Rate My Takeaway star Danny Malin reveals where you can find best 'underdog' venues including Leeds favourites
In his weekly column for the Yorkshire Evening Post, Danny Mei Lan Malin talks about the best ‘underdog’ food venues - and his new Huddersfield kitchen.
When a Grandma served me some grub from the window of her terraced house, I wasn’t expecting an epic breakfast nor my first viral YouTube video.
It racked up millions of views - but, more importantly, it helped Grandma's Kitchen earn enough from increased trade to open their own venue, having first started in lockdown.
This showed me the power us online influencers can have on businesses and, most of all, inspiring people to try new food. It’s gems like these where you can often find the best hearty food.
I know this from my travels, having found that simple night markets and basic cafes serving up authentic cuisine can be the best finds and value for money. Just look at the A64 bus cafe and The Old Fire Station at Gipton.
Instead of the bigger chains, I’ve always been passionate about the independents, the 'underdogs'.
That’s one of the reasons why I hand-selected businesses to showcase in our new Rate My Takeaway kitchen food court to work as a team.
You’ve got Wing a Ding, who hand prepare chicken which is made to order, as well as cauliflower wings. Then there is Hooyah Burgers, where you can get DIY burgers by choosing from the best locally sourced produce, and there is Jay’s Desserts for Instagrammable waffles, as well as ice cream from Mr Ts.
The Birria Boyz have converted me to tacos, Pizza Pizza serves up kebab meat on pizza, while Bobby’s Salt and Pepper is all Chinese-inspired food and munch boxes.
At the moment we also have Wagyu Lookin’ At selling Wagyu burgers, and Ai Bubble Tea serving Taiwanese tea with tapioca balls.
On our opening night last week, I was chuffed to welcome the owners of Grandma’s Kitchen to the food court, as well as family, close friends, influencers and champion Boxer Callum Simpson.