On bacon’s birthday a few weeks ago, we headed off to an unknown-pub somewhere in Halifax. Well, I was thinking about the one near York whilst bacon was thinking about the one in Halifax. With our wires crossed, it was no wonder we did not end up where ‘either’ of us wanted to be. As it was bacon’s birthday and I’m not allowed to point out his pigheadedness, we drove and we drove..and we drove. After more than 1 hour, we eventually ended up in bradford area – probably a good thing as well; it gave us a chance to head towards Ring O’ Bells

Bacon has been telling me about Ring O’ Bells’ prize winning pies for about 3 years now. We never actually went there together – bacon was under the impression that bookings were sorely needed and it was fairly expensive. It was quite untrue; most places in Leeds are actually more expensive than it, as we were to find out.

No bookings needed, even though it was 7.30pm on a Saturday.Excellent. I am not the type to make reservations; blame it on my can’t be arsed attitute.

We were presented with a mini-loaf of granary bread, complete with a pot of butter and a pot of garlic butter. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside…thinking of it is making me droolz…yumss.. Very delish. Love the presentation on the mini wooden chopping board as well. This item is on the menu for £2.95 for some reason; but they served it to us without us ordering anyway.

I chose the steak tartare for a starter that we could share. Yes, steak tartare makes it to one of my eew food list – raw beef??! Rest assured I have not fallen sick before with a steak tartare. Their version is different from the regular minced beef – this is actually well marinaded sirloin cubed into bite size pieces and shaped into a burger patty. It came with thin silvers of what is supposed to be melba toast – this has gotta be the yummiest melba toast that I’ve ever had before. Ever. It goes so well with the fresh and yummilicious steak tartare. Ooolala…suprisingly better than the ones I’ve had in Prague & Paris.

Yum yum to raw beef. Love the marinade, seems to be herbs with a generous dash of worcester sauce.

For mains, I went for the Duo of English Pork – slow cooked belly with roasted filet – complete with sage mash & apple gravy. The sage mash was superb, and the apple gravy had no noticable pieces of apples in it, only a slight tinge. The fillet was well cooked, but not overly cooked like most of the pork fillets I’ve tasted, therefore it remained moist instead of the dry, tough texture it usually adopts.

Just look at the absurd yumminess of the belly pork. It was extremely melt-in-your-mouth tender, topped with the yummiest piece of crispy crackling I have ever tasted..ahh I love crispy pork skin.

Bacon settled for the traditional Steak & Kidney, complete with suet pastry with herbs. It came with a full boat of gravy – I love it when the chef is not stingy with his gravy. The kidney was slightly too strong for me (I don’t usually mind it) but bacon throughly enjoyed it. The suet pastry was very filling – don’t be fooled by the size of the pie, it is very filling!

The inside of the pie is filled to the brim with steak and kidney pieces, leaving very little room for the gravy. Ah…now I understand the logic of a separate gravy boat.

The above comes with portions of steamed vegs and really really yummy hand cut chips. We were so filled at the end of it that we skipped dessert. I know, me, skipping dessert? We didn’t even order two starters! The service was excellent as well – I have an adversion to lazy bar staff, but the staff here were pleasant, helpful and friendly. What a huge change.

An ordinary looking pub, with exordinary good food. For the two of us it came up to just under £40 with beer. Bacon admitted that he might have been earning much, much less when he last visited Ring O bells – the period where going to McDonalds is a treat . They do a bargin price set price three course meals as well for £19, but as I couldn’t even fit a shared dessert in, am glad I didn’t get that.

The Ring O Bells
Hill Top Road
Thornton ,Bradford
West Yorkshire, BD13 3QL

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