Ladies who lunch

Jul 4 2008 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Ladies who lunch

Venue: Windmill Coffee Shop, Royd Lane, Millhouse Green, near Penistone

Telephone: 01226 765599.

Open: Monday to Saturday 9am until 4.30pm, Sunday 10am until 4.30pm.

Disabled access: Straight from the car park into the shop, all on one level.

The bill: £14.10 for two courses, plus drinks.

Would you return? Yes.

MY FRIEND Lesley lives in the beautiful, if a trifle windswept, moor above Holmfirth.

When I called to visit the other day, she suggested that we pay a lunch-time visit to the nearby Windmill Nursery and Coffee Shop, a couple of miles down the road towards Penistone.

The nursery has, quite possibly, one of the most dramatic viewpoints of any of the restaurants I’ve so far reviewed for this page.

It takes its name from the small wind farm on the top of the moors and has a somewhat unprepossessing exterior – more pre-fabricated garden centre than chic coffee shop.

But inside, there’s a cosy, cottagey café with clean white walls and a no-nonsense menu.

It was after 1pm when we arrived and there was no room – a mark of how popular this restaurant has become in three years.

Fortunately, it was one of those rare sunny late June afternoons and we found somewhere to sit at a picnic table in the garden centre – a sheltered spot among the giant ceramic pots, stone lions and bags of compost.

“I know exactly what I’m going to have,” said Lesley, a frequent visitor to the Windmill. “The quiche is home-cooked and comes with a lovely salad.”

We ordered two and within minutes they’d arrived – the quiche warm and melt-in-the-mouth and accompanied by a crisp, freshly prepared salad.

There’s nothing adventurous, quirky or clever about the menu. There are hot sarnies of the bacon and egg genre, toasted sandwiches, jacket potatoes, cooked breakfasts and various things on toast. Hot dishes include home-cooked meat and potato pie and liver and bacon casserole.

Prices are low enough to make the expense of travelling there worthwhile. Just £4.75 for the most expensive meat and potato pie and only £2.95 for soup or £2.25 for cheese on toast. Our quiche was £3.75 for a plateful that included potato salad and coleslaw.

The coffee shop opens at 9am and has a hardcore of regulars who travel there for their morning pick-me-up and/or breakfast. On its own, the nursery would probably struggle for passing trade, but with the café to complement it, there’s clearly no shortage of custom.

In the summer, the little coffee shop is ideally placed for a little run-out and an afternoon of plant shopping. I’m told the nursery specialises in unusual specimens. It certainly has a fine collection of planters.

But this is a food review, not an article about garden centres, so let’s return once more to the light lunch.

Having eaten our savoury course, we decided that we could be tempted by a cake. In fact, the girl dining on the next table tempted us with her apple pie and custard, but in the end it was the carrot cake that won.

Moist, topped with light butter cream and packed with walnuts, it was, as one of my other friends, Susan, likes to say, definitely worth the calories.

With a cappuccino each to wash down the crumbs, the bill came to just £14.10.

“I bring everybody here,’’ said Lesley, as we made our way out, past the wind chimes and gardening equipment.

Can there be a better recommendation?