Yorkshire’s top hidden restaurants - including inside a former toilet block and at the subject of a Yungblud song
You could easily miss the lift, thinking it’s an entry to the carpark of Trinity Leeds.
Not quite off the beaten path but nestled off the bustling high street is The Crafthouse restaurant and champagne bar. Here, you get a stunning view of Leeds city centre.
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Hide AdHowever, for an even more well hidden location without the views is Public - an underground compact cocktail bar with table service. It used to be the public toilets nestled in Sheffield City Centre next to the Peace Gardens.
Public’s website says: “Occupying the former gent's toilet below the grade-1 listed Victorian town hall, Public is a tiny haven of fine drinks and delicious food.
Another hidden restaurant can be found at the iconic Park Hill flats which have become synonymous with Sheffield’s skyline.
The former council flat ‘streets in the sky’ looming over Sheffield train station are now refurbished state-of-the-art apartments with a hidden gem of a restaurant, South Street Kitchen.
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Hide AdThis stylish eatery has an extensive middle eastern inspired vegan and vegetarian mezze dishes as well as teas, coffees, cocktails and beers on the menu.
Not always a dedicated food joint, there are many pop-up hidden gems where you can grab a tipple and tantalise your tastebuds at the same time.
Nestled within a hidden cinema in Wakefield for example, behind the secret bar RBT Video disguised as a video store, is another pop-up eatery joint - LOT which serves up popcorn, cocktails and candy floss when films are on as well as playing host to a range of independent street food businesses.
Their sister bar Now Serving also has a kitchenette to help start-up street food businesses launch and sell their produce to punters.
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Hide AdNearby in The Ridings Shopping Centre Wakefield Street Kitchen has run several free pop-ups for people in need providing hot food and community support.
Wakefield Street Kitchen also operates as a weekly soup kitchen, a food bank, a meals-on-wheels service and as a distributor of food and other goods to local charities.
Street food is no longer relegated to outdoor markets, it’s a popular way to overhaul bar food as bars provide the space to vendors.
Falafel Guys for example has three locations in Leeds, they are based in Assembly Underground, Salt, Granary Wharf and inside a small caravan on Briggate.
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Hide AdThat’s not to mention some of the delicious street food hidden inside Kirkgate Market and Sheffield’s Moor.
East 59th overlooks Leeds Kirkgate Market. Perched on the penthouse spot of Victoria Gate, East 59th comprises a modern restaurant, cocktail bar and a Mediterranean style rooftop terrace.
Issho - meaning 'together' in Japanese - is a contemporary Japanese rooftop restaurant, bar and terrace adjacent to East 59th.
There’s a specially curated cocktail menu that pays homage to Japan and a menu composed with modern and exquisite Japanese cuisine. Choose from the Robata grill to the sushi counter, with additions like bao buns.
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Hide AdBrooks in Ilkley is another top place to go when it comes to Asian tapas.
Hyde Park Book Club is a vegetarian cafe and deli on Headingley Rd not too far from Hyde Park Picture House.
There’s another hidden eaterie housed inside a cinema, this one is underneath Abbeydale Picture House on London Road.
Picture House Social serves handmade pizza alongside a cocktail menu.
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Hide AdThe website says: “One of Sheffield’s favourite hangouts tucked away in the underground ballroom room of the 1920s built Abbeydale Picture House. Generous sofa areas and an unapologetic amount of space for dancing, food, booze, music and entertainment.”
Also in South Yorkshire is The Secret Italian in Barnsley but due to its popularity, TripAdvisor reviewers have made it not so secret. It’s an authentic Italian trattoria serving traditional Italian farmhouse food cooked fresh each day.
When it comes to a traditional British establishment The Bingley Arms is Britain’s oldest pub in the village of Bardsley and serves up top pub grub.
Or for more of a modern plant-based experience try the Church - Temple of Fun in Sheffield for some delicious “dirty” vegan fast food inside a converted church.
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Hide AdA fine dining experience just around the corner is JORO restaurant inside a shipping container in Kelham Island, or Home in Leeds tucked on top of city centre shops as well as Man Behind the Curtain: Michael O’Hare’s restaurant below some shops for a theatrical gastronomical experience.
Out of the city centre and worth a trip to the coast - if you ever needed an excuse anyway - is the Secret Seaview Cafe Bar in Whitby, a converted Old Chapel steeped in history dating back to 1779. The bar is hidden away in the streets of the quaint fishing village of Robin Hoods Bay.