Blog | Wakefield Civic Society Announces its Restaurant of the Year Awards for 2012

Wakefield Civic Society Announces its Restaurant of the Year Awards for 2012

Posted on 25 March 2013 by

For the third year running, Wakefield Civic Society awarded two ‘Restaurant of the Year’ prizes to local catering establishments.

Gaskell’s at Wakefield College retained its crown as Wakefield Civic Society’s Restaurant of the Year for a third year when staff and students from the restaurant received their award at the Society's AGM on Thursday 21st March. The certificate was presented to them on behalf of the Society by the Mayor of Wakefield, Councillor Elaine Blezard. Meanwhile, Grill At 31 in Northgate also received an award.

Members of the Civic Society’s Dining Club, which was introduced in 2010, sampled a different restaurant each month from January through to December 2012 and chose the winning restaurants by rating each establishment at which they ate.

Members voted on the overall experience at each restaurant in terms of ambience and comfort, quality of the food and service and value for money. The votes for the top place were so close that club members decided both Gaskell’s and Grill At 31 should be declared their Restaurants of the Year for 2012.

Society President, Kevin Trickett, said “Our Dining Club has been really popular with members over the three years it has been running. A group of us, varying in number from meeting to meeting, dine out at different eateries across the city centre throughout the year. It is great fun and the voting at the end of each meal adds an extra dimension. “By asking our Dining Club members to score their experience of each restaurant they have tried, we are building up a good picture of the best places to eat in Wakefield. In 2012, we again visited 12 different establishments. The two restaurants we are recognising at our AGM scored the highest marks based on what our members experienced on the evening we visited them and I congratulate Grill At 31 and Gaskell’s on their Restaurant of the Year awards.

“Our members really appreciated the personal service at Grill At 31 – especially the vegetarians among us who were catered for individually. Meanwhile, Gaskell’s has proved a consistently popular venue amongst our members. We returned there in 2012 for the Society’s Annual Autumn Dinner and members of the Society’s Dining Club who were there
were asked to score their experience as usual. The quality of the food, the enthusiasm of the students and the value for money offered by Gaskell’s meant that the establishment scored highly and won our award for the third year in a row!”