Bramley, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This “wonderful canalside restaurant, flooded with light” was originally at Kirkgate Market, moving to the Mustard Wharf development two years ago, where it is “a great addition to Leeds” – “the food is delicious but the relaxed atmosphere is also a key to its success”. Liz Cottam, a MasterChef semifinalist, and Mark Owens (ex-head chef at the Box Tree) also run Home at Brewery Wharf.

This “vibrant and busy” basement venue with an “interesting French menu” is a “longstanding favourite”, whose “very good lunch” makes it an “ideal and consistent business brasserie”. Opened in 1991 and still run by founders restaurateur Robert Chamberlain and exec chef Andrew Carter, its many fans are happy that it has “not changed in 20 years”.

The “personal service” at Stuart & Jo Myers’ “fantastic small restaurant” in Mabgate – which they opened twelve years ago as a café called the ‘Greedy Pig Kitchen’ – is “the very definition of hospitality”. “The unconventional cooking is great”, too (including winning cakes). “It’s a 140-mile round trip for us but sooo worth it!”

“An airy space with unusual dishes and great cooking” – this comfortable independent opposite the civic hall scored highly in this year’s annual diners’ poll. The focus is on small plates, some of them very original: who’s for ‘honey, soy and gochujang roast carrots, toasted sesame, with tahini satay’?

“A real must-try with a lovely convivial atmosphere”, this historic former mill combines a “dining room and bar in heavy, dark wood that feels like it hasn’t changed much since the eighteenth century and the days of the BBC’s Gentleman Jack” (which was filmed here) with “food that’s much more modern (though retaining a Yorkshire heartiness)” from “very talented and inventive chef Will Webster”. There’s also a “fabulous wine list, with many offered by the glass”.

Attached to a luxurious spa hotel, this modern brasserie is open all day (with other options in the hotel being the more ambitious Horto, or afternoon tea in the Conservatory). One fan notes it as a good place for a relaxed business meal, but there is also the odd concern that its “good ambience can be let down by average results at excessive prices”.

A Yorkshire “legend” – “the epitome of an old-fashioned afternoon tea room, and with a great pianist too”. “You might have a long wait in the queue to get in, but it’s worth it” for the “delicious pastries and well-filled sandwiches” served at this flagship of a family-owned business founded in 1919, now with five venues across North Yorkshire. “Places that are described as an ‘institution’ are often a stuffy, stilted let-down – Betty’s is none of the above”: “even the fish ’n’ chips are stylish”.