Grey’s Place boosts restaurant scene

Last year, we referred to the paucity of outstanding eating establishments in the county town of North Yorkshire when singing the praises of a newcomer – Cafe Natural.

Now there’s another opening and this time the location is a little more conventional.

Don’t misinterpret that observation – Cafe Natural serves great food, but its position above the Lakeland leather shop and accessed by stairs down a side alley makes it, for some folk at least, not the most natural choice for an evening out.

The latest entrant into what must be one of the toughest eating out markets to crack does have the advantage of setting up in premises that have been previously used as a restaurant. The Peppermill closed last year and Grey’s Place now occupies the spot.

We called when it had been open a couple of weeks and first impressions were of a neat and tidy refurbishment, if a little lacking in distinctive character. It is indeed mainly grey, but with aubergine as an accent colour. The seating is a mix of chairs and banquette, the tables functional rather than stylish, the tableware similarly utilitarian.

On its external fascia, Grey’s Place advertises ‘fine food’ and ‘fine wine’ and on the menu it talks of ‘fine dining and wine’, which suggests something aspirational and upmarket. Certainly, the wine list is extensive and boasts some pretty pricey bottles. But then the food menu is rather basic – ham, eggs and chips alongside steak burger and steak and ale pie. The most exotic dish was a fillet of salmon with a parmesan and herb crust – not exactly Heston Blumenthal, or even Jamie Oliver for that matter.

That’s not a criticism.

Northallerton is probably not the place to push culinary boundaries, but it does suggest a certain confusion about what Grey’s Place is all about.

We both had starters. With three to choose from (all £5.45), Sylvia picked haddock and salmon fishcakes with a salsa on the side.

What arrived was one fish cake (the size of a golf ball) and a generous serving of the salsa dressed with balsamic vinegar. Sylvia thought it a perfectly acceptable fishcake – evidently homemade – and the salsa nicely crunchy and slightly tart.

My Caesar salad was rather agricultural in construction – chunky mixed leaves and onion, some big pieces of slightly chewy streaky bacon, chicken, cherry tomato and a dinky pot of thick-ish dressing. On top of the salad sat a slightly overcooked poached egg – truly this was a curate’s egg of a dish.

Sylvia’s main course, ham, eggs and chips (£6.95), was very good. Well-flavoured, thickly-sliced roast Yorkshire ham, a perfect fried egg and excellent chunky chips.

My chicken with a wild mushroom and chardonnay sauce (£8.50) was a breast of extremely modest proportions, but well cooked – nicely browned on the outside and quite tender inside.

The sauce was a bit of a letdown, singularly lacking in flavour and seasoning. The uniform dimensions of the mushrooms certainly put a question mark over their ‘wild’ status.

The seasonal vegetables that came with both dishes were absolutely fine.

A shared strawberry shortcake (£5.95) was attractive to look at and equally presentable in the mouth, featuring some of this year’s well-flavoured strawberry crop, good quality, buttery shortbread rounds and whipped cream.

Service was friendly and unaffected.

The bill was £43, which included £11 spent on glasses of Prosecco and Pinot Grigio.

We left Grey’s Place in a state of some puzzlement.

We really hope it does well.

Lord knows, Northallerton needs every decent eating establishment it can support.

But is it a cafe or a restaurant? Is the food anything more than posh high tea, and how many of its customers buy the £160 bottle of champagne on offer?

Ratings:

Food Quality: 7/10

Service: 9/10

Surroundings: 8/10

Value: 7/10