Halifax and fine dining? Yes, where have you been for the last 10 years?
In that period restaurants such as the Shibden Mill Inn and The Moorcock Inn (RIP) raised the town’s gastro game substantially. But Halifax’s fine dining roots go deeper.
In 1994, fine dining establishment The Design House opened at Dean Clough Mills. True North, situated next door to what was The Design House, is its effective (although unofficial) successor.
You’ll find True North in Mill D at the heart of what was once the world’s biggest carpet factory. Victorian stone monoliths tower above a courtyard with funky furniture and wool-related sculptures.
True North’s single dining room shouts industrial chic. It’s airy and sparsely decorated with exposed bricks and what I presume are original metal pillars holding up the curiously tiled ceiling. On one side of the back wall is the bar. On the other is the pass which affords views into the kitchen. The front wall is entirely glass allowing diners to watch theatregoers on their way to and from the Viaduct Theatre, deeper inside the building.
We’re immediately seated at functional, square wood-topped tables. I chug a pint of Pure Pilsner brewed by Vocation, of nearby Cragg Vale, while Mrs Dave sips her locally produced gin (Speights, I think) and tonic with more restraint. Both are excellent.
The food menu fits a single side of A4. For a restaurant of its size (i.e. smallish), less is definitely more with a concise selection of meats, fish and vegetarian plates. The sophisticated style of cooking you might verbally compress into the epithet ‘modern British’.
For starters, I savour a pulled turkey thigh and pancetta croquette with a fresh sage and chilli pesto. As all croquettes should be it’s crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle with plenty of fatty, salty meaty goodness. The pesto adds a combination of flavours I hadn’t hitherto experienced and I want to experience again.
Mrs Dave has to Google what a pavé is. It’s a thick rectangular lattice of baked potato slices. The contrast of rich potatoes with juicy, pulled pork is balanced while the cornichon cut through the richness of the meat and buttery potato. Mrs Dave says she could have eaten it again for a main course.
Mrs Dave has to Google what Pave is before she ordered
(Image: Dean Clough Mills/True North)
For mains, I go for surf and turf. I’m not much a steak eater because (heresy alert) I find unflavoured, cooked cow decidedly dull. It’s usually bland, chewy and stupidly expensive.
This generous slab of flat iron comes pink and served with fat, buttery prawns and a dollop of freshly blitzed chimichurri sauce. Chewing the meat requires little effort unless perhaps you lack natural teeth. The steak is juicy enough but with the juicy prawns and tangy, spicy chimichurri it may change my view of steak for the better.
The hand-cut rosemary salted chips are £4.50 extra but good enough to justify the potato surcharge. Mrs Dave describes the blind baked pastry of her Jerusalem artichoke tart as ‘beautifully crisp’.
She adds: “Often veggie tarts can be heavy or stodgy but this is light and offset the dense veggies. There’s a nuttiness to the Jerusalem artichoke in contrast to sweetness of the squash and onion confit.
“A light side salad of watercress with chestnuts and beetroot is well paired offering a freshness with the wintery roots and stopping the dish being too heavy which other sides would have done.”
Service is attentive without being oppressive. I just wish I could remember the waiter’s anecdote that has me and Mrs Dave in fits of giggles.
Our bill, which also includes a couple of soft drinks, comes to the best part of £80, excluding tip. It’s one to file under ‘special occasion’ but it is sufficiently special for said occasion, in this case, my birthday.
True North, 1 Bowling Mill Courtyard, Dean Clough Mills, Halifax HX3 5AX, 01422 849661
True North
(Image: Dean Clough Mills/True North)