The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Skipton, North Yorkshire*

Skipton, North Yorkshire Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• The butties in Spoilt for Choice on Sackville street are the best but I would say that I work there.
• bizzie lizzies is unbeleiveably crap... i cant understand how fish and chips which smell so good from outside the shop, can taste so naff, there usually undercooked. overpriced with a portion big enough to feed your average pigeon... they seem to have a high turnover of staff, usually people who seem to have about as much experience at fish frying as the queen
• burger king is fine. Don't go to the cafe at the swimming pool.
• eastwoods fish and chips are far better than bizzy lizzies and there cheaper(check it out its not far)
• WESTMORLAND STREET CHIPPIE THE BEST IN THE WORLD, THEY THINK ABOUT THERE CUSTOMERS , NOT TRYING TO WIN AWARDS LIKE BIZZIE LIZZIES(THE JUDGES MUST HAVE TROUBLE WITH THERE TASTE BUDS).
• busy lizzies, skipton. claimed to be one of the best fish and chip shops in the uk...who are they trying to kid??
• Fryers on Gargrave road Beats Bizzie Lizzies hands down !!
• dolphin (Effies)is now Bodrum, apparently named after the trouble you have after eating in Tukey at the famous resort of Bodrum and and contracting the well known "Bodrum bum", or the shit's to you.
• Chico's Pizza - good for delivery - but u have to pay taxi fare
• Le Caveau on the high street offers French cuisine while No1 serves traditional english food. Also Napiers, the Aagraa, Bizzie Lizzie's, and several indian / chinese takeaways.
• PIE SHOPS - I have travelled the country and have yet to find a pie as good as the Pork Pies from Stanforth's. My freezer too is crammed full of these gorgeous pies. Ellison's Butchers of nearby Gargrave do an equally good pork pie aswell (for a Pie Eater's reference, so do Oddies of Nelson and Wright's of Stoke-on-Trent). FISH n CHIPS - Haven't sampled F&CH from Skipton for a while, but wouldn't recommend Bizzie Lizzies- a few of my school friends often found fish worms in the fish. Think the one on Water Street was a better choice. TAKEAWAY - got to be a Four Cheeses with Ham and extra Parmesan pizza from Chico's next to the Plaza Cinema. Far better than the rest of the takeaways put together.
• Only the one serious contender here, 'No 1'Cavendish Street, a family run place - Bill, Ali, Debbie and Heather serving absolutely superb home cooked food. A Reasonably priced All Inclusive menu in a town that is gonna charge you a Ģiver for a prawn cocktail!. Not a place to eat and run,(you can't 'cos you are stuffed) this is an all nighter. If you want to impress Mum, Dad or your Girlfriend this is the ONLY place to go, end of story.
• Ceasers and thats about it, you're likely to get food poisoning from anywhere else.
• Bizzie Lizzies is THE BEST CHIPPIE EVER !! I know because I live in Devon and I havent tasted anything like decent fish OR chips since I left Skipton. The only crap place is the one opposite from St Andrews. Westmorland Street is highly praised, most people I know go there (but bloody hell its small and the fish in the tank put me off a bit...)
• That bakery just across the river down the road from the church. Sorry to be so vague, but you'll recognise it when you see a queue of twenty people lined up for their sandwiches and cakes!
• Bizzie Lizzie Chips Co-op deli for sandwich
• There is only one decent Fish 'N' Chip shop in Skipton (and I'm surprised that none of you supposed Skiptonians have mentioned it) and it is situated on the corner of Westmorland Street. You have to queue for ages because it's so popular but it's worth the wait. Bizzie Lizzie's & the one in the Town Hall car park PLEASE!! I wouldn't even feed them to the ducks! A Rasta man in Birmingham once told me that Skipton had the best fish 'N' chips and he'd been to the one on Westmorland Street. So it's famous nationwide. And what about Phillipe's bakery on Sackville street, they make the best tea cakes ever (which they sell in the Westmorland fish 'N' chip shop) and the bloody superb steak pies, which I crave for whilst at Uni. I don't know how they pack so much steak in them, it's definately value for money.
• Somebody out there must want to eat something a bit more upmarket than pizzas, burgers, fish & chips and curries. If so, why not try a)Le Caveau - former town dungeon, on High St., b)Napier's - 2 mins. from church at top of High St.
• Avoid Efe's (enigmatically renamed Dolphin's) like the plague. The two are unavoidably intertwined. Chico's serve gorgeous, substantial and cheap pizzas. The Aagrah (opposite Bus Station in Devonshire Place) is extremely well run and is very hard to fault. Everywhere else is overrated, overpriced and not worth leaving the house for. There are no decent chip shops in Skipton, not even Bizzies who make Fish and chips that not even a pigeon would peck at.
• Fairly nimble curry house somewhere round the back of the Building Society. They serve you a proper hot curry so hot that it has flames on the top of it literally, it looks so cool when you order that.
