Food for Cowboys, Hull: The Yorkshire restaurant with just five tables which is the coolest in the East Riding

Believe me, I wrestled with whether I should write about Food For Cowboys for these very reasons but, when I looked back at my gastronomic year, I decided I enjoyed their food as much (if not more) than anywhere else and they deserve all the praise they get.

Only six months ago, this modest place didn’t even exist, yet it’s already become the coolest place to eat in the East Riding.

Hull lad Tarik Bolton started cooking at popular local eatery Thieving Harry’s before moving to London and then Leeds to gain experience in various restaurants and then returning to his home city to work in exacting environments like the Pipe & Glass and Social Distortion.

Donning his cold, hard business hat, he realised that he’d have to open his own place to make some proper money and – having taken a look at the culinary market in the area – decided what was missing was a decent taqueria.

Co-financing with his pal (and non-cooking business partner), Tarik tested the water with a few well-received pop-up ventures toward the end of covid and then went on the scout for premises.

Food For Cowboys soon found a home in the most unlikely of places – the former parking attendant’s booth under Kingston House (now rebranded as K2), the notoriously un-waterproof, former council-owned ‘60s tower block in the middle of the city.

Now, in a kitchen little bigger than a pool table, Tarik and his small but dedicated staff offer up outstanding Mexican food to anyone willing to sit in the cold on metal chairs outside the tiny booth. (To be fair, there is an arrangement with a nearby coffee shop that means punters can also take their food into the warmth to be devoured.)

The basic, Spanglish menu is surprisingly fulsome and, so far, everything I’ve eaten at Food For Cowboys has been quite superb. Not only is it all cooked fresh in the tiny kitchen, they also make their own tacos, tortillas and even cheese right there in the booth.

Whatever you order, it arrives when it’s ready, offered up in unpretentious cardboard trays. Here is an equally basic, non-linear breakdown of what you should be trying.

On the taco menu (tacos cost £5-£6.50 each), the carnitas – slow cooked pork with oranges, avocado leaves and chilli – provide an instant fall-apart treat.

The avocado leaves add a subtle aniseed flavour, which obviously works perfectly with the pork.

Calabacin y flor de calabaza is a veggie-friendly mix of deep-fried courgette and pumpkin flower, cashew nut cream, salsa macha and pumpkin seeds. Lighter than other options it may be, but just as flavourful.

Another veggie option, flor de plantano, is similar to a Baja fish taco but, here, banana blossom is deep fried in light beer batter in place of the fish. Served with capers and seaweed, it has a salty, sweet zing.

All the tacos come with a chunk of lime which adds a familiar piquancy while elevating the flavours of all the other ingredients.

The taco you’ll return to the most, though, is house specialty the birria. A crispy, grilled taco dipped in beef and bone marrow fat, filled with string cheese, the tenderest beef, salsa macha and served with a dipping pot of consommé.

While a mess to eat, it is every bit as delicious as it sounds and rightly has its own box on the menu.

Elsewhere, the cornbread is a revelation. None of the dry, starchy nonsense you’ve sampled before. Here it is light, moist and has a salty, chilli topping. The elotes con maple are corn ribs with maple syrup and insanely moreish.

Then (and you may - as I did - shy away from the optional topping on this one) there is guacamole con chapulines. A bed of fresh-made tortillas are blathered in chunky, unctuous guacamole and – should you be a masochist – topped with dried grasshoppers.

Now, there are those who insist that there’s nothing wrong with eating insects and that they may even be the solution to many of the world’s food problems.

I’m on the other side of the debate. The only dried insect I’ve ever sampled is a scorpion and it was absolutely dreadful. It was tasteless, hard to chew and swallow and left bits of carapace lodged between my teeth for some frustrating hours.

I want us to solve food supply issues as much as anyone, but if it involves scoffing the likes of grasshoppers, I’ll be secretly stashing cuts of cow wherever I can to keep me going through the lean times.

Don’t let the presence of insects put you off the dish, though. The grasshopper-free version is an absolute belter.

There is more to explore at Food For Cowboys and the menu is being altered constantly.

By the time you find your way to their door, there will almost certainly be other Mexican treats (and additional dried insectivore) to choose from.

There’s no booking and drinks are limited to few Mexican sodas, but, despite their current location and the limited seating, they are turning out complex, fascinating, excellent food without any apparent compromise to the lack of space and cramped conditions.

Every mouthful is a vital, intriguing treat.

Currently, Food For Cowboys is doing a roaring trade with the cool kids (who follow their adventures on Instagram) and through their takeaway service.

Plans are afoot, though, to move to larger premises and increase the size of the offering. As long as Tarik and team continue to pour as much skill, energy and imagination into their food, I can’t see any venture they set their minds to failing.

A parking attendant’s booth under a leaky office block today; tomorrow, who knows? The world is their taco.

Welcome 5/5

Food 4/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Prices 4/5

Food For Cowboys, The Old Car Park Office, K2 Tower, 60 Bond Street, Hull, HU1 3EN. www.foodforcowboys.co.uk