I have been a regular customer at Kitchen for a few years now, so felt it only right give it a thorough and honest review!
Kitchen is a family run business, and began with the opening of a tea room and shop in Snaith, then later extended it's services to Howden, opening a much larger and quite frankly more comfortable tea room there! Though Kitchen in Snaith offers the same great food and lovely, polite service, I have often felt undeniably cramped into that small and somewhat dim room before, and it can be very awkward queuing for a seat, standing in the way of the customers in the shop. Howden solves that problem by serving customers over the counter downstairs, and seating those of us who wish to dine in upstairs! Though there is often a wait, you can avoid this by choosing to go a little before or a little after the usual lunch hours of 12pm - 2pm, and just remember that it being busy is a sign of how popular it is!
The Howden tearoom is bright, spacious and well run by its team. Staff are friendly and very accommodating. The decor is seasonally appropriate and quite rustic looking, it's got more personality than your generic chain coffee shop or cafe, and much better food and drink!
There are lots of yummy dishes to choose from at the Howden tearoom, including a selection of salad bowls. Photographed to the left is the Chicken & Bacon Caesar Salad Bowl, which costs around £8.50. I'm not sure how well you can tell, but you get a LOT of bang for your buck. This isn't just your generic meat and leaf salad, you get flavoured bread, potato salad, coleslaw, sometimes hummus, pine nuts, tasty crispy bacon and slice after slice of cold cut chicken, rocket, lettuce, sundried tomatoes, ribbons of cucumber, all drizzled in yummy dressing! This isn't exactly a light option, so don't be fooled and think that you're doing your waistline any favours if you order this!! It's a really lovely lunch option though and well worth the calories. I indulged in this just a few weeks ago to celebrate finishing my degree, so got a glass of prosecco to accompany it! I have to say that it did cost nearly the same price as a bottle would in Tesco, but if you're celebrating then it's a nice option to have!
Another personal favourite of mine is the brie, bacon & cranberry toasted sandwich! It's surprising just how filling a sandwich can be, but they don't scrimp and save here, your door stop style toasted sandwich arrives at your table along with a small side salad and a little pot of crisps. This is a perfect choice for a winter lunch, it's warm and gooey, and just the right mix of sweet (from the cranberry sauce) and savoury (because of the brie!)
If you're looking for a nice, warm drink to accompany your lunch then look no further. With it being a tearoom, there are lots of tea's on offer, and of course other warm beverages such as coffee and hot chocolate. At Christmas time they also bring out specialty drinks with lots of different festive flavours, topped of course with edible glitter and a little piece of chocolate that melts into your mouth!
The menu also features cold drinks with exciting fruity flavours (the raspberry lemonade is amazing), and of course some more traditional beverages like lemonade, cola, etc. You can find burgers, flatbreads, afternoon tea, boards and even picnic table sharers for two!
Zoom in and have a browse for yourself, then get down to Kitchen and indulge in some of this yummy food!