Dinner At Yardleys Wine Bar, Belper

Friday 13 Nov 2015 by Sticky Beak

This venue is now closed

Well we finally got around to visiting somewhere we had wanted to go for ages; Yardleys in Belper. Off we flew, the three of us, and we soon got settled at our table to peruse all the temptations on the menu. We decided to have the tapas offer, where you can choose three dishes for £12 or go for 6 dishes for £20 and because there was 3 hungry birds we had 12 dishes between us and some side orders too.

The premises are lovely with a clean modern feel to them and have a friendly vibe. There is a feature wallpaper on one wall in shades of grey and a fireplace that has great black, textural bricks above it. The rest of the interior is fairly neutral with a palate of creams and putty accentuated with black art on the wall. Wood flooring and chunky wooden tables are set off superbly by chrome legged bar stools and modern circular tables dotted around the bar.

As we made our selections we sipped at our drinks; Chickadee had a Tropical Sunrise Mocktail, I had a glass of Rose wine and His Nibs had a pint of draught Peroni.

When they arrived, all the dishes were superbly presented in colourful terracotta bowls with salad on the side and any sauces or dips contained in little jars. The Chick and I both ordered the Mixed Seafood Paella from the specials selection and she also chose the Popcorn Chicken bites from the specials menu and the Piri Piri chicken and King Prawns from the everyday menu.

All the other dishes are on the regular Tapas menu: Deep fried breaded Brie, Chicken breast skewers, Jalapenos and Meatballs were the choice of The Boy Wonder. My dishes were the half rack of BBQ Pork ribs, King Prawns and Jalapenos. We also ordered some Garlic Ciabatta (to mop up all the delicious juices), as well as some Giant battered Onion rings and some Sweet Potato fries.

All the meat was succulent and tender and the sauce on His Nibs meatballs was really thick and tomatoey and packed with flavour. The Paella had prawns, squid and mussels in and they were all beautifully cooked and gave their unique flavours to the rice. My chicks Popcorn chicken was nice and juicy and there was a nice size portion of it too - in fact, all the dishes were generous portions. The Piri Piri chicken had a great kick to it and there was a good amount of peppers and onions with it too that had both been cooked to just retain a hint of texture to them.

Man Birds chicken skewers were very tender and again the vegetables were very fresh and flavoursome. The Chilli and Garlic sauce that the King Prawns were cooked in was amazing, and the Chick and I used all the bread mopping it up. I was somewhat surprised by the size of the “ half rack” of baby ribs, it would be considered by some to be more of a full portion; but there was no argument from me because they were so incredibly tasty I could’ve eaten them all night. They were very tender and the BBQ sauce had a gorgeous smokiness to it that just hit the taste bud bulls eye.

His Nibs breaded Brie was just divine in his opinion; the crumb coating was nice and crispy and the dip was the perfect accompaniment. Both myself and The Man had ordered the Jalapenos and they were totally yummy with their cream cheese filling and crispy coating.

The Sweet Potato fries soon got gobbled up which isn’t surprising given how tasty they were; they weren’t at all greasy and had a lovely creamy taste to them. None of the giant Onion rings went begging either and they were fantastically crunchy on the outside with a nice light batter on them. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that we all thoroughly enjoyed every single morsel, only a few salad leaves remained from our extensive smorgasbord.

Now at this point in the proceedings lesser birds would’ve thrown in the towel but not my flock, we soldiered on to dessert, although we did only have 2 sweet treats between the 3 of us. The Chocolate fudge cake with Salted Caramel sauce was just too much for my 2 sweet beaked loved ones to resist and I succumbed to the Apple Caramel tart.

Both desserts were just heavenly and the entire glass of salted caramel was tipped onto the fudge cake and devoured with record breaking gusto. I showed slightly more reserve (ok, so I’m being slightly loose with the truth here) with my warm tart, and I must confess to pouring the entire jug of cream over it. To round things off the Boy Wonder had a Gingerbread Latte and the Chick and I had a Gingerbread Hot Chocolate which was very good I must say - top tip from our lovely server.

My little flock had a blast at Yardleys, and if you haven’t been before I can heartily recommend you pop in to sample their Tapas for yourselves. The food was all piping hot and well presented, the premises were spotless and the staff were very smart and polite, so what’s not to love? “Hot Wings” well deserved by this superb team

All Prices Correct At The Time Of Publishing