Food by Breda Murphy, Whalley

Every year we eagerly await the new Good Food Guide. It's one of our culinary bibles; the other two being the Michelin Guide and the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best. We love our fine dining, but enjoy local cafes and burger joints (as you've probably gathered) just as much. Basically, we just like food!

For years we have been going to Nigel Haworth's gastropub The Three Fishes at Mitton, so when I read that Food by Breda Murphy had won the Good Food Guide's 'Best Cafe' award, I knew exactly where it was as we had driven past it God knows how many times on our way. It's sat just outside Whalley village opposite the train station. 

This popular deli and restaurant has attracted reams of praise for its smiling, efficient staff and continually changing selection of excellent food, all of which is cooked on the premises... The Good Food Guide 2013

We planned the trip whilst we were on our way home from America. This was our fail safe way of avoiding jet lag the day after we got back. It didn't really work, but it meant we made the most of our days off rather than just sleeping!

When we arrived we were a little concerned about parking as it seemed packed at about 1.30pm. As luck would have it someone started to reverse out as we drove in. I purposefully watched the car park throughout our stay to see if this might be a problem in the future, and no-one seemed to struggle to get a space. If anything it got much quieter as we got there (hope it was nothing I said...) Inside is beautiful. You walk through a small gift area up to a counter filled with cakes, scones and other such goodies, then are seated in a beautiful dining area with a big window. 

You can make this experience whatever you want in terms of dining style. Home to everyone from ladies who lunch to older couples (I'm not including us in that category...), their menu really does have something for everyone. There are more traditional cafe items like sandwiches, they have larger mains on the a la carte and also serve afternoon tea. 

My husband opted for the Goosnargh chicken with parsnip and pearl barley risotto, liver kiev and crispy bacon, and I picked the rib eye with a potato rosti off the specials. Both were presented beautifully and tasted even better. My husband particularly liked the fact that although it was served with a liver kiev, the outside of the chicken itself had that 'kiev' taste. The chicken was a generous piece and was really juicy. 

My steak came perfectly pink and was layered on top of the rosti. We had eaten some pretty good steaks in San Francisco, so it had a lot to live up to. I'm not sure which butcher Breda uses, but she certainly did him proud with this one. Despite this being a big plate of food, there was no stodge present so I didn't feel over-faced whilst being ridiculously tired!

We were particularly giddy about dessert, as we had already spied the abundance of ace looking cakes in the counter as we walked in. My husband ordered the pear and chocolate brownie crumble with vanilla ice cream and roast hazelnuts. I'll be honest, I thought this sounded a bit of an odd combination! He chuffing loved it! The pears sat underneath with a mixture of broken up brownie, nuts and crumble on top. A small stroke of genius...

I had the warm caramelised pineapple sponge pudding with coconut sorbet. Wow. This was an ultra moist sponge wrapped in an almost caramelised pineapple casing. It was served with sweet coconut ice cream on a bed of toasted coconut. What I loved about this was the fact it was the perfect combination of sharp fruit and warming pudding. I think I must insist that you try it!

 We had a nice cup of tea before we left, which even comes served with a little home made biscuit.

I loved it here. We'll definitely be popping back over to Whalley some time soon. I think next time I'll try one of their sandwiches as a comparison.