Silver’s Deli, Bramley: 'I ate at the UberEats Restaurant of the Year 2025 - it's huge fun'
You could easily walk past Silver’s Deli in Bramley and if you did you would be missing a treat. Amanda Wragg paid a visit to find out what all the fuss is about their sandwiches.
The world is noisy, don’t you think? Folk are endlessly shouting on social media, spouting dodgy opinions and mad theories that before Facebook and Twitter would have bored the pants off their mates in the pub.
I spend too much time blocking ranters, time better used reading a book or knitting a rug. Or actually going to the pub.
But I rely on the mobile for my reviews: restaurants and chefs post images and updates on Instagram, and it’s a great way of keeping in touch with what’s new and happening.
Which brings me in a roundabout way to Silver’s Deli.
Up pops a post from Bavette in Horsforth, recent winners of The Good Food Guide’s Best Neighbourhood Restaurant, talking about a collab with Silver’s, a sandwich shop in Bramley.
Bavette is a sophisticated French fine dining gaff, beloved of the likes of Jay Rayner at the Financial Times, who raved about ‘the very lovely Bavette’ with its ‘finely calibrated largesse’ and ‘effortless charm’.
Okay. So a sarnie shop in Bramley has a date with a French fine dining restaurant in Horsforth. What in the name of heck is going on?
Well, sandwiches are big. Literally and figuratively. You’ll have noticed that they’ve changed a lot since M&S invented the packaged sarnie in the ‘80s.
Before then you’d find them curled up at wedding receptions next to the vol-au-vents and in your school pack-up. Mine were crisps in sliced white bread spread with Blue Band marg, if you’re asking.
Left to my own devices I still like one now. By 2017, Britain’s sandwich industry, led by the ubiquitous meal deal, was worth £8bn.
So, I’m Bramley bound. Silver’s exterior is unremarkable. It’s a modest corner plot on a forgettable street. It could be a carpet shop. If you didn’t know about the treasures within, you’d walk by.
It’s raining stair rods but it’s not deterring customers most of whom are on first name terms with the servers. They’re in all shapes and sizes: office workers, trendy mums, plumbers, hipsters, builders, sparks and students.
A steady stream of Uber Eats and Deliveroo operatives are collecting orders. It’s quite a lot of people in a small space, but there are a couple of stools in one corner which my chum has requisitioned, and a shelf to put our cans of pop on.
The vibe? It’s what the Gen Z kids call punk. For those of us around the first time, it’s not so much Sex Pistols – it’s cooler than that (though there is a mirror over the kitchen door bearing the legend ‘F**k Subway’. If they ever decide to do merch, put me down for one please).
There are wood floors and mostly exposed brick walls, with shelves bearing plants, and the business end of the shop has white tiles.
Despite being the size of a couple of phone boxes there are lots of interesting bits and pieces to look at while you’re waiting.
While we’re waiting for ours, a couple of excellent coffees come our way, courtesy of Dark Woods and a barista who knows what she’s doing.
Your choice of sandwich is on a massive board. There’s a lot going on. Around fifteen hoagies (baked fresh every day) with pretty much all tastes catered for, including four veggie.
So if aubergine caponata, pork and beef meatball, chickpea Caesar (vegan) or pastrami floats your boat, you’ll be happy.
It’s soon apparent that these are not just, how can I put it, high street sarnies, judging by the list of ingredients per hoagie.
Two of us go for three between us, which turns out to be just plain stupid, but on the upside there’s enough for lunch tomorrow.
First up, an O’Hagan 2.0: garlic and herb chicken, crispy prosciutto, rocket, vinnie (me neither), tomato, crumb, peperonata spread (£11) and it’s an absolute beauty, with all the flavours and feels – I love the unexpected crunch.
Hot (literally) on its heels is the Italian Hot: arrabiata, ham, Napoli, prosciutto, Provolone, rocket, vinnie, long hots, crumb, basil sauce (£11) and the heat is not insubstantial, enough to find us fishing the long hots out. This isn’t a criticism, more a warning.
One each really is enough but I’ll never resist a Salt Beef. Brisket, garlic dill pickles, Swiss cheese and American mustard: the best I’ve eaten until I make it to Katz’s in NYC.
It’s fair to say (and again, no criticism) that they’re not easy to eat with any kind of subtlety. It helps if you’ve got a big mouth. Don’t expect a plate or cutlery.
The deal here is entirely to do with the quality of the ingredients and the care that’s taken. They’re bursting with zest and imagination: it’s obvious that a ton of thought has gone into it. Oh, and it’s huge fun.
The man behind the counter is Chris Riley-Smith, who down the years has done the hard yards.
A proper food-lover, he wanted his own place that was time-friendly – he has a family and having worked 12 hour shifts in shouty kitchens he wanted to do it differently, for himself and his staff.
He’s determined to maintain quality: “quality is everything. Too many times I’ve seen standards drop, corners cut, and we’re not going to do that here”.
Pretty much everything is made in house - chicken is roasted every morning with thyme, garlic and olive oil, and the aioli is homemade, peppers, onions and garlic are cooked for ages for the peperonata spread, and the meatballs, brisket and pesto slaw are all made from scratch.
That’s about it, apart from homemade sausage rolls (again, huge) and cookies with sprinkles and brownies from the fabulous Get Baked in Headingley.
A post-script: they’ve just won 2025 Uber Eats Restaurant of the Year in a very crowded field. It came with a cash prize of £100,000, which Riley-Smith is going to plough into the business.
Welcome 5/5
Food 5/5
Drinks choice 5/5
Prices 5/5
Silver’s Deli 268 Stanningley Road, Leeds LS13 2BS t: 0113 388 6208
Open 7 days a week, 9am to 2pm