Cena Bistro, Guiseley

Cena is a nice looking Italian bistro in the heart of Guiseley. We called in without booking on a midweek night, there were only two other tables occupied but I hear this place is buzzing on a weekend.

The menu is quite reasonably priced, and partly because of that I splash out on the most expensive starter, the Fritto Misto at £8.95. It's expensive for a starter but it is great value, the waiter brings a huge plate of food. Meg had chosen the calamari, and I had an equal size portion of lightly battered squid rings on my plate alongside a generous helping of courgette and prawns. The batter was so light as to be almost a dusting, the squid and prawns soft and delicate, the courgette hot and succulent. Another plus, it came with a decent Yorkshire portion of garlic mayo, none of that drizzle on the edge of the plate nonsense.

Beer comes in a goodly size as well, Peroni in a 660ml, although, I always find Italian lagers to largely lacking in bite and flavour.

My main course Mixed Meat pizza at £10.95 was loaded with toppings over a nicely herby tomato base, the crust was nice and thin but to my shame I had to leave most of the crusts as that giant starter had defeated me. Meg's spaghetti carbonara was pronounced good, though we spent some time reminiscing of the truly great carbonara they used to serve at the sadly long defunct Bistro Fiori in Leeds. The upshot of this though was that we would definitely come again for pasta and pizza.

Despite not finishing my pizza, I found room for ice cream, a scoop each of vanilla, tiramisu and pistachio, the ice cream is fine, but not fantastic.

The service was good throughout, everything is reasonably priced. We had two starters, two mains, a dessert, one latte, one beer, one glass of wine and one soft drink for £57.35.

I Don't Bake Cakes

I thought I'd start a new blog, no music or comics this time, just food.  I love food, I love eating out, I love cooking when I get time, and I love trying new things. I've been in the catering industry all my life, I grew up in pub and I've worked in a variety of bars, restaurants, cafes and clubs.

But I don't enjoy baking.  I love sweet stuff, cakes, biscuits, gooey chocolate desserts, these are all awesome things, but I don't get the same pleasure from making them as I do from creating savoury dishes.

I do enjoy chillies, not so much to set my mouth afire, but a little chili in a dish generally makes it more interesting. Same for chorizo, chorizo is a basic cooking ingredient in my house. I cook a lot of meat, and probably not enough fish, I love risotto, and many evening meals at home are like an episode of 'Ready, Steady, Cook', I'll set off with a vague idea of what I'm making and it sort of evolves and changes as I go along, or as I find a slightly soft and wrinkly red pepper lurking in a deep recess of the fridge.

I probably say 'amazing' all too much, but cheese is amazing, and beer is amazing, it almost goes without saying that wine and single malts are amazing, as is using way too much garlic to make garlic prawns, and putting thick slabs of cold butter on hot toast. Takeways are amazing too, who doesn't enjoy a really good satay that you haven't had to grind the peanuts for yourself, and donner kebab pizza is pretty much the pinnacle of human achievement when you've you just consumed six pints of Fotheringill's Old Ram Botherer.

Anyway, read on, comment, suggest additions, point out great new places to eat, food's amazing.