabir Hussain (known to friends and admirers as ‘Bash’, ‘the King of Curry’) sadly died in 2024; his funeral attracted 5,000 mourners. He started out with a 28-seat canteen, which he expanded over three decades into a group of 10 venues from Birmingham to Glasgow.

2023 Review: Mohammed Sabir was still working as a bus driver in Shipley when he launched his Kashmiri curry business as a mobile takeaway from his Commer van, the ‘Spice Box’ in 1976. The next year he opened his first bricks-and-mortar restaurant Aagrah, which still wins consistently solid marks for its food and has nine branches across Yorkshire.

A report of “the best meal of the last year” is indicative of the quality of the food at this modern canalside venture in the city centre, which originally opened five years ago at Kirkgate Market. Chef Mark Owens, who trained at Le Gavroche and was head chef at the Box Tree, sends out a souped-up gastropub menu featuring the likes of beef & oyster sausages. Founder Liz Cottam closed her flagship restaurant, Home, last year.

A lot of business has been done over “lovely food, very well served” at this Leeds institution – a classic French restaurant that’s “been going forever” (well, since 1991 – “I don’t think the menu has changed but it’s really nice food for a business lunch or dinner”). Founded by restaurateur Robert Chamberlain and executive chef Andrew Carter, who still run the show, it occupies a basement in the city’s financial district. Top Tip – the heavyweight wine list runs to 70 pages.

“Epic, authentic Indian street food that’s so moreish” is paired with craft beer (much of it from their own brewery in Manchester) at Mayur Patel & Marko Husak’s student-fave haunt, which started out here at Mill Hill in 2014 and has expanded to three more sites. “The best of the best when it comes to street food – a real taste of India”, many a guest does not even register that the Gujarati-based menu is entirely vegetarian or vegan. Top Tip – “the chaat is unbelievably addictive!”.

“Always great”, this stalwart Italian has been delivering pizza, pasta and Sicilian specials since the 1970s, when the former cost just 70p, and was seen as an exotic treat. In 2023, John & Gip Dammone, who’d long since taken over the reins from their father Salvatore, finally sold up, going on to receive MBEs for their services – and happily the new owners – also brothers, symmetrically – haven’t messed with the formula at what is a deserved Leeds legend.