Honley 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”.

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”.

“Just amazing!” – “service here is second to none” and “the food is just something else, with chefs who know how to mix good local ingredients to create really special dishes”. Oliver Roberts (ex-Shibden Mill FOH) opened this “little local bistro” in a village near Huddersfield in late 2023, and has gathered admirers ever since – among them Bruce Springsteen, who dropped in for dinner last May with Stephen Graham, the Lancashire-born actor who plays his father in the recent biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’. Top Menu Tip – Isle of Wight tomatoes with wild garlic ice cream, invented by chef Louis Bamford and described by Stephen Graham as “mad Merlin stuff”.

The second pizza project from couple Kate & Jim Morgan, whose previous venture, Rudy’s Pizza in Manchester, became such a runaway success that the duo sold it to hospitality giants Mission Mars in 2017 (albeit remaining on as stakeholders as it has spiralled into a nationwide chain). As per its famous predecessor, the order of the day is “perfect pizza” of Neapolitan bent, cooked for just sixty seconds to achieve a perfectly blistered crust – “but don’t skimp on the starters”, which might include arancini and deep-fried olives with house sausage.