I first went to El Gato Negro a good few years ago and was extremely impressed by the food, but then for some unfathomable reason (apart from the distance) never returned. But earlier this summer, I was making a list of restaurants to visit and revisit, and El Gato Negro came up. It's not even that far to Ripponden, which is just a short distance from Junction 22 or 23 of the M62. Easily done for me for lunch, though too far in the evening.
Not a lot seems to go on Ripponden: I presume it's now mainly a feeder town for Halifax, Huddersfield and the Leeds-Bradford conurbation, which probably explains why El Gato Negro is only open for lunch on Saturdays (though I see they've now started opening one Sunday lunch a month).
Inside, the building's former existence as a pub isn't entirely lost, with (reupholstered, thankfully) banquettes around the walls of the clearly identifiable former rooms. As you enter, there is a small ham and charcuterie slicing station before you go through to the main room and the bar it contains. Tables are fairly closely packed and a little cramped, but even on the hottest summer day the old stone building stays cool and airy.
Service is good and knowledgeable. A request for a glass of manzanilla was responded to with a quarter bottle of excellent manzanilla: a great solution to the problem of even 500ml bottles fading before they've been finished when served by the glass.
There's an interesting, short wine list pretty much exclusively Spanish, if I remember correctly. Sparkling and still water comes from a snazzy looking machine behind the bar - presumably it's filtered tapwater?
The menu is your placemat (plus some blackboard specials). You also order via your placemat, which I have to say feels a bit of a gimmick, but it works well: you nominate one person on the table to write the number of each dish you want in a little box next to each dish on the menu; the waitress takes that placemat away, presumably enters it onto the computer; and then the menu/placemat is returned to you.
On a couple of visits, we managed to eat through the better part of the menu. Everything was good, and while not everything was an absolutely unqualified success, there was nothing I'd not order again. Tapas restaurants are ten-a-penny these days, but none I've been to, even Paul Heathcote's late lamented Grado in Manchester, come anywhere close to El Gato Negro.
Anchovy fillets on crostini
The anchovy fillets had very clean flavours and the crostini, while light and thin, had just enough body not to crumble away when you tried to eat them.
Acorn-fed jamón Ibérico from Barcelona
For me, the accompanying celeriac rémoulade, which was quite possibly the best I've ever had, outshone the quality of the Iberico ham.
Pan Catalan
The Pan Catalan, with olive oil, garlic & fresh plum tomato showed just how good this simple dish can be when prepared by someone who understands the ingredients.
Hand-picked white crab meat, avocado purée and gazpacho
This verrine was one of the best dishes, packed with excellent white crab meat bound in a light mayonnaise, on top of a smooth avocado purée. The crab was topped with a truly excellent gazpacho: I'd have been very happy with a bowl of that gazpacho, but apparently a cold soup, even in summer, would be a step too far for many of the customers.
Beetroot salad with picos blue cheese
This was a dish off the specials menu on the blackboard, a wonderful beetroot salad with green beans, Picos blue cheese & spiced walnuts: an excellent combination of flavours and textures. A dish that just makes you smile.
Morcilla scotch eggs
Interior of the morcilla scotch eggs
Morcilla scotch eggs come topped with a little aioli and an apple gel. As these are tapas size portions, the eggs are quails' eggs, which, as you can see, are perfectly cooked. The crumb is very light and the morcilla is good, though not the best I've tasted. (The morcilla from Levanter Foods is much more exciting.)
Grilled sweet potato topped with chorizo and baby squid
This was a bit of an odd one. A long slice of ever-so-slightly undercooked sweet potato topped with small chorizo sausages and very tender baby squid. The flavours were pretty good, but the squid seemed to get lost a little, and somehow this felt one of the weaker dishes, not quite living up to expectations.
Spiced aubergine with lavash crisp bread and cucumber and mint dressing
The aubergine element of the same dish
Salt cod croquetas with aioli
Salt cod croquetas were very good, but perhaps lacked something of the vibrancy of other dishes, and we agreed that a litte more of the salt cod in them would have really helped.
Seared hand-dived scallops, pea purée, morcilla and crispy Pata Negra jamón
Excellent scallops, perfectly cooked with a classic combination of ingredients. Not really much more you can say.
Tortilla is on the menu as 'tortilla of the day' and is cooked to order (or at least ours was). I think today's tortilla was leek and cheese. Without doubt, the best tortilla I've had. So much lighter than you usually find, with the leek and cheese giving just a subtle flavour.
Tortilla of the day
Duck egg yolk with Alejandro chorizo & migas breadcrumbs
Another dish from the specials menu that proved an absolute winner: the slow-cooked egg yolk providing the rich, luxury counterpoint to the simple, rustic breadcrumbs and chorizo. A great dish: we had to restrain ourselves from ordering another!
New season rack of local lamb, alubia bean and rosemary purée, minted peas
Some excellent lamb, simply roasted with what seemed (in my ignorance of Spanish food) a rather English addition of minted fresh peas, and then back to Spain with the bean purée subtly scented with rosemary.
Onglet steak with patatas pobres
Apologies for the poor quality of this stupendous onglet steak: I really can't remember having had one more tender.
Torta del Santiago
An excellent torta del Santiago came warm from the oven, and was served with salted caramel ice cream.
