I have often felt Hull lacks an independent café that does a sophisticated salad bar.
That was because I had never visited Next Door @ The Dock, which was always one of those places I would see and think, “that looks nice”, then walk straight past.
While Humber Street is well-known as one of the prime destinations for eating out in Hull., if you keep wandering a bit further down to the corner of Queen Street, you will find Next Door.
Escaping torrential rain on Sunday, I decided to finally visit. I was immediately greeted with a full display counter of cakes and a rainbow of enticing homemade salads.
The heaving salad bar included homemade couscous, dressed udon noodles, stuffed baby peppers, and a huge variety of other delicious goodness.
(Image: Hull Live)
I decided to go for the beautiful-looking salads with a bit of everything, including the aforementioned noