Whilst in Whitby for a few days, we decided on our last night to have a change from pub grub or fish and chips. After googling restaurants in Whitby, I came across an interesting little restaurant called Ditto on Skinner Street, 5 minutes walk from the Whale Bone Arch.
We booked for 6pm and were told that they would need our table back for 8pm. This wasn’t a problem as we just wanted an early tea so we arrived at 6pm on the button to be welcomed as the first there and had the choice of tables. This wasn’t too hard a choice as there appeared to be only about 18 covers.
Having checked out a bit of background on Ditto, it turns out this family run restaurant has been a Whitby favourite for 10 years. Its mantra is to produce simple, wholesome food with bold flavours using influences from all over Europe. The Head Chef Edward Hesketh has built up a great reputation locally and insists on using only quality local ingredients.
The restaurant is intimate, comfortable and welcoming, with the dark green paintwork gives it a homely feel. The two ladies working front of house were friendly, attentive and helpful providing a jug of water for the table without us asking, taking our drinks order and bringing us freshly baked bread with balsamic and home-made humous as dips.
The menu looked great and very reasonable – two courses for £30 and three for £38. I never like too much choice, being greedy I always find it difficult to choose.
Here there was a choice of 4 starters, all of which I would have been happy to eat. I went for the Fried Cauliflower, Panko Crumble, Toasted Seeds, Rocket with Honey & Rosemary Dressing.
It was lovely, the crisp crumble complimenting the toasted cauliflower and the honey based dressing not something I would have expected to work with cauliflower.
My wife Liz had the Roast Garlic Tarka Dhal with Crispy Crostini and Vegetable Batons. She really enjoyed this being a dhal fan. I was allowed a sample spoonful and wow, you could really taste the garlic. It was lovely but I think my Fried Cauliflower just won for me.
Also on the menu for starters was Fish, Cheddar and Potato Croquettes and Confit of Duck Leg.
Between the courses we were offered a palette cleanser of passion fruit sorbet. It was delicious.
Onto the mains, there were 5 choices here.
I went for the Braised Ox Cheek with Buttery Mash, Red Cabbage and Parmesan and a Red Wine Sauce. The evening before I had ordered Steak and Ale Pie for tea in a pub in Staithes – what I was served was a fossilised chunk of pie, with dried out meat in an inedible, rock hard pastry crust with a grey garden peas. But this plate made up for the day before’s disaster.
The Ox Cheek was tender and tasty, the mash perfect and really was buttery, the red cabbage is always a favourite with me and the sauce added flavour. With a lovely glass of Malbec my main course was top notch.
My wife went for the Baked Sea Bream Fillets in Fish Broth. This was served with Gnochi and a Tomato, Lemon and Caper Salsa as well as perfectly cooked spinach and broccoli. She was impressed and enjoyed the fish saying it was perfectly cooked. She couldn’t finish the gnocchi as she was so full, but I sampled a small fork full of this and can confirm it was tasty and quite spicy with a bit of warmth coming through.
Liz was too full for dessert, but not wanting to let the side down I managed to fit in a slice of Burnt Basque Cheesecake with a bit of Ice Cream and Fresh Strawberries. Lovely baked cheesecake with a bit of fresh fruit.
We left satisfied and full. A really enjoyable experience with well prepared, interesting food and really great service. I am sure we will return with friends.
The restaurant is only open on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and the maximum group they can accommodate is 4, so it does make it perfect for a date night and means it will retain its intimate atmosphere. To find out more visit https://www.ditto-restaurant.co.uk