It's got a name that certainly sounds promising ... especially on a cold, damp March night.
Cafe Passion is a Mediterranean style bistro tucked away down a back lane close to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax.
It looks, from the outside, like it was converted from some terraced homes and inside things take a quirky turn.
At first you think you could be in someone’s former front room, with the kitchen next to a few tables that will seat just 16. Compact and bijou.
But upstairs – and it’s like going upstairs at your own house – there’s far more tables and a toilet. Well I say toilet, but a bathroom really with a bath still there but totally sealed.
Home from home then really, except that you have a rose and a candle at each table.
That’s the passion bit.
People rave about this bistro on social media – and they’d be right to do so.
For this is a hidey-hole for meat lovers, for taste gurus, for those with, shall we say, the larger appetite, and those wanting some culinary passion injecting into taste buds that crave affection.
It’s open from 11am through until last orders at 10pm so you can even have a bit of Passion at lunchtime.
Looking at the mains choice and the huge portions that came out, wife Ruth and I quickly realised that size was important here so we played it safe by sharing a starter – humus (£3.50).
The age-old dip can sometimes be a bland dish. Not here. Not likely. What’s that sprinkled on top for a start? None other than Turkish crushed chillies along with salad and plenty of pitta to see it right through to its bittersweet end.
A great warm-up to the main event that just had to be the Passion Special (£15.95) that includes doner, lamb sish, chicken, kofte and lamb chops.
Now that’s a plateful and there was a clear sense of pride in what they’d concocted as it was laid before me.
More a feast really than a meal ... and the salad was hardly in short supply, complete with a healthy chunk of feta cheese which wasn’t fooling anyone. This was a meat feast.
So much had been marinated the plate was a myriad of flavours ranging from the small strips of chicken kofte though to the large chunks of lamb coated in spices. Each bite did the business.
Chicken fajitas (£11.95) can be a somewhat dry dish but the one Ruth chose was rejoicing in its own juices, cooked with onions and peppers and accompanied by a separate side dish with a couple of wraps, spicy tomato dressing, yoghurt, cheese and salad. We were quickly realising why people were raving about this place.
You could make your own wraps and make them as salady or as spicy as you wanted.
Pudding – yes, we even pushed that boat out to give you the full experience – was homemade strawberry cheesecake (£2.25): wonderfully light in taste and texture with a generous side dish of ice-cream and the word Enjoy written with all the skill of a calligraphic genius by its side.
It summed up the entire evening ... different yet great.
Where did that word Enjoy! come from? Probably America.
And here’s another phrase from a well-known American - We’ll be back.....
2 Coleridge Street, Halifax, HX1 2JF
Tel: 01422 355288
Website: www.cafepassion.co.uk
Opening hours: 11am-10pm Mon-Sat; noon- 10pm Sunday
Children: Absolutely
Disabled access: It’s small inside and the toilet is up some narrow stairs
The bill: £49.60 including a bottle of wine
Would you go back? Certainly