This 18th century farmhouse on the main road into Ilkley has been The Box Tree since 1962 when Malcolm Reid and Colin Long (often known simply as "the boys") opened what came to be one of the most important restaurants in the north of England, earning one Michelin star when Michelin re-started publication of its UK guide in 1974, and holding two stars from 1977 to 1986.
It went into a bit of a decline after Messrs Reid and Long moved on in 1986, though it kept one Michelin star until 1991. It was then bought and pretty much resurrected by the formidable Madame Avis in 1992. The Box Tree regained its Michelin star under Madame Avis' ownership in 1996, and held on to it until 2002, when she lost interest largely as a result of her husband being diagnosed with a terminal illness. She leased (and subsequently sold) the Box Tree to the current owners, Simon and Rena Gueller in 2004, who regained the Michelin star in 2005, which it has held ever since.
I vaguely remember the Box Tree when the boys had it, and it's still very much recognisable as their restaurant, though fortunately the uncomfortable chairs seem to have gone: whenever we came across uncomfortable chairs, they were always said in our family to be "in the running for the Box Tree prize." Little changed under Madame Avis, though it did start to feel increasingly dowdy and in parts in need of a deep clean.
We recently returned to the Box Tree after a couple of years absence, and were completely baffled as to why we don't go more often. The food was, throughout, completely faultless and simply a joy. Fairly classical, but light dishes, well-conceived and perfectly executed.
We started in the dark bar-lounge area with some canapés which, on the face of it, didn't look terribly inspiring: some thin crisp flatbreads and two bowls, one of a salmon mousse and the other of, I think, a red pepper mousse. We were immediately struck by how well seasoned the mousses, particularly the salmon one were. A very minor criticism might be that the flatbreads were a bit too thin and crisp for dipping into the mousses, as, without care, they tended to break under the weight.
The lounge/bar area
In contrast to the bar area, the two dining rooms are fresh, bright, smart rooms, with good art and quality knick knacks such as large Herend animals. The butterflies painting, much coveted by Marco Pierre White, is however gone. Despite the closeness to the busy road, the dining rooms are well insulated from traffic noise. Tables are classically set with pressed white cloths and good cutlery and glassware.
Immediately bread and butter show respectively the emphasis on flavour backed up by technique, and an attention to detail.
Excellent bread.
Butter rose
Presenting the butter as a rose doesn't improve its flavour of course, but it
shows an attention to detail, precision and a good degree of classical
skills.
The first dish to come out of the kitchen was an amuse bouche of homemade curd cheese with pickled vegetables.
Curd cheese and pickled vegetables
A nice start to a meal: light, fresh and extremely well balanced and certainly woke up the palate.
I started with a veal sweetbread, served with globe artichoke, morels and a truffled madeira sauce.
Glazed veal sweetbread with artichoke and madeira & truffle jus
A magnificent sweetbread, perfectly cooked, and undoubtedly one of the finest for some time. The madeira sauce was simply magnificent: good depth of flavour, yet still clean with all the truffle aromatics balanced perfectly and not dominating. The crisply fried artichoke slices were a method of preparation I don't recall coming across before, and together with the artichoke purée underneath the sweetbread, they worked brilliantly. You could have stopped there and had a great dish, but the addition of the morels lifted it into excellence.
My main course was an equally magnificent pair of John Dory fillets, which came with truffled gnocchi, thin slices of turnip, caramelised shallots and a beurre noisette.
John Dory with truffled gnocchi, golden turnip, caramelised salsify purée
It goes without saying that the fish was excellent and perfectly cooked. The gnocchi were unusually large and looked like they should have been a bit leaden, but somehow they weren't. The salsify came both as a purée and as neatly turned pieces. This really was a good dish. If there were any criticism, it would be that it felt a little autumnal for a sunny, warm, early summer's day. (That couldn't be said of our other main course: some excellent turbot with orange, fennel and coriander.)
Cheeses from a well-stocked trolley were, naturally, all in prime condition, and included a Tunworth, which is without doubt currently my favourite cheese. Unlike some places, there was no supplement for cheese.
I don't normally have chocolate desserts, finding them often too rich and heavy. But the use of milk chocolate in a milk chocolate delice with strawberry, lemon and mint was a pleasant exception.
In terms of writing up a report, rather like this whole post, this dish was rather boringly perfect, with a well tried combination of flavours and textures.
Good coffee came with a large box of - presumably homemade - chocolates, which all tasted how they were supposed to. Though the ritual of the box, and dispensing your choices with tongs seemed a little strained compared to the rest of the both the food and the service. Anyway, what are you meant to have? One? Two? One of each? (I had three.)
Service throughout was just the right balance of formal and friendly. Before the meal, we had decided upon a shortlist of possible wines, but the maitre d' cum sommelier steered us away towards a white Bordeaux at half the price of our ideas, a 2007 Graves, Château Arzac Cuvée Lea, which was an excellent recommendation, working extremely well with all our dishes.
The Box Tree is not cheap, but then for a restaurant with this heritage, producing food of this quality, it should not be. But neither did we leave with any sense that this had not been a very good value meal.
As hard as we tried, it really was impossible to fault at this meal.
