When another York restaurant let us down, we had a look online to see what options were nearby, and one that stood out was Winner Winner. A classic American style menu with tongue-in-cheek elements, we thought we'd give it a go, and so went in and sat down. We realised it was 9:00pm, and according to the site, they were open UNTIL 9pm, so I clarified with a waitress, "are you closing now?" and she smiled and said "uh... yeah" with an awkward smile. We were about to get up when she said "don't worry though,it's no problem!".

I'm so glad they were accommodating for a couple of people coming in right at closing, although there was another table still eating too.





The decor has gone for an American dive bar, and it works well. The menu is genuine American style fare, down and dirty, and appealing. They also sold root beer which is a tick for the genuine menu to me!

We decided that although we weren't going to have starters, we both fancied trying the beer battered pickles served with ranch sauce, so we asked them to come with the mains.

Food was all made fresh to order which was nice, and the staff were friendly and pleasant during our wait.



The battered pickles were surprisingly morish! Very tasty! But now it was time for the mains. My partner ordered a "So Last Year" burger, which was a bacon double cheeseburger with onion rings, barbecue and blue cheese sauce. Seriously, how good does that sound? HOWEVER, given the name of the place is Winner Winner, I had to try one of the Chef's Specials... a chicken dinner! I chose to go for Maryland's Own Fried Chicken.



The food was SUPERB. I mean like REALLY DAMN GOOD considering they could've just thrown it together to get us out of the door, but it was really good! The fried chicken was juicy and succulent with perfectly seasoned breading (too many places go nuts with making the breading really peppery!), and crispy tasty fries with great seasoning. The burger was a fantastic dirty stack of saucy juicy meaty goodness, really well made and prepared, and served with sweet potato fries which were absolutely perfect.

The best bit is that it's also not a shockingly expensive place. It's casual and friendly and serves really good food! Of all the places I've visited and eaten in whilst in York, this is most definitely one we will be revisiting when we next return, guaranteed!

Well done, Winner Winner, you live up to your name!



Winner Winner
5 King's Staith
York,
North Yorkshire
YO1 9SN
(01904) 848 989
http://www.winnerwinnerrestaurant.com/

Winner Winner

by on 14:21
When another York restaurant let us down, we had a look online to see what options were nearby, and one that stood out was Winner Winner ....
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The House of the Trembling Madness. Isn't that the best name you've ever heard for a pub? Or more correctly, a medieval drinking hall. Not just a pub, but also a cafe, a shop selling over 600 ales, and a real site of history. The rear end of the building started life in 1180 AD as the first Norman House to be built in York and still that wall holds up the old ship beams your head, those beams sailed the seas over 800 years ago.

It's impressive for that build up alone before you even get there!




The cafe area of the Trembling Madness is through the shop and upstairs into the garret of the building, which has been kept exactly how you would expect and hope it to be, with a wall of mounted trophy heads, the chunky beams mentioned earlier, traditional furniture covered in throws and cushions, and dripping wax candles. The only anachronistic is a pleasant one... classic rock music playing as accompaniment!

The food on offer is simple, in the form of burgers, platters, pies, stew and bar food, but it's done well, focusing on the food being of good quality rather than a huge variety of options. There is something on the menu called "Viking Willy Salsichon" too.



I opted to go for something from the breakfast/lighter menu in the form of Yorkshire Rarebit, whilst my partner decided on a platter, and after much debating between which one to go for, chose the Madness Platter.

As the space is cosy, it means that you often end up chatting to the other patrons, but this is Yorkshire, so it's all good and pleasant, especially when they share their personal favourite items from the menu or the ale shop etc.



Our food arrives and to put it bluntly is bloody delicious. The Yorkshire Rarebit is perfectly seasoned and flavoured and comes with a "small" fresh salad. The Madness Platter is massively tasty, with some real little treats; the bread in particular was very good!

The service in the place is friendly and very casual, the staff often heard laughing, joking and playing around, but in a good way. I visited twice on the trip to York I made this time, and both times the place was very busy, proving its popularity with locals and tourists alike.

The only sad thing I've heard is that it may be closing or relocating in a year or so as Betty's Cafe next door wants to expand their business into what is now Trembling Madness. I hope they don't do it to be honest, but if and when Trembling Madness move, I imagine they'll do their bit to keep the charm of wherever they move, whilst still providing good food and drink.

I hope to return.





The House of the Trembling Madness
48 Stonegate
York
Y01 8AS
(01904) 640 009
http://www.tremblingmadness.co.uk
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Betty's is a Yorkshire institution, having started in Harrogate and blossomed into several other branches. As I was visiting York, and being a huge fan of tearooms, it was somewhere I simply had to visit, my Mecca if you will!

Betty's as a venue is beautiful. It reminds me of Main Street USA in the various Disney Magic Kingdom theme parks, a turn of the century upper class tea room and shop, offering the finest quality goods, and tempting you with the prospects of an Afternoon Tea.


