I’ve eaten at Goodliffe’s in the past and never been overly impressed. It always seemed a bit style over substance for me and as such, I haven’t bothered to blog it before now. They recently had a bit of a refurb and I’m not sure if they’ve changed their chef (probably not) but the fresh new look caught my eye so old Gingey Bites regular Patrick and I decided to give it a try. I have to say, I was pretty impressed.
Image taken from Goodliffes Facebook page.
What used to be a quite casual cafe now looks and feels a little fancier with table service and smartly dressed waiters. Clearly these guys are pushing the food more than the coffee these days and I’d be very interested to go back and sample their evening menu to see just how well they pull of the new ‘bistro’ vibe. The menu reads well – a balanced gastro pub selection but with some modern twists and they offer a midweek early bird deal too. We were there for lunch so we just went for sandwiches and the bill came to around £25.
Being the greedy little piggy that I am, I had the pulled ham, smoked cheddar & chorizo chilli jam panini and Patrick had the Reuben-ish sandwich which consisted of pastrami, dijon mustard-mayonnaise, gherkins and jalapeño cheese in toasted sourdough bread. Both came with fries which were crispy and salty (just how I like them!). Patrick’s was definitely our favourite, the gherkins had a sharp vinegary crunch and the pastrami had that peppery hit which worked perfectly against the mustard mayo.
My panini was jam-packed full of pulled ham and cheese but if I’m honest the chorizo chilli jam was lost. You couldn’t really taste it and could argue that with the smoked cheese and ham, it wasn’t needed.
We also had some fab mocktails – both so yummy and we slurped them down quick fast! Being the disorganised blogger that I am, I totally forgot to write down what these drinks were and as the menu isn’t on the website I can’t tell you (other than to say they were delicious). The one on the left had passionfruit in it and the one on the right was a fruity little number!
Goodliffe’s is in a lovely old building on Churchgate, a nice pedestrianised street in the older part of town. With high ceilings and big windows, it’s a cute spot for a date and as I mentioned, I am excited to head back there and see what it’s like now at night.
I remember it used to be a charity shop when I was an angst-ridden teen – my friend worked there and we used to rifle through the bags looking for vintage shirts and random bits and bobs to make ourselves look cool. In hindsight, it’s probably for the best that its now a bistro because looking back at those photos, we did not look as cool as we thought!
