19 Grape Lane
Located between perhaps more imposing venues, such as the slug and lettuce, 19 grape lane is a real find for those in search of a more personal establishment.
The building is a typical 16th century town house, cramped, claustrophobic and entirely charming. A once white building with the name of the restaurant painted on to the opposing wall. Dark oak timber beams offset the bright exterior like every other house of this style. In York town a building of this ilk is no surprise to find, yet this one stands as a surviving beacon within the heart of a recently redeveloped area.
Finding the restaurant by chance seems to be the most effective way of navigating oneself anywhere in York. The challenge that shall almost definitely follow should the restaurants external charm take hold is to find the entrance. A simple task in any other period, those clever people in the 16th Century however decided a front door was impractical, and decided instead to place their doors to the side, usually it would seem, in dark and restrictive alleyways, not to be easily located on a winter night.
We did not have a booking, but that was no problem. The gentleman who greeted us as we passed through the tiny door more suited to a garden shed quickly took our coats and herded us to our seats. The impression I got was that this host was the owner, along with his partner; a lady who I suppose is his wife. They are both quite friendly and a warm welcome was afforded us.
We were sat on a small table away from the front window that looks to the street. The cutlery was clean and comprehensive, a good sign. The table linen was equally encouraging, as was the rest of the table set. The lady brought us some bread to break as we read the menu to us the gentleman had passed as we entered the restaurant.
The menu was attractive, slightly limited but that which was there appealed. Fish featured highly on the menu, not so good for someone who takes his omega-3’s in tablet form for taste reasons.
We had a bottle of red, which was good for its price range, it was unfortunate that the gentleman serving us went through two bottles of the stuff before he found one which did not cork.
The starters were a roast plum tomato and goat’s cheese broth, tomato soup to the uninitiated, a potato and leek vicessoise, potato and leek soup, with gelatin. The tomato soup was delicious, but the vicessoise was rather heavy and tasteless. We both had the poultry as our main, chicken breast with a fairly uninspired pesto sauce and a mash, which was over milked, for my tastes.
The décor was quaint and attractive. The service was as charming as the décor. The food was pretty poor. But for the relatively cheap price range you could do a lot worse.
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