My husband and I visited The Nightingale at Lindley, intrigued to see how it had altered from its original role as The Globe. The pub is a large, double fronted building located on Acre Street, near the hospital. Car parking is available at the front of the pub and at the rear. Access into the pub is okay for disabled users as there is no step, however, the cobbles at the front may prove a challenge to some. There is a beer garden at the back. Toilets are clean and tidy. Baby changing facilities in the Ladies.

The building has undergone a complete redecoration, and the result is a large, light and airy pub with lots of seating. In addition to the dining tables, there is also a less formal area with large sofas and coffee tables. The bar is fairly small in relation to the size of the pub, but was spotlessly clean and very shiny!

The new pub name The Nightingale is inspired from Florence Nightingale and its vicinity to Huddersfield Infirmary. The new owners are aiming to establish The Nightingale as a popular spot for hospital workers and visitors. Their other target group is Mums and Children.
NHS workers get a 10% discount off food, which was great for us! The pub is open all day, and food is served between 12 and 7pm Monday to Friday and between 12 and 6pm Saturday and Sunday. There is a quiz night with pie and Peas on Sundays at 8pm. A loyalty card scheme is planned for the near future.

We visited The Nightingale at 6pm on a Thursday evening and it was very quiet. We ordered drinks at the bar, pint of Carling and half a Strongbow (£4.45) and inspected the menu! It should be noted we had to pay for the drinks, they couldn’t be added to the bill as someone had walked out last week without paying!

The menu offers 3 shared platter starters which included nachos with a range of dips. These were all in the region of £6 - £7. The starters and light bites section of the menu consisted of homemade soup, some ciabatta bread based dishes with various toppings, then chunky chips and onion rings.

My husband opted for the vegetable soup, £2.95, which was served with ciabatta bread. It looked great and was clearly homemade. However, he said that although it was delicious, it could have been served a bit warmer. I chose the mozzarella ciabatta with olives and balsamic tomatoes. (£2.50) It arrived as a huge ciabatta sandwich, along with a handful of chips and a generous side salad. It was delicious, but not quite what I was expecting as a starter. I think the menu could have been a bit clearer with this one!

For my main course, I chose the Bacon, Chicken and Potato salad with Goats cheese and balsamic dressing (£6.95). Again, the portion was huge, plenty of salad and loads of chicken and bacon. It was tasty, but half way through I realised the goats cheese and balsamic dressing was absent. I mentioned this when the plates were cleared and accepted an apology.

Burgers seem to be a house speciality, and one night midweek they do a 2 for 1 offer on burgers. There are eight to choose from including a vegetarian falafel burger. My husband chose the Nightingale Burger (£7.25), which was served with cheese, onion rings, jalapeno peppers and salsa. In addition to this it was accompanied by a large portion of handcut chips, coleslaw and a side salad. The burger was tasty and the portion large.

Other dishes on the main menu included an Irish Stew, Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips, Yorkshire Pudding (on the special board), a wide range of sandwiches including Brie and Grape, Chicken, Tuna etc.

Vegetarians are well catered for (one of the starter platters is vegetarian), and there is a children's menu with Chicken Goujons, Burger, Bangers & Mash etc. The menu also states that other dishes can be served in smaller portions for children as well.

Both of us were too full to anticipate a pudding, which was a good job because we weren’t offered one! The menu says they offer a range of home made puddings and cakes. There was an Apple Pie and a Coffee Cake on the blackboard. Coffee, tea and Hot Chocolate are also available.

Throughout our visit (approx 90 mins) the pub remained fairly quiet. We think that more people will use the pub during the day and at lunchtime. It would be a great venue to meet up for coffee and cake or a bite to eat and a chat at lunch. The service was good and the bar staff polite. We weren’t blown away by the food, but it was tasty and wholesome. The portions were huge! No one will go away hungry, and no one will go away with an empty wallet. The prices are very reasonable. Total price for 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 drinks £22.55 Don’t forget the discount if you work for the NHS!

Response from The Nightingale

"We opened our doors a week before Christmas & unfortunately have had one or two 'teething' problems which we hope we have now addressed. Both our chefs were not only new to the kitchen but also to the menu & we have passed on all your comments about the soup temperature & missing salad ingredients to them so hopefully nothing like this will happen again! With regards to your Humous Ciabatta it would appear you were in fact given a Humous, Feta & Olive Sandwich instead so apologies for this mix up! We hope that these problems will not deter you from coming back again in the future & we look forward to impressing you a bit more next time!"

"We have now started our Loyalty card scheme - Buy a Loyalty card for £1.50 & get discount off food & drinks. We have also added a pensioners lunch on a Tuesday which consists of Pie & Peas, Apple Pie & Custard & a Pot of Tea for £5!"

Chris & Katy,
Proprietors, The Nightingale Bar & Dining Rooms


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