J.D. Young Hotel, Market Place, Harleston

A friend of mine has recently moved to Harleston and whilst visiting, we took a trip to J.D. Youngs for some food.

J.D. Youngs is a hotel and has been host to Sir Alfred Munnings and has a bar and separate restaurant area alongside 11 rooms.

I was expecting standard 'pub grub' and was suitably surprised by the decor. The restaurant area was equipped for a higher class of dining, with all tables dressed for the evening complete with cloth napkins (quite a rarity!). 

As we were eating early the restaurant was empty and we were sat in some armchairs and given some menus to peruse. J.D. Youngs operates a bar and restaurant menu, with the bar menu featuring British classics you would expect in a put (steak burger, steak and ale pie, lasagne, scampi etc), whilst the main menu featured more refined choices, such as pork belly and rabbit ballantine.

We were advised that every Monday is a 'Manic Monday' with 25% off all food on the menu. A definite bonus for us! J.D. Youngs also serve 'Wicked Wednesday', with the cheaper meal available for £2 with the purchase of 2 meals.

The two menus and a special board were slightly overwhelming, so I quickly decided that the bar menu was the choice for me. Part of this was one of my weaknesses present on the menu... Slow Roasted BBQ Spare Ribs, £14.95.

Slow Roasted BBQ Ribs, £14.95

I was definitely not disappointed! This was a mountain of food - over a rack and a half of tender, juicy ribs served with wedges,  giant onion rings, a pot of coleslaw, a huge side salad and a gravy jug full of BBQ sauce.

The picture really doesn't do the food justice - this was not your average dinner plate - more of a serving plate size! I am proud to say I did a really good job of this and ate almost everything, apart from 1 onion ring and a bit of the coleslaw. 

It was delicious and I was really impressed with the quality for the price. The wedges were home-made with a crispy exterior and soft, fluffy potato filling. The coleslaw also seemed to be home-made and was the right mix of creamy dressing and vegetable crunch. The jug of BBQ sauce was a nice touch and meant I could drench the ribs and wedges!

My friend ordered JD's Slowly Braised Beef & Ale Puff Pastry Pie, £12.95. Out came a dish full of beef with a big puff of pastry, a mountain of chips, dish of peas and jug of gravy.

JD's Slowly Braised Beef & Ale Puff Pastry Pie, £12.95

Both meals were well presented and the staff were friendly and courteous. 

We were pretty full after our main courses, but then we saw something irresistible on the menu... Alburgh ice cream. Alburgh ice cream is locally made in Norfolk and the honeycomb ice cream is a firm favourite of mine (considering I am definitely more of a savoury fan).

The serving at J.D. Youngs is 4 scoops for £5.95 - which is definitely a bigger portion than the average 2 - 3 scoops. We asked if we could have 2 scoops each instead after almost being defeated by the mains and the waitress was happy to oblige. Out came 2 big scoops in an iced sundae dish with 2 white chocolate wafer sticks.

Alburgh's honeycomb ice cream, £5.95 for 4 scoops

This ice cream is pretty amazing - flavoured with honeycomb as well as large, crunchy chunks of honeycomb.

With the discount, the meal for two alongside a soft drink each came to just over £30 - very reasonable for the amount of food we had!

I was really impressed with J.D. Youngs, definitely not what I expected. On my next visit to Harleston, I will be sure the visit again!


Food - 9/10
Service - 9/10
Atmosphere - 8/10 (mainly because we ate early and were the only people in the restaurant for most of the meal)
Value for Money - 9/10 (particularly with Monday Madness!)