Anyway, Leeds finally got a Waitrose in Meanwood. The fact that it is 15 minute walk followed by a 15 minute bus followed by another 10 min walk from my house did not phase me or D and we shunned the Tesco that we live next door to, as well as the Co Op that we live down the road from, and set off for the Promised Land. (OK, so I may be exaggerating the excitement slightly, but for a girl who loves both shopping and food, a good supermarket is like finding those shoes you wanted in the sale in your size!)
Waitrose did not disappoint. OK it's brand spanking new, so all nice and clean and white and full of enthusiastic friendly staff who hadnt yet been beaten down by weeks of dealing with stupid customers, but I was really really impressed. The shelves were full and everything was in the right place and there's a rather nice homeware/cookware section (as well as getting excited by supermarkets, I also love to spend a few hours lusting after kitchen gadgets and equipment and mentally refurbishing my entire house. I am aware I need to get out more. Working on it.)
And there's a cafe! That's something my parents' Waitrose does not have...possibly as I suspect the inhabitants of the town would rather spend their hard earned cash on a pint of warm lager or a pie and chips. Not that I'm a snob. Or spent 18 years of my life dreaming of moving away. Anyway, the Waitrose cafe is fairly similar to an M&S one- a small selection of hot food, along with sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee and various other baked goods. D and I decided to take a short break from our wandering around open mouthed in awe and wonder at the vast selection of high quality food in the shop and had a black coffee each (fairly decent) along with an apple danish for me and a marmalade sponge for D.
Both cakes were delicious- my pastry was flaky and light with a pretty tasty apple filling- you could tell they made the filling themselves and didn't just get it out of a tin of ready made apple pie filling. (And if they did, then it was a very good quality pie filling!) D's sponge was quite dense, yet moist and full of tangy marmalade flavour. The only negative I can find to say about the cafe is that they put all the calorie counts on the cakes. I know some people might find this helpful but come on, if you're going to eat a cake, you know it's not going to be good for you! I don't want to know that the pastry I just ate had more calories and fat than my entire lunch and breakfast combined thank you Waitrose. I don't want to leave the cafe with cake-guilt.
Waitrose's selection of both fresh and dry ingredients puts most other supermarkets in the shade. I subscribe to Olive magazine, and quite often I've been unable to source certain ingredients such as Belazu rose harissa, or good quality dried porcini, or those wonderful Merchant Gourmet puy lentils- Waitrose have them all and then some! It may be a little expensive and indulgent for a weekly shop (although they do have a pretty good "essentials" range and price match Tesco on many branded goods) but for a delicious pre-prepared Saturday night in front of X Factor dinner (we had roast rump of lamp with a herby crust- as good as a restaurant!) or for the odd hard-to-find ingredient, it's perfect.
Oh by the way, I should probably add a disclaimer- no I do not work for Waitrose, have never received any free stuff for them, and am not being held at gun point by the manager of the Meanwood store to write a decent review. I just like supermarkets. And as supermarkets go, Waitrose is definitely my number 1.
