Everything smells crisp and new in the light, airy, smart and stylish Yo Yo caf-bar and restaurant, the latest enhancing addition to the Shipley eating experience, created in the Rosse Street premises which used to be a wicker-furniture showroom.

And it's likely to stay that way because Yo Yo is entirely smoke-free, pre-empting the welcome legislation which next summer will outlaw smoking everywhere that food is served.

The Shipley Yo Yo, a big sister to Simon Dunn's original caf-bar venture in Chapel Street, Bradford, had been open only ten days when we visited on Wednesday evening. We hadn't pre-booked, expecting the place to be quiet. In fact even just after 7pm a good number of the tables were occupied and the restaurant filled up steadily from then on, the amiable buzz of conversation mingling with the restrained background music.

They fitted us in though, and we didn't have too long to wait, sitting with a drink on a sofa near one of the large windows before being shown to our table.

There's quite a large bar area at Yo Yo, with plenty of tables for drinkers. I suspect that before long some of those will have been turned over to eaters because on this early showing it's likely to attract a growing number of those.

The style in the evening is a fusion of Japanese and Thai cooking (although the lunch menu has European and English dishes too). If you aren't over-familiar with that style of food, it helps to have someone explain it to you. Our waitress was happy to do that as we studied the menu, which included a helpful description of each dish.

We passed on the suchi and sashami dishes, neither of us being fans of raw fish yet - although it's something we could graduate to, as many others appear to have done. From a good selection of starters including soups, meat dishes, seafood and vegetarian, Maureen chose a Mixed Seafood Tempura, which was described as "sea bass, salmon and tiger prawns in a light tempura batter with a tempura sauce" while I opted for the Tod Man Pla ("Thai fish cakes made from deep-fried minced fish with green beans blended with Thai spices served with sweet chilli sauce").

When they arrived, on the suggestion of the waitress we shared. The tempura batter was indeed light and the fish tasty, the flavour of the sauce discreet. The half-dozen small, delicious fish cakes were clustered around a dish of piquant though not overhot sauce with a modest salad garnish.

So far so very good indeed. What followed continued the pleasant experience. Maureen's Lemongrass Grilled Chicken was a substantial helping of pieces of chicken breast in a superb slightly spicy sauce on a bed of mixed-vegetable tempura cake with a deep-fried, delicate web of shredded sweet potato standing above it like a sail, accompanied with half a caramelised mango.

For my tiger prawns dish the sweet potato had been turned into a basket to contain the sizeable portion of fresh, chunky fish mixed with garlic and chilli on a bed of sauteed spinach with an oyster and chilli garlic sauce. Wow!

We had ordered a bowl of jasmine rice to share but it really wasn't necessary. There was plenty without it, although it did soak up any surplus sauce nicely.

At the end of the meal my co-appraiser was asked what she thought. The food she declared to have been excellent, the staff lovely. The only reservation was the temperature of the plates, which she thought could have been warmer.

Her comments were willingly taken on board by a restaurant which seems determined to listen to customers' views in an effort to make itself even better than it already is.

WHAT WE ATE: Starters, Mixed Seafood Tempura - £5.50, Tod Man Pla - £4.95. Main course, Lemongrass grilled chicken - £11.95, Tiger prawn basket - £11.95, Jasmine rice - £1.85. Drinks, two pints of Becks, two glasses of Pinot Grigio - £10.40. Total cost - £46.60.

VERDICT: Food - four stars; service - four stars; atmosphere - four stars; value for money - three stars.

Parking: There is a pay-and-display car park in Rosse Street next to the restaurant.

  • Our writers comment on what they find during a single visit. They accept standards vary from day to day. In the interest of fairness, they do not reveal their identities, and they pay for their meals in full. Each venue is judged against other restaurants of a similar type.