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A Good Meal and a Decent Pint (reproduced from the Winter 2005-6 edition of O-to-K)
The College
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138 Northgate, Wakefield
The College is a spacious and comfortable 2 room pub
with a Brewer's Tudor exterior; the public bar kept its traditional sawdust
floor until health & safety forbade it. It is handy for the North side of
the city centre but once inside you are unaware of all the bustle. It�s owned
by the Union Pub Co., part of W & D. The College used to have Banks�s and
Mansfield on handpump, but now if you want cask ale your choice is Marstons
Pedigree. This had a good balance of hops and malt, which, as I was pleasantly
surprised to find, was not over-chilled.
When I called in, the pub had barely opened its doors
as eager customers, office workers and shoppers, started to place their orders.
There�s a wide choice, and depending on your meal, the accompaniment may be
fries, wedges, mash or rice. It�s hard to spend much more than a fiver unless
you pig out on a mixed grill or a minted lamb shank, with sandwiches, toasties,
baguettes, jackets. Mains include the ubiquitous wholetail scampi, tex-mex,
chilli, and fajitas. If you can�t make up your mind the menu offers lots of
opportunities to have a bit of this and a bit of that - that�s me, so I picked
one of 3 combos, a burger (made from proper meat) with chicken breast smothered
in tangy barbecue sauce of which I did not waste a drop, accompanied by grilled
tomato and a mountain of wedges.
You can�t try everything on the menu, but with a bit
of ear-wigging I picked up �That Chicken Tikka: you ought to see it - it�s
great�. The service was friendly, and the wait was under � hour for freshly
cooked, still sizzling food, in such generous portions that it�s a wonder they
ever sell any desserts.
Food is served 12.00-14.00, & 17.00-19.00 on
weekdays, with Sunday lunches 12.00-17.00.