• The fish and chip shop in the main car park is easily the best, apart from needing redacorating. I would advise you not to go to Bizzie Lizzie's if you are impatient and don't likle waiting for your ffod!!
• REHMAN's burger bar, BRODY's, the GULSHAN take-away for excellent kebabs on Sackville Street, just further up from the Plaza, and of course BIZZIE LIZZIE's.
• A handy stanford's related tip, bite a whole into your pie then drink the gravey (or pour it away but that shows you're a tourist), stops it getting onto your clothes when you eat it.
• Lawsons have two stalls in the market, selling Wensleydale, and other, cheeses - and fruit cake baked in large slabs. The Saturday cafe in the Parish Church has excellent food, reasonably priced.
• Avoid Chicos. There's some wicked little Indian take outs knocking around. One on the main trail, the other to the back of the town. Oh and there's a nice one near Goulshen Street.
• Try the Wright Wine shop for a good range of plonk and lots of info.
• Also Stanforth's, the internationally renowned pork pie shop and butchers!
• As for Pizzas I can't remember the name of the place, which is going to drive me mad until I think - remembered it - Chicos! Good quality at a price that's right - or at least it was!
• Fish and Chips/Pizzas, Bizzy Lizzies are pretty good but I prefer the chips from the one in the big car park!

Pubs

• black horse. it's just superb!
• The Black Horse (aka the Black Hole) is a great spot on Friday nights for perma-tanned orange girls and poseurs who wish they lived in a town with wine bars. The Rose & Crown (aka the Zoo) is a unique social experience over the weekend. Marvel as toothless fifty + year old women attempt to girate provocatively for tattoed blokes called Wayne.
• BLACK HORSE. REYT PUB! GOOD BEER, TIDY FEMALE BAR STAFF. NEED I SAY MORE! (OH AND A SUIT OF ARMOUR NICKNAMED BERT IN THE CORNER).
• WETHERSPOONS HAVE NOW STARTED WORK ON THE DEVONSHIRE HOTEL AND IT WILL BE OPEN FOR BUSINESS IN FEB 04, 28TH APROX. CHEAP DRINKS AND FOOD AT LAST!!!
• THE FLEECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• The Narrow Boat,Victoria Street,Skipton. The Cock & Bottle,Swadford Street,Skipton.
• GOOD=Red Lion/Black Horse, BAD=the Fleece
• I try and visit Skipton at least 4 times a year - the first pub I aim for is the Cock & Bottle - good beer(and good prices)- all the time.Also nice atmosphere,. Some of the other hostelries are a bitt 'plastic'.
• Pubs! the best pubs in Skipton are as follows The albion,the fleece,the railway, the castle, the rose and crown, the cock and bottle and the cross keys. The high street pubs are mainly restaurants that happen to sell beer. If you want some really cheap drinking and good local company of all ages try THE WHITE ROSE CLUB AND THE WORKING MENS CLUB both have customers of all ages and usually have decent entertainment on saturday nights. if you are a masocist and fancy paying top euros for your drink and getting a good kicking out side by the local freedom fighters try the BLISS night club.
• the "Y" bar, trendiest bar in town, you can only tell which is the gents and which is the ladies by the "Kelvin Clien's hung by the door. The Chews bar as been renovated and made into "Breeze", same pissheads stood in the same places, just surrounded by different people
• black horse, red lion, the craven, the fleece, the railway, the castle and quite a few more
• the blackhourse is quality best pub in skipton
• There's more pubs in Skipton than I care to remember, and certainly enough to cater for all tastes and age groups. The once tarnished image of the Rose and Crown has benefitted from a new landlord and refit, while across the road the Lock Stock and Barrel has become succesfull enough for the management to introduce a dress code on the door during busy evenings. The Rose and Crown and the Red Lion both have secret double lives, operating as restaurants for tourists during the day but quickly filling with teenage drinkers during busy evenings. The Cock and Bottle and Wooly Sheep are both popular with locals and the Cross keys and Castle both attract a regular crowd. Other pubs include the Commercial, the Devonshire hotel, Herriots Hotel, The Shepherd, The Fleece and The Railway.
• Last time I was there (Sept 2000) Best Beer: Narrow Boat (Caledonian Deuchars IPA), Royal Shepherd (Cain's), Woolly Sheep (TT Landlord) Best atmosphere : the Cock, Castle Late Drinking : The Dev
• Ah, my favourite subject... has to be the Castle, 'D' and Viv have a top place here, a locals pub that welcomes everyone else. The Black 'un may look nice but take your tipple out of a bottle.. if you know what I mean.
• As the licensee of the Cock & Bottle Inn, in Skipton, I would like to amend a statement regarding my pub. We no longer have drunk 50yr olds telling their life story. i have done everything I can to get rid of people like that. Now, we have a cosy traditional pub with fabulous beer and probably the only pub in Skipton that has had a price decrease on beer since the Budget. We are renowned in Skipton for having graet food and ridicuosly cheap prices. That, and our fab quiz on Weds make our little pub one of the best in Skipton. I am not being biased, I get that feedback from comment cards/questionnaires I hand to customers. Cheers!
