Over the next couple of weeks, over on Guardian Travel, we've something of a seaside scoffing summer special for your delectation.
As part of my ongoing quest to find Britain's best budget eats - cafes, delis, chippies, pubs, all manner of places where you can eat well for under £10-a-head, essentially - I've been busy scouring the Lancashire and Yorkshire coasts for cut-price culinary delights and dropping the odd clanger along the way (but more of Scarborough's Glasshouse next week).
So, first up, today, we have my Lancashire Top 10 - covering the coast from Lytham St Anne's up to Hest Bank. Next Friday, you'll be able to read, rave over and despair at my choices in Yorkshire.
As ever, this post is as much a chance to talk not just about the places I have included - the Hest Bank Inn, the Palatine, Hastings and Todderstaffes in Lytham, the Cartford Inn - but to suggest others that you think I have missed.
Do you know of a Fylde gem that isn't in my Top 10? Did I miss a trick by not stopping off to try the South African menu at the Stork? Would you rate Morecambe's Chill Juice Bar over Cafe Artisan? Is the lunch menu at Blackpool's Mandarin an even better bargain than that at Kwizeen? Does my chippy round-up (Cottage, Whelan's, Seniors, Thornton Fisheries) neglect any renowned local institutions?
I'm particularly interested in reports on For Heaven's Cake in St Anne's (whose cupcakes looked great ... as I passed on the bus), and the thoughts of any regulars at Blackpool's Toast. I wanted to love the latter, it being one of the few bright spots of innovation and relative sophistication in a resort that could very much do with the variety. However, I was distinctly underwhelmed by a "Lancashire rarebit" which (no beer, no mustard, no Worcestershire sauce, no jazzy rarebit tomfoolery) was actually just Bowland cheddar (not Lancs?) cheese on white sliced toast, with a couple of rashers of bacon. It was perfectly edible, but, at £4.10 a pop, hardly a world beater.
If the rest of menu is more exciting, I'd love to hear it, along with any other thoughts or tips you might have for the Lancashire coast. Thank you!
