Yorkshire Restaurant Not on Top of the Salt and Pepper List

Name:

Cuisines: American

Payment:  Cash, all major credit cards

Alcohol:   No

Price: $

Address: 7537 Centreville Rd, Manassas VA

Hours of Operation:

Monday-Saturday: 6 a.m.-9 p.m.

Sunday: 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

 Salt says:

 I genuinely liked this restaurant for what it is: Outdated to the point of coziness. The pale yellow walls and outdated patterned trim, the stucco ceiling, the old counter, bar stools and furniture all took me back to my best friend's rumpus room circa 1988. The restaurant is average-sized, but it definitely has a sense of intimacy.

While there was only one other person in the restaurant with me at any given time, I got the feeling that this is the kind of place that if you come often enough you'd be on pretty friendly basis with all of the staff.

 That's about all that I liked.

When I first walked through the door my waitress was seated at the far end of the counter talking with another waitress. It took her a while to acknowledge me and after I was seated, even longer for her to give me a menu and take my order. Whenever I needed anything she just slightly turned around in her seat to speak to me. Aside from that, she really didn't seem that interested in anything aside from some papers that she was reading.

The Yorkshire Restaurant has been opened for 32 years and even if you don't notice this when you walk through the door, the menu is a dead giveaway.

It's written in a typeface that was probably sophisticated 25 years ago and it's pages long. The first several are dedicated to breakfast fare: Omelettes, french toast and pancakes. They also offer a number of salads, sandwiches and homemade soups.

 It took a while for the food to get me, roughly 20 minutes for a chili dog and fries. I would like to say it was worth the wait, but it really wasn't.

While the food was piping hot (maybe a little too hot), it was lackluster. The hot dog reminded me of those served in public school lunches that are a mixture of cheap cuts of chicken, pork and who knows what else. The bread was not fresh at all. It might have been steamed to make it more pliable, but it fell apart as I ate it.

The chili was little more than seasoned beef and tons and tons of kidney beans. The onion rings were pretty good. They were made with thick slices of onion and homemade batter. They were perfectly cooked.

 Despite its dated appearance, the restaurant was impeccably clean. I didn't notice so much as a crumb on the ground or smudges on any of the tables. Even though I wasn't impressed with my waitress and the food was just so-so, I would probably come back to the Yorkshire Restaurant, if for nothing else, just for the cozy familiarity of it all.

 Pepper says:

 The outside of Yorkshire Restaurant is not very appealing, nor is anything else about it. When I walked in, there were three servers behind the counter, who all just stared, until one said, “Take a seat anywhere."  It felt as if I had just walked in to someone’s home uninvited and clearly intruding.

After a few minutes of me looking around, wondering if this is actually a restaurant, the waiter handed me a menu.  A few more minutes pass by and a server comes over to take my order. It took about 10 minutes for my order to be prepared and I felt extremely uncomfortable while waiting. The second server was nice, but not attentive at all, just chatting with the “regulars” about her upcoming wedding.

  I ordered the chicken fried chicken (yes, that is what it’s called) with onion rings and fries, it also came with two rolls that tasted terrible and definitely were pulled out of a package from the store. My chicken was also covered in gravy, when I clearly asked for it on the side. The chicken wasn’t bad, even with the gravy; it was mostly breading, with a hint of meat. But it was cooked to a nice crisp.  The fries were plain, but fried OK. The onion rings were slightly burnt more on one side than the other, but tasted OK.

All in all, the sides were just dreadfully ordinary; I could easily go to the store, pick up a couple of  frozen bags, half cook the fries and burn the onion rings.

 Yorkshire opened in 1958 and seems to be a place for regulars only; how one becomes "Yorkshire VIP"  is beyond me. I would say, overall, that it was decent, but nothing worth desiring. The restaurant itself was clean, but the bathroom was dirty.

The blatant ignoring when I walked in was distasteful, as the entryway  is very small.  They just seemed shocked to see me and this awkwardness lasted through the visit.

The cashier commented on how fast I was leaving, but I didn’t want to stay there any longer. The place is decorated like a very small, very old, privately-owned diner with random decorations and very old furniture. Needles to say, I will not be returning to Yorkshire. Too bad it did not turn out to be another hidden gem like .