As promised, after last Friday's guide to the cut-price culinary delights to be found on the Lancashire coastline, today I turn the radar that is my gob to Yorkshire, and the best budget eating to be found in Bridlington, Scarborough, Whitby and the surrounding coastal areas.
You can read my full Top 10 over on Travel, but, as ever - more pressingly than normal, in fact - this is an opportunity to discuss, not just the places I have covered, but those great venues that I missed or simply didn't have space to cover. Certainly, I wouldn't claim my 10 is exhaustive. For once, and this is much to Yorkshire's credit, in searching for quality outlets that fit the criteria for this 'budget eats' series (places where you can eat a substantial snack / one-course meal, with a drink, for under £10 a head), I was spoiled for choice.
While, in my 10, I've tried to put together a varied list, from sandwich shops, chippies and pubs to great deals at more upmarket restaurants, there were plenty of other places that I either tested, or which cropped up in my research, which I reckon could easily have made the final cut.
Of these, the Anvil Inn at Sawdon, near Scarborough, definitely deserves a mention in dispatches. Listed in the current Good Food Guide, it's a smartly renovated country pub with very well kept ales and some excellent bargains to be had from the lunchtime and Sunday menus. Similarly, the Moon & Sixpence in Whitby looked good, I read a lot of positive things about veggie restaurant, Seasalt & Passion, and - while they're a bit bright and childish in design; Carrie Bradshaw would wrinkle her nose - the Solid Rock Cafe, in Scarborough, bakes a fairly decent cup cake and whoopie pie. Swell and the Old Bakery Tea Rooms were also promising, but time and acute indigestion were against me, and I didn't make it to Robin Hood's Bay.
I could go on ... but, before our Yorkshire correspondents get too smug, I should also point out that I had to wade through a lot of tosh to come up with my provisional lists. I even tasted some right rubbish, too. If you're in Scarborough, for instance, I would heartily recommend you swerve the Glasshouse cafe. Next door to the North Bay miniature railway, it may look like a decent stop-off, particularly if you've got whining kids in tow, but, trust me, walk on. I had a roast beef sandwich there - served with a handful of crisps and a painfully pale iceberg lettuce and tomato 'side-salad' - that tasted of almost nothing. Even the beef, eaten on its own, only vaguely hinted at beefiness. It was a 4/10 at most, and cost me £4.95. It's not often I say this, but I'd have rather have had that roast beef and horseradish sarnie they do at Tesco.
There is still work to do, then. But what do you think of my main list 10? Who do you rate, who would you slate, and which budget gems did I miss?
