If orange is the new black then Turkish cuisine is the new Italian.

Anatolian eating establishments are springing up in town and cities where tired red sauce restaurants once stood.

It’s good news – we’re fed up of greasy lasagne and Luigi’s oversized pepper grinder – and Turkish food satisfies different types of diners.

It’s spicy if chilli is your bag and mild if your tastebuds are more conservative.

It’s colourful, varied and there a few dishes that those who find spaghetti a bit exotic will recognise. Pides for example, the Turkish rough equivalent of pizza.

Olive Branch is a local chain with two branches in Leeds, one in Ilkley, one in Hebden Bridge and one in Sowerby Bridge where three generations of the Himelfield family went.

Decor wise it’s modern and smart but homely.

Our hosts are as friendly and accommodating as you’d expect from a modern, local eating establishment.

Restaurant review, The Olive Branch, Hebden Bridge.

In fact our waiter seats and secures my toddler daughter Rosa in her high chair. Of course, she’ll be fighting to get out of it in about five minutes – but find me a child that won’t.

Menu-wise, it’s what you’d expect from an average Turkish restaurant: meze-type starters, kebabs, koftas, tomato-rich meaty stews and pides for mains with baklava and cinnamon-enriched rice pudding for dessert.

It’s not all strictly Turkish, however. There’s moussaka, which is about as Greek as a Eurozone crisis, together with none-more-English Victoria sponge and cheesecake on the sweet trolley.

And there are cocktails; it’s a pity I’m driving, my mum barely drinks and giving my daughter anything alcoholic would rightfully merit a visit from social services.

Meze is the Eastern Mediterranean equivalent of tapas, although it’s less meaty and heavy.

It’s a great way to sample a variety of starters without having to commit to a particular one.

So that’s what we order and we get borek (cheese-stuffed filo pastry), sujuk (spicy Turkish sausage), falafel (fried chickpea rissoles), fried squid rings, olives, pickled chillis fried and stuffed with feta and a yoghurt, mint and cucumber dip called cacik (pronounced: ‘ja-juk’).

The meze comes with moderately delectable home-baked Turkish flat bread that’s about 2cm thick and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Everything is reasonably fresh and flavoursome and the fried stuffed chilli is a very welcome addition.

Between the three of us, including my mum, we make the platter disappear within 10 minutes and return our cutlery with smiles.

For mains I order a mixed grill while my mum has ‘tavuk beyti’, minced chicken mixed with a sweet and sour tomato sauce and wrapped in flat bread.

My mixed grill included chargrilled cubes of lamb and chicken together with minced lamb and chicken koftas, and served with rice and orzo (rice-sized pasta) more cacik and a piquant, garlic and tomato sauce.

The meat is spicy; there’s a nice interaction between the chilli, the chargrill flavour and what I’m guessing is lemon juice.

It is, however, a bit overcooked and dry.

The spicy tomato sauce is, however, a good foil, if not for those of tender palate, and it helped mask some of the meat’s dryness.

My mum digs into her minced chicken ‘wrap’. Calling it a wrap does it a disservice; it’s more of a thinking man’s burrito. And she digs it.

Rosa having scoffed about 15 olives is now fixated on her rice. The chicken is going down too but she has a particular love of rice without sauce; there’s no accounting for toddlers’ taste.

Dessert was primarily good. Mum sailed through her Turkish rice pudding with more smiles.

My baklava (chopped nuts encased in layers of filo pastry and soaked in syrup) were moist, crispy and moreish and combined with some rich vanilla ice-cream on the side, close to pudding perfection.

Rosa’s cheesecake, however, was somewhat saccharine with the sweetness turned up to 11. While my mum and I found it cloying, my daughter finished almost all the adult portion herself.

Most of what we ate at Olive Branch was good, sometimes slightly better, sometimes closer to average. It was fresh but not assertively so and frankly, I’ve had better.

Restaurant review, The Olive Branch, Hebden Bridge.

And while service at Olive Branch was good, it was occasionally a little slow for a restaurant, which on a Tuesday night wasn’t entirely full.

But if you’re not going to Turkey or the London Turkish restaurant Mecca that is Green Lanes any time soon, Olive Branch is still worth checking out.

20 Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2EA

Tel: 01422 832271

Website: www.theolivebranchrestaurants.com

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 11am to 11pm

Children: Welcome

Disabled access: Two steps at the entrance, though no real problems accessing toilets once inside

The bill: £51.20 excluding tip of alcoholic drinks

Would you go back? Maybe