We entered and were promptly seated in the main dining area, and given a couple of menus. After obviously deciding to try out the Afternoon Tea, a waiter turned up and asked us what we'd like, but even though he was polite, he didn't tell us his name or particularly seem to want to engage with us, and seemed a little rushed. It was nice to be asked whether we'd prefer milk or lemon with our tea though, and we were asked if we were happy with the choice of sandwiches available.

Our tea arrived in chrome teapots, and was pleasant enough, but for the "tearoom blend" we didn't find it particularly memorable. When we looked in the teapot, we saw that the loose leaf tea looked more like sludge, and was either a powder, or very fine leaves. Wasn't very pleasant though.




Before very long, our Afternoon Tea arrived. Unusually, it was not on a single stand, but two individual tea stands, taking up quite a lot of space on the small table. The presentation was fair, and in the correct stand-order, but the quality was sadly lacking.

The sandwiches were quite dry, lacking any sort of chutney or dressing, so the chicken was simply a bit of dry chicken on buttered bread, and only a quarter triangle of each sandwich provided. They were very much like sandwiches you'd find at a funeral wake buffet. Underwhelmed.

Sadly, the scones, which are the corner stone of any good afternoon tea were also quite dry, perhaps because they had been pre-sliced. The clotted cream was pleasant (although simply dolloped onto a small dish), and the jam was fair. The cakes on top were pretty, but nothing remarkable; a small chocolate cake which tasted like any other you'd find, a green macaron which had a pleasant texture, but which neither of us could identify the flavour of, and a small fruit tart, which was nice, with fresh fruit.


The waiter who served us came to take away the cake stands before we'd finished, removing the top plate from my partner's cake stand and placing it on the table, before scurrying off again. He then seemed to disappear for a while as we were waiting for him to return so we could ask to pay our bill, which came to £37.90 for Afternoon Tea for two, but which really didn't feel like what pay was merited, in either the quality or the service. I would say that Betty's is very much style over substance, resting on its laurels and knowing that it will be popular and paid for no matter what, but although the food and drink quality was lacking, I did hear other waiters and waitresses nearby happily chatting with their customers, and engaging a lot more than ours did. I guess ours was too busy or simply not interested.


I may have been a bit critical in this review, but I left feeling genuinely upset and disappointed, as I was really looking forward to this as a birthday treat, and a special occasion, and was expecting something a lot greater than I got.

I won't be returning to Betty's. I'll stick with Poppins!

Betty's Café Tea Rooms
6-8 St Helen's Square
York
Y01 8QP
(01904) 659 142
https://www.bettys.co.uk/

Betty's

by on 09:51
Betty's is a Yorkshire institution, having started in Harrogate and blossomed into several other branches. As I was visiting York,...
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The Northern Quarter in Manchester has pretty much everything these days in terms of restaurants and bars, from tiki bars to Tex Mex, so why not go for that staple of classic restaurants which is always popular and loved, the classic American Diner. That's what Infamous is going for. The real deal, complete with chequerboard tiled floor and chrome highlights.


The interior is impressive, with chrome brushed ceiling moulds, booth seating, and a bar on one end. As we walk in, the "please wait" podium isn't directly in front of us, but over to the right hand side, which was a bit confusing (and seemed to be for other folks too), but a member of staff greeted us quickly enough and we were led to a booth seat with the unusual feature of an extendable table.

We read the menu, which was as you'd hope and imagine; burgers, sides, fries, hot dogs, pancakes and milkshakes, as well as an 'eating challenge'. We decided on the Infamous Cheese burger and the BBQ Pitstop burger, with a side of onion rings. We were a bit disappointed that they had no root beer that day due to an apparent supplier change according to our server, but it was nice to see that root beer was part of the menu, as it's a real American diner staple. This lead to the only disappointment... we ordered a couple of Pepsi's at £2 each, and we were surprised that they came in the small "refill" looking glasses, but that free refills were not in fact offered, which is a shame, as soda refills are a common thing in the USA. The glasses were small, mostly ice cubes, and a splash of Pepsi, which was gone with a few slurps before we'd even finished our meals, which felt a bit stingy for £2 a pop, and not really in keeping with the American Diner spirit, but given that the drinks menu also included a large variety of cocktails, beers and booze, it's clear that there had to be some degree of embellishment.



However, when our food did turn up, it was good. The burgers were tasty and well seasoned, even though they had to adhere to the health and safety thing of cooking the burgers fully through instead of having them pink. The BBQ pulled pork was really good, and the gigantic crunchy onion rings were quite honestly some of the best I've ever had.

One nice feature I liked was the art in the staircase leading down to the toilets, forming full murals along the entire walls, and even a great ski-lodge mural in the gents toilets.



Infamous is good, the food is good, and the prices are in keeping with the Northern Quarter. I'd certainly visit again for lunch if I was in the area.
Infamous Diner
3-5 Basil Chambers
Nicholas Croft
Manchester
M4 1EY
(0161) 819 1798
http://www.infamousdiner.co.uk

Infamous Diner

by on 08:42
The Northern Quarter in Manchester has pretty much everything these days in terms of restaurants and bars, from tiki bars to Tex Mex, so ...
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