Driving home from the Lake District, we had a lunch stop round the side of a Shell petrol station in Bradford.
I’m well aware that sounds weird, but that’s exactly where you’ll find Pearls Tearoom & Patisserie: a place that’s proof that the most beautiful places can be found in the most unlikely locations.
We’d needed to stop somewhere to charge the car en route, and ended up at a hotel in Bradford at around lunchtime to do so. A quick look at Google Maps brought up Pearls Tearoom as a well-reviewed lunch stop, so we decided to give it a go.
Pearls Tearoom’s location doesn’t exactly scream “destination dining”, and it’s definitely not somewhere we’d have stumbled across by accident! Despite its unusual location, though, its small car park was busy when we arrived, and inside was just the same.
Originally a Little Chef, the premises became Hanq’s Diner in 2012, with Pearls Tearoom moving in in January 2018. The place describes itself as a tearoom and patisserie and its decor is far from what it would have been like in its Little Chef days, with chandeliers, a baby grand piano and sofas around the entrance, giving it a pretty glamorous feel.
The counter adds to that glamour, with a selection of tasty-looking cakes and macarons in a range of flavours, available to buy in boxes to take home.
It was nice to see how popular Pearls Tearoom was with families, too – there was a real mix of people enjoying the restaurant, defying the initial perception that it could be trying to be too fancy for children.
There is a children’s menu (including their very own afternoon tea), but it’s hardly surprising that they have a dedicated kids’ offering when you see the size of the Pearls Tearoom menu – it’s HUGE! I have to admit that menus of this size sometimes make me slightly nervous, wondering how a restaurant’s kitchen can possibly do every dish justice…
There are all-day breakfasts, light bites, salads, pastas and parmesans, burgers, grills, seafood, afternoon teas, desserts, patisserie, speciality drinks…it took us a while to choose.
In the end, my husband went for the fried masala fish (£14), which turned out to be a great choice. It was an enormous portion: a huge, tender haddock fillet that had been marinated in spices before being coated in a crunchy, spiced batter and fried. The fish was perfectly cooked, the batter had plenty of flavour and there was a lovely warmth from the spices without them overpowering the fish. It came with a mound of skinny fries (which could possibly have done with another minute in the fryer), a salad garnish and a little pot of tartare sauce on the side.
Our son went for the chicken parmesan strips (£10) from the light bites menu, and I wish I’d ordered the same! On his plate were three enormous breaded chicken goujons, which had been baked with a tangy parmo sauce and plenty of cheese. They also came iwth a side salad, plus a pot of a wonderfully pungent garlic dip.
I’d ordered the classic chicken parmesan (£13) from the main menu, which wasn’t *bad*, but it was definitely the weakest dish of the three we chose at Pearls Tearoom. The chicken breast itself was tender and the breading was nicely flavoured – and there definitely wasn’t a shortage of cheese on top! The chips were decent, I loved the flavour and strength of the accompanying garlic sauce, and I actually really liked the salad, which contained a few ingredients – like sliced radish, olives and sweetcorn – that made it a little more interesting than the average salad garnish.
The problem was the parmo sauce – or lack thereof. You can see in the picture of my son’s meal that there was plenty of sauce on top of his chicken, but this was seriously lacking on mine, which was disappointing. I wonder whether this is the norm, or whether I was just unlucky on the day.
Despite this, though, we were pleased we’d chosen Pearls Tearoom for lunch. We loved how its inauspicious surroundings led to something far more special than the area around the place would suggest, we loved how child-friendly it was, and while my choice of meal wasn’t perfect, the boys were very happy with theirs.
If we’re ever back up that way, I’d be very tempted to give their Desi Afternoon Tea a go next…