Reviews of Bennetts Cafe and Bistro - Small Restaurant With a View of York Minster

Four star rating image David says: Bennetts bistro review? Well what can I say. It is lovely service and great food.

Small and Intimate

Picture of one of our starters at Bennets Bistro York.

They have a small menu here with perhaps 5 starter, 6 mains and maybe 5 puddings. All of them sounded nice when we went. After being slightly rushed to select, we ordered chicken liver parfait (special starter of the day) and yorkshire blue cheese mouse. Mains duck with colcannon and pork fillet with crispy pork cheek, celeriac and apple terrine.

Liver parfait was a little heavy for me but had a good flavour of garlic and chicken livers. Salad it came with was pleasantly lightly dressed. Thin slices of crisp bread were also nice. 3.5/5


Picture of our main course at Bennets.

Blue cheese mouse was light and a delight. Mix of flavours and texture. It had thin slices of chicory along with quite large, meaty, slightly crunchy walnuts. 4/5

Duck was light pink and moist, with salty, slightly crispy skin. Jus was tasty. Carrots around the duck caramelised. Collcannon was so hot it burned me. Tasted of butter and that's it. I left it as I am not a fan of carbs. 3.5/5

Pork fillet with crispy cheek was lovely. Dry fillet was nicely cooked and the jus moistened it nicely. Cheek was crispy and flavoured as if it were stuffing. 5/5

Small dish of carrots, corvette and broccoli was cooked very nicely. Hot and al dente. 4/5

Parkin pudding was nice. Ginger Ice cream on crushed digestive and crunchy ginger nut biscuit. Rhubarb sauce was a great topping. 4/5

Four star rating imageKevin Ireson says: We had heard many good things about Bennetts since it opened it doors for evening meals. So we thought we would give it a try. Our expectations were surpassed by a long way with the meal and service we got here for a reasonable price.

Transforms From a Cafe in the Day to a Lovely Bistro at Night

The grapevine in York extends from what your neighbours are up to, to what new restaurants have opened, as you would expect in any small (250k population) city. We had heard many good things about Bennetts Bistro. Most recently this is because it had decided to open up its doors in the evening as a restaurant as well as producing its usual daytime cafe menu.

Now we have quite high expectations of restaurant food. Personally if I order something and when it comes it is something I think I could do better at home, I am mortally disappointed. At this small and wonderfully located Bistro however, everything we ordered was much better than I would be able to do. I was very pleased indeed with all of the food, the wonderful service and the lovely romantic atmosphere that also had a view to die for of the West end of York Minster out of the very large windows.

Being Small Means Great Food on a Little Menu and Wonderful Attentive Service

This is a small place. I think we counted nine tables most of which were 2 seaters. Nearly half of these were window tables giving a splendid view of York Minster. The menus here is quite small but, to its advantage that means they will have chosen dishes that people like and are well practiced by the chef.

Each of the two starters. mains, puddings we had were really nice. Prawns in garlic, virgin olive oil with chili could have used more chili for me but, David who I dined with loved them. My chicken liver parfait was divine. David also really enjoyed his halibut with clams in a white wine sauce which was well cooked flaky and not too dry. My rump of lamb in red wine was a concern as it arrived as it looked very dry on the outside. However on further inspection it was just one end bit that was a little overdone, perhaps because it has been sliced to thin. The rest was tasty, pink and melted in your mouth. For puddings the sticky toffee was OK but, the winner by a short length of peanut brittle was the iced peanut butter parfait.

Not Cheap But Very Good Value

All in all the meal (April 2015) was what we considered good value and we dine out quite a lot. We had had 2 x 3 courses, a bottle of nice English white wine and one cheese board between the two of us. The total cost for the night was about �100.00.


Please mention Hotels in York website when you call. Thanks.

Bennett's Cafe and Bistro
30 - 32 High Petergate, York,
Tel: 01904 655344

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