Being fairly new to the Huddersfield area I am still very much enjoying sampling the wide variety of eateries available in this busy little Town.

Today it was the turn of Cafe Rock, situated just opposite the Town Hall in the centre of town, the area is quite a busy shopping spot, with the multi storey car parks close by and a large bus terminus just on its door step.

We arrived fairly early on in the day and were almost the first people in, about 12 ish, there were another couple sat at a table and a single person sitting at the ‘cheers’ style bar.
As with most buildings in this area the structure itself imposes a degree of grandeur , built in the traditional local stone it still retains most of the original features, being a bit of a building ‘nerd’ this pleases me.

The entrance to Cafe Rock does not have the luxury of a big shop frontage, instead it’s quite discreet, a sign above a pair of double doors leading upstairs, if you weren’t looking for it you’d probably miss it, they do try to attract attention on lunchtimes by means of a member of staff standing in the main street handing out flyers.
On entering the building you are faced with a large flight of stairs, we tried to spy a lift or other disabled facilities but couldn’t see anything obvious, the initial feel for the place is that it’s more bar/ club rather than restaurant, but in a tasteful way, the decor is all themed as expected to suit the name, not too tacky, just nice.
We found ourselves a table and began to deliberate over the menu, it’s worth bearing in mind that this is not a restaurant as such, you will not be seated to your table or overly fussed over, it is more in line with the Weatherspoons of the world, however shortly after sitting down a very pleasant and well mannered waitress did come and ask us if there was anything she could get us, we ordered two mineral drinks, it was lunch time after all!

The menu was large, not in content but in size, a single laminated sheet of A3! It seemed a little excessive, but did the job, a quick glance and it reveals exactly what you’d have hoped to see, the usual suspects were all there, ribs, steak, potato skins, chilli, lasagne, and a large selection of jacket potatoes of sandwiches were available, the menu let itself down slightly by having NO vegetarian options in the ‘Main Meal’ section.
We decided to go for the starter size portion of Ribs with a starter of loaded potato skins filled with cheese and bacon, we waited only about 10 minutes before that delightful sight of a plate yielding waitress emerged from across the room, the starters were a good size portion without being overwhelming, and both were well presented, perhaps my only criticism is with the loaded skins, the choice of cheese was not great, it was very rubbery and quite greasy, pity really as the rest was good.

For our mains we both went for dishes labelled ‘home made’ my choice was the meat and potato pie whilst my partner went for the chilli, again these dishes only took perhaps 15 minutes to come, and wow, what portions, most definitely value for money here, the Pie was presented in a large pie dish with a puff pastry lid and was served with curly fries, other choices were available, the chilli likewise was served in a dish with a side of chips, oddly, rice was not offered with this dish.
We sampled each other’s choices and general thoughts were positive, the food was hot, plates were hot and the tastes were good, the chilli wasn’t too overpowering and would suit even the most delicate palette, and the pie was packed full of good cuts of beef, large chunks of potato and an assortment of vegetables, the gravy in the pie was a little to watery for my liking, I would have preferred something with a thicker consistency, but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment.

Neither of us were able to finish our mains due to the sheer size of the portions, but we had a good go.
Whilst waiting for our table to be cleared I decided to sample the facilities, I expected to find sticky floors and a typical beat up, busy night club/ bar kind of scene, to my surprise what I found were very well maintained and almost spotless facilities, the only down side was the lighting, it seemed a bit dark, maybe it’s set more for the evening scene rather than day time?

To sum up, we were happy, the total cost for 2 courses each was £18.00 and 2 large mineral drinks each was a little over £6.00, when you consider the size of the portions we received I’d say this was very good value, the staff were helpful and friendly, the table a little small especially if there were more than 2 of you, but perfectly manageable, and despite this place being a very busy night spot for bar and club goers, they managed to make it very welcoming for lunchtime trade, if like most of us you only get 30 minutes for lunch then this would be an ideal choice, we would definitely go again.

‘A Rocking Good Lunch’
 

Visit their website: www.rockcafeonline.co.uk

To see this restaurant on Virtual Huddersfield click here > The Rock Cafe

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