• The Cock & Bottle is the one of the best Pubs in Skipton (if not the best) The Landlord Martin in a very friendly host. It is a Pub for the more mature person who like a good pint and freindly suroundings. If you are looking for a pub with a more feshfaced puntter then go to the Black Horese or Red Lion where the beer is foul and expencive.
• Skipton has (im told i think reliably) 27 drinking establishments!! As stated none of them serve minors, however if u enjoy the almost youthful exuberenmce of a fresh faced crowd u wanna try the craven (bands on saturday too!!) the commercial (shed :( ) and the rose and crown. however, youthful folks can be found anywhere around town, these 3 are just the ones with a reputation...
• The Fleece is the best pub in Skipton, good food and good people, have a visit.
• We have just spent a brilliant weekend in Skipton. The boys in our group have found the ultimate in pubs - The Castle. They serve the best pint of Tetleys and the best pint of Guinness (the barman has loads of experience in this field). The Castle pub at Skipton is now a shrine and they plan to return very soon!!
• The Castle with it's new upholstry has got to be 'The Place' for the serious 'beer swilling''sports minded''crack having''bab eating''soul singing''sky diving' nutters amongst you! (Dangerous Sports Club Contenders Only) And if you want a serious 'Black Russian with Guinness', the castle is where it was invented, not the Albion!!!!!!! Thanks to Dee and Viv for all the crack since I've started falling over there!
• Best pubs in Skipton: The Albion (Black Russian with Guinness Top), The Fleece, Cock & Bottle. Trendy pubs in Skipton: Black Horse (aka Black Whore), Red Lion.
• Red Lion: Full of Posers and Piss Heads. Theres always someone stood at the door who either calls you a fat bitch or makes some gross remark about your breasts. Castle: bit better, I have had a laugh in there. Black Horse: expensive but less rowdy, nice open fire. Chews Bar: the words Snooker Cue and Violence spring to mind. Cock And Bottle: Always a pissed up 50 yr old bloke in there theorising about life and approaching the nearest group of young people to tell his troubles to. He only responds to "I'm not being funny mate but ***k off" (I know as my mate had to resort to this). Cross Keys is the only pub in Skipton in which I feel actually SAFE.
• For a choice of 8 decently kept real ales, a large mixed selection of foreign bottled beers and a reasonable range of wines by the glass and no underage, loud, punchy rowdies, jukeboxes or fruit machines, try the Narrow Boat Inn, hidden away in Victoria St., a little alleyway 2mins from High St.
• Do not go into the Red Lion unless you are a) addicted to bad beer and alcopops, or b) a schollteacher trying to catch one of your errant pupils trying to sneak a lunchtime half of lager top. Much better to try the Black Horse (upmarket, upbeat, comfortable, good beer) or the Castle (authentic but lively and down to earth). The rest are much of a muchness. Woolly Sheep and Black Horse are the best for pub lunches.
• Black Horse is the only place, the Red Lion's not too bad
• The BLACK HORSE on the High Street, is an extremely good pub now it has just been refurbished. The RED LION and CASTLE are also very good. Other good pubs include the FLEECE, ALBION, COCK AND BOTTLE, WOOLY and SHEEP.
• The best pub is the Rose and Crown :) One of my friends had a piece of one of the chairs tied round his arm he's that devoted to the place!
• the Cross Keys. arguabley the best pub in town, LOCALS ONLY PLEASE. best feature being free pool table and the most cheesey juke box in the known universe. Ideal night in Skipton 7.30 cross keys (Tetleys) 9.30 wooly Sheep (Black Sheep ale) 10.30 Red Lion (vodka, Totty) 11.00 After Dark (Totty, Vodka) 2.00 Effes(totty ,pizza) 3.00 someones bed.
• Lots. They're all full of shite. The locals are miserable, any new face must be a tourist. And they can spot new faces. Most of the girls are hounds or pony riding snobs, the lads dress in bright shirts and believe that if it isn't 4/4 cheesy house it's crap.
• The Black Horse is always busy, and the Castle has some interesting folk in it.
• The best pub is certainly not the Red Lion, as stated by some buffoon. That is full of learner-drinkers tarted up and supping Hooch. Nah, the best place to go is the Castle pub, full of young people.
• Red Lion
• The Fleece.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Cafe Jaca is a nice place to go, especially on those cold winter afternoons, sit in front of the fire on the big comfy sofa with a hot chocolate with TONNES of cream......heaven!
• The Castle Cafe - and about a zillion others - the one above Rackhams is expensive but quiet and out of the way from the general public
• Definitely too many of them for the old dears to see.
• Glad to see the CAST-E CAFE has finally bit the dust - hopefully the old bag has too!!!

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Last updated: 2008-06-12