Grumpy's Farsley Review: A little bit like being abroad

But, thanks to a friend's stroke of genius, or maybe as she is a regular customer, we managed to secure a spot in the heated booth outside pizza restaurant Grumpy's at Farsley.

It was a Wednesday night and the evening sun was shining, but still armed with coats, gloves and scarves off we went and arrived to find most tables full of al-fresco diners, music playing nicely in the background and the sound of chatter and laughter and glasses chinking.

Cheers. How nice is it to be out again.

We were shown to the booth and the COVID policy that has been adopted is that you order drinks and food via an online menu on your phone.

The menu is simple to follow and broken down into starters, pizzas, wines, beers, gins and cocktails for example plus options to add extra toppings.

We tried to order drinks first but spent 15 minutes trying to get a phone signal or for the website to load. This was frustrating and in the end, we had to ask a member of staff who came to take our order in person.

Granted, this is a way of minimising contact between people but it did detract from the experience as we were all huddled over our phone screens trying to place an order and being, ironically very anti-social, and then ended up needing table service anyway.

Luckily we had been able to peruse the menu beforehand (I like this as it takes me ages to decide what I want) so they could take our food order at the same time but we had been there the best part of half an hour before our drinks arrived.

However, that aside, the menu has lots of choice and is little different to when the restaurant was open under normal circumstances and has a variety of pizzas which change regularly and also includes a 'create your own' and vegan versions.

Starters might include olives, doughballs, charcuterie or garlic bread and pizzas all have names. For example, Danny is topped with smoked ham, red peppers and jalapenos; Simon is smoked mozarella, nduja, and chicken while some other quirky ones include honey and walnut toppings.

We ordered and settled for a cocktail to start - an Aperol Spritz and a Dark and Stormy and it wasn't too long before our pizzas arrived.

Cooked like a pizza you would find in an Italian city backstreet, these are a far cry from the 2am takeaway we have all dabbled with before. The bases are thin, yet doughy and not overloaded with cheese which allows for the flavours of the herbs and the toppings to take precedence. It really was delicious.

Enjoying the evening, we decided to finish off with a glass of wine each and ordered a red and a white from the house menu.

As we sipped the drinks out time in the booth was up. They are allocated for an hour and a half and appear very popular but we were able to sit at an outdoor table to finish our drinks.

As we did, after such a hiatus of socialisation and while it wasn't Naples, it was simple yet wonderful to enjoy a glass of wine, in the sunshine, with other people watching the world go by.

Factfile

Address: Sunnybank Mills, 2 Old Combing, Farsley LS28 5UJ

Telephone: 0113 345 2525

Opening hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 12pm - 10pm; Friday - Saturday: 12pm - 11pm; Sunday: 12pm - 9pm.

Website:www.grumpysleeds.co.uk

Scores

Food/drinks: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Service: 6/10