While Leeds city centre has no shortage of pubs, bars and restaurants catering to every imaginable taste, if you're on a mission to impress it's worth looking to the city's outskirts for some traditional, log-fires-and-all country pubs. Just down the A65 in Ilkley, this food-focused walkers' haunt is one of the best. With low lighting, dark wood and cosy seating to compliment the all-important open fire, this is prime date territory, and the restaurant-quality food and extensive wine list (plus a good soft drink selection for the driver) will ensure an evening to remember. On my visit I enjoyed a spinach, squash and goat's cheese lasagne - a deliciously fresh-tasting use of seasonal, local produce - and a melt-in-the-mouth cheeseboard accompanied by a tart quince jelly. I can heartily recommend both. Although food is clearly the main event here, a decent selection of house and guest ales means its also worth just popping in for a drink, and with the pub's position just five minutes from the centre of Ilkley, a quaint, up-market spa town, and at the start of the Dales Way, there are plenty of opportunities to walk off any excesses. read more