A hundred years ago, Albion Court was the place to be in Bradford.

It was home to Laycock's Temperance Hotel, the place where the Independent Labour Party was born. It was a talking shop so renowned it was known as Bradford's Parliament.

Now Albion Court is renowned only for a gem of an Italian restaurant, Guiseppe's Back Yard. Now, like New Labour, it has a new name: New Guiseppe's.

It also has a bright new future, for Albion Court is undergoing something of a transformation. The builders are in, creating a new Yates's Wine Lodge just outside Guiseppe's, a development which is bound to bring this tucked-away restaurant to greater prominence.

Jackie and I have been to Guiseppe's before. So when we found ourselves looking for a bite to eat early on Tuesday evening, we headed for Albion Court.

It was 6pm and we were the first of the evening diners. Nevertheless, the welcome was warm and the atmosphere quickly developed as more and more diners arrived.

The menu was standard fare but it was well supplemented with some inventive selections on the blackboards such as devilled whitebait.

After much deliberation we made our selections - garlic mushrooms (£3.65) for Jackie and Mexican chicken dips for me (£3.75). Both were healthy portions, well presented by our gracious, attentive waitress.

Our main courses were just as well received - my Pizza Calzone (£5.95) was huge, tasty and good value, and Jackie adored her Pescatori pasta (£6.45), laced with salmon and other seafood.

We had been so hungry we ordered a side dish of garlic bread (£2.75) which turned out to be a huge affair charged with lashings of tomato and garlic - almost a meal on its own.

At £28.50 including almost £6 of drinks, we found it good value. Don't be put off by the building site - New Guiseppe's is certainly worth a visit.

Steve Teale

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.