Forde Ilkley: Masterchef bad boy's new restaurant is 'bob on' - but turn up the thermostat
There’s quite a lot to unpack about Matt Healy’s new opening in Ilkley, but straight off the bat I want to say that the food is good. I liked all of it, without exception.
The young chefs quietly getting on with the job in the open kitchen know what they’re doing; they’re measured and calm, plating food up with skill and care.
You sense a ‘but’, right? So what’s wrong?
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Well, it’s a sub-zero, sunny winter’s lunchtime and the temperature inside isn’t much higher than outside, and the welcome isn’t helping. It’s civil enough, but there’s not much in the way of warmth.
‘Sit anywhere you like’, I was told. A quick glance round revealed a row of small tables for two along one side, and larger tables for four in the window. I’m not a fan of small tables when the menu is ‘sharing plates’ – there’s just not enough room. I suppose I’m a bit of a spreader, too.
So I asked for a window seat and was thrown a look that said ‘I know I said sit wherever you like but not there’. It’s worth noting that there were half a dozen people in at 1.30pm and the same when we left two hours later. And the window tables remained empty.
My customary glee on walking into a new place is a bit battered. But I’m happy to say that half way through service a young woman clocked in, and knowing something about hospitality, rescued the day.
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I know I sound like a stuck record, but if service is surly, the food can be three stars, and all you remember is the surly service. Conversely, the food might not be amazing but if you’ve had warm, genuine and friendly service you forgive.
I remember a long-awaited visit to a much-talked-about Michelin restaurant, not getting much change from £300 and all I can remember is the cold dining room and the snooty waiters.
Matt Healy was catapulted to fame in 2016 on MasterChef: The Professionals, when Marcus Wareing pronounced his sauce ‘the best I’ve ever tasted’.
Along with Michael O’Hare, the maverick chef/owner of The Man Behind the Curtain, they were the Bad Boys of the Leeds restaurant scene; both inked and pierced, Michael with different colour hair each time you saw him, and Matt with his entertaining profanities – his first restaurant in Holbeck, The Foundry, had the legend ‘Food to swear by’ in neon over the pass.
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Healy went on to open a Scandi style café in Oakwood then two more in York and Harrogate. He spent a wedge breathing life into the Beehive in Thorner; then Covid struck, and we all know what happened next.
He closed the Beehive, lost the Foundry and shut his cafes.
But he’s not a quitter, and he opened Forde Horsforth a couple of years ago.
Anyway – the food.
Halloumi and potato croquettes are exquisite – brilliantly crunchy and light, with clouds of cheese and spud inside, and the pool of red pepper ketchup they’re in works well.
Charred broccoli sits on a rich, pokey romesco sauce with toasted almonds for bite – it’s a very good dish but £8 seems a bit steep.
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Hide AdI don’t so much mind shelling out £12 for dish of the day, a roasted carrot salad – sounds simple enough but hats off to the kitchen for generating so many flavours and textures out of a basic vegetable.
The base is sweet, soft roast carrot with crispy onion, there’s honey, yoghurt and chilli in there somewhere, and the whisper-thin carrot ribbons on the top are pickled and insanely sharp – it’s full-throttle Ottolenghi and a terrific dish.
Next up, pig cheek Bourguignon, which as it turns out is a welcome blast of comfort food on a cold day; sticky and soft, melting into buttered mash, I could eat it all – in fact we both dive into it and there’s a slightly unseemly fork fight to finish it. It speaks of long cooking with an ocean’s depth of flavour.
It’s no portrait, as my gran used to say, but literally no one cares when something tastes this good. Sixteen quid though for a couple or three mouthfuls each? That’s bold.
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Hide AdPepper & anchovy crostini is a welcome riot of colour on such a day though is slightly under-powered; it needs turning up a notch.
Not so the hake dish, beautifully torched, crispy skin, stunning flakes of pearlescent fish falling into a divine swirl of creamy celeriac with a miso glaze.
My oh my, those lads in the kitchen know their stuff. A textbook crème brulee arrives to be shared and it does the job nicely, with a gorgeous crackle on the top and silky smooth beneath.
Elsewhere on the menu there’s a charcuterie board with three cured meats for £15, or a cheese board for £12.
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Hide AdA baked Camembert with hasselback potato will set you back £16.50, and there’s a grilled steak and onions for £19. The cocktail list is fabulous and the wine list is pretty impressive too – short but thoughtfully curated.
Forde Ilkley had been open less than a week when I went, so I don’t know if they’d finished – or even started – decorating.
It’s a bit, well, sparse, with a clattery concrete floor and emptyish walls and industrial duct pipes on the ceiling.
It’s true that I forgot about the décor once the food and the lovely waitress arrived. There are a couple of things to attend to then, before Forde is established as an Ilkley institution.
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Hide AdThe food is bob-on, so it’s a matter of turning up the thermostat, putting a couple of rugs down to soak up the clatter and encouraging some smiles on the shop floor. Simples, as the young people say.
Lunch for two without wine: £87.50
Forde Ilkley, 4 South Hawksworth Street, Ilkley LS29 9LB
www.theforde.co.uk
Welcome 3/5
Food 5/5
Atmosphere 3/5
Prices 3/5
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