This is a review of the cafe. We ordered the tea for two. It comes with scones, a selection of…read moresandwiches and cakes and tea. Everything was fresh and very tasty, and also great value. Highly recommended.

My wife and I went for lunch today. The staff behind the counter were surly and abrupt. Before we…read morecould be served we were told by one of them, in the earshot of the other,that we had to get a table first or otherwise we might not be able to sit down. This just encourages people to queue jump and there were no pre warning notices. It was agreed that I sit down only for the other to say the same thing, equally as abrupt and surly. The stroganoff was advertised as just that. It was not said what it came with. I rather liked the roast potatoes and veg rather than rice. Rice was plonked on the plate without asking and pots were only added grudgingly. The place was full. They did not seem to care. Complacent would be a good way to describe them. The food was good. The customer service is very poor indeed.

TL;DR - A truly unique venue combining art, food and shopping…read more One of Sparky's colleagues tipped us off about this place, and I'm amazed we'd never heard of it before. In case you don't know (I didn't!), Saltaire was built by industrialist Titus Salt (amazing name!) alongside the river Aire to bring all aspects of his textiles business onto one enormous site. He also built a town for the workers, and the whole area is now a world heritage site. The mill has now been converted into an amazing and huge venue spanning several floors. There's so much here it's hard to take in, but I'll try and summarise. The ground floor is a mixture of books on art, stationery and arts supplies, postcards and the like but interspersed with huge art displays. At first I wasn't sure if I was in an art gallery or a shop, but the answer is both. As with the rest of the mill, David Hockney features strongly throughout. There's a basement level which we didn't explore in detail, but it sells rugs and wallpapers and is just as big as the ground floor. The first floor houses the most. One end is a gorgeous bookshop, where the focus seems to be on unusual titles rather than breadth - I saw many, many books in the recipe section which I'd never seen or heard of anywhere else. The other end of the building is devoted to homewares - kitchen supplies, furniture, clocks and more. A lot of it is very expensive, but it's a beautifully curated selection of objects for sale. Between these two wings is Salt's Diner. It's a separate venue on Yelp but suffice it to say we had lunch here and it was great.Through the restaurant you can access a further wing of the building which is split into an outdoor clothing shop, a jewellers, an art exhibit, a treasure trove of an antique store and a small coffee shop. Finally, the top floor is split into three: an exhibit on the history of the mill, a major exhibition of work by David Hockney, and a further cafe/restaurant. On top of all these, parking is free on site and it's right next to the Saltaire train station, so there's really no excuse for not visiting.

Its easy to spend the best part of a day wandering round the amazing Salts Mill with its extensive…read morecollection of David Hockney's work and its eclectic selection of "shops" which include an excellent book shop, the wonderful home section with its stunning array of furnishings and kitchen porn, and the antique/collectables area. At some point you are going to need to get some fuel on board and Salts Diner is not a bad option. Its situated on the 1st floor of this wonderful labyrinthine industrial building in a large area between the book shop and the home shop. It was very busy on our visit between Christmas and New Year but we managed to get a table for 6 without much difficulty. The young waiting girls were all very helpful and attentive and we soon settled down with a reasonably priced bottle of Merlot to have a look at the menu. There is fairly wide choice of available, and while there is no real theme to the menu, there is enough to satisfy all the generations of family visitors that Salts Mill attracts. There are lots of ankle biters about so be careful in your choice of seating if you want a peaceful lunch. I had the roast butternut squash and lentil soup from the daily specials board which was tasty and wholesome, obviously a popular selection as it was soon rubbed off the board. B and I both went down the pizza route for our main and shared a bowl of nicely cooked crispy fries; nothing to complain about but pretty bog standard. The most successful main seemed to be Danny's beef meatballs and pasta in a rich tomato sauce, again from daily specials board, although the other boys were quite complimentary about their beef and ale pies which came in a nice white dish topped with puff pastry. All in all while this was nothing to write home about it was a pretty decent lunch in a great building. Salts Diner itself its not somewhere I would go out of my way to visit but works well a part of a visit to the Mill (I would particularly recommended a visit at the moment to see the amazing "Flowers" show on the top floor of work created by Mr Hockney on his iPad - just stunning). 3 for Salts Diner and 5 for the Mill.

A small independent garden centre with plenty to offer. On site theres a very reasonably priced…read morecafe with a whole heap of yummy cakes to go with morning tea. Theres a very comprehensively stocked craft shop, a home brew shop, a sweet shop, a school uniform suppliers with a range of Scout and Guiding uniforms and lots and lots of plants. They also stock a variety of gifts, gardening tools, bird feeders, fish, gravels, mulches and composts. Parking is plentiful.

Valley Road, Bradford…read more BD1 4AG 01274 723308 I absolutely love this shop - its a shopaholics fantasy store. They do a huge range of goods all under the one roof at fantastic and sometimes stupid prices. They do food, drink, toys, linen, toiletries, etc all at under average prices. They are the top notch best makes and not a cheap copy of the top makes which makes it even better. The only bugbear is the fact that the shop gets so busy and you end up having to queue for about 30 minutes but with the bargains you end up getting it is well worth it. The store is always nice and clean and well stocked - the stock changes every couple of days too which keeps the excitement factor going too. The staff are nice and friendly usually even when the store is absolutely heaving.

Have visited many of these stores in the area and often find many bargains in the form of childrens…read moretoys, arts and crafts, sweets, drinks, pet food/toys and house items. This particular store is located in Forster Square Retail Park. Car parks always busy due to football stadium being close by so foten have to wait for spaces. This store also seems busier than others so can be a lot of hussle and bussle inside and have queued at the checkout for up to 10 minutes on more than one occasion. Bargains to be had for all ages so well worth a visit if you have the time to browse and queue.

It's hard to categorise The Range, because it sells pretty much everything you can think of. My…read morefriend Ste discovered it because it's right near our work, and I have spent many a happy lunch hour mooching about planning what to buy on next payday. Most of the stuff is dirt cheap, but beware, as you can easily end up spending a fair few quid once you've had a look around. There's a wide selection of canvas prints and frames, lots of arts and crafts things, a huge selection of pet goodies, a garden centre section, beds, tables and chairs, sofas, bedlinen, bathroom stuff, tools, kitchen stuff, sweeties, pop, crsips, a coffee shop, sewing things, and BEANBAGS, I put that in capital letters because beanbags are hard to get hold of nowadays. Ooh and they sell lights and stuff too. It's really quite a 'range'. Heh heh.

Enormous shop, with an enormous range…read more Perfect for those interested in arts and crafts, with a superb range of card toppers, easels, canvases, paints etc. It's fairly basic, but you can get Papermania items which aren't available in Hobbycraft. Everything for the home, including furniture, cutlery, pet food, garden plants, and random sweets and coffee near the tills! The cafe is very basic, but cheap and cheerful. You'll probably spend a bomb here, but you'll save in the long run.

This is a beautiful little florists in the heart of Ilkley. From the mere outside you can tell the…read morekind of love and care taken with their displays and craft, with beautifully lit little trees snipped into lollypop type shapes, which immediately reminded me of visiting Disney Land Paris, where they had fairly tale square and round shaped trees, which I in particular found to be very exciting! Inside it is somewhat like a sort of beautifully scented meditation room, with some lovely water features splishing away in the corner. The lady who served me was very friendly and helped me to choose a lovely bunch of flowers as a gift for a friend, who was very pleased - I'm told they lasted over two weeks, which is quite good value for money! As a lovely alternative to supermarket flowers, which are hit and miss at best, try Amity Rose if you're in Ilkley Town!

Amity Rose is essentially a florists with lavish and decadent extras thrown in. Two bay trees stand…read moreoutside, framing the doorway and the window display was very attractive with a large 'distressed' mirror and bird cages surrounded by plants and flowers. Inside, I particularly liked the bold decoration that would bring a subtle effect to a home or garden - like the large stones with small indents just big enough to fit a tea light in. Even though it was a small shop everything was quite grand. There was a vase nearly as tall as me filled with lemons! I fantasied about one day having a house suitable for any of this but if you're looking for some extras for your home maybe take a look here for something a bit different.

I much prefer the city centre Debenhams to this one. The layout here makes less sense and I always…read morelose my bearings and start to panic like a five year old who's lost their mum. The sprawling perfume section at the entrance makes me want to gag - at least at the other Debs it's all nicely contained and you can steer clear if you don't want to be sprayed in the face by over-zealous sales assistants. Would much rather pay for my parking and battle with city centre crowds to get to t'other one, thank you very much. White Rose Debenhams - get a facelift.

I really like Debenhams - as usually when I visit I find something I like and need. The White Rose…read moreDebenhams is an excellent store with a great clothes section - all the Designers at Debenhams and other concessions. There's also a wedding section (where you can buy outfits and set up a wedding list), a house and home section, lingerie, make up and beauty and jewellry section. (My perfect shop everything all under one roof). There's also two good cafes. I prefer the one on the top floor as it tends to be quieter and they do nice lunches/ meals.

On a jolly jaunt about town with a chum, we decided to check out the Leeds Art Gallery after a good…read moreluncheon. I'd gotten my galleries confuddled, and had hoped to catch the Back To Basics display, but of course they weren't in the official gallery. (What a plum!) For that you'll have to get over to Munro house, as I intend to at some point. But, what we did find, was a fantastic display of work. The Hume sculptures are lots of fun, for some reason reminding me of Silent Hill a little, but then I'm that way inclined. As soon as we ascended upstairs we were met by a delightfully creepy old lady, painted almost green, very reminiscent of the typical vision of an old wise woman. She was looking up to the skies in an unending groan, perhaps bemoaning her creaking joints -her hand was pretty gnarly, and perhaps arthritic. Any way, I'm writing this rather tongue in cheek, but it is a fantastic image. Upstairs there's plenty of different mediums to take in, as well as the wonderfully structured library. I can't describe all the paintings, sketches and sculptures we saw as the instant I took a photograph (for posterity) I was asked to kindly desist. You're not allowed to take pictures! Having to commit everything to memory is almost defunct with one such as myself -apparently I have very poor skills at this. Even so, I can remember the overwhelming feeling of enjoyment and intrigue, and that my particular favourite image was called 'A children that has gone to cheese' by Sam Haile. Check it out. Downstairs I hadn't prepared to enjoy the pre 1900 section quite so much. My tastes usually extend to Surrealism, but the Pre-Raphaelite (forgive me if this is wrong) and Realism exhibition is really breathtaking. Don't get me wrong -the subject matter was not always of interest. I'm not religious, so the dainty Jesus wasn't to my taste. However, the landscape images were simply incredible-get right in there and take in the brush technique, and the stand back and let your eyes soak it in. Wow. What at once appears such a hapless dash of pain somehow becomes the most precise bit of foliage. There's also a truly awesome image of some kind of revolution/civil war. We took a stab, and guessed that they might be British soldiers. The striking thing is that it doesn't appear to be a war-positive picture - ususally images of that time show proud soldiers, and come across very patriotic, in my experience. Not so here. We discussed this terrifying still of horses, in the moment of rapidly approaching the viewer, and decided that it must have been created from the imagination. (As you'd be trampled were you right there at that point.) We then realised that the entire picture was quite intimidating. Firstly, the motion: horses at full pelt, almost above you, coming directly your way without falter. The soldiers looked manic, severe, and certainly not proud, or triumphant. Just determined. Then we noticed that the title was something to do with the Scottish revolution - and these soldiers were in red. Surely it's an image of some pitiless English demons, ready to rake the ground of Scottish soil? Who knows! We might be way off. We might have gotten carried away. But, isn't that the point of art? The joy must be in the discussion and intrigue, as much as the skill and still image itself. And whether or not we've gotten this painting utterly wrong, the vision of those towering horses and implacable men shall stay with me. So much movement! I'm going to have to go back and see them before me once again. So, go take a look. If you've an opinion, let me know...

I discovered Leeds art gallery when looking for a venue for a photo shoot and was surprised at the…read moreamount of contemporary work there. In smaller cities classical pieces tend to to over shadow modern art but Leeds art gallery makes use of a small space at the front for more eccentric modern work! I can't say I understood the event that was on at the time and was apparently using space and isolation as a theme. Despite my lack of knowledge I enjoyed walking around very much and it made a beautiful setting for photos. The gallery however has more timely pieces of renaissance art and more classical works. The museum is free and makes a lovely change from the hoards of crowds running in and out of Topshop and Harvey Nickles like shopping maniacs! The aura is calm and and relaxed. The gallery is small compared to those in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham however has recently been renovated with marble floors and large white walls. There is no fee to see some beautiful works so pop in for a break from your winter shopping! The cafe isn't half bad either if you want a sophisticated cup of coffee a little away from the main shopping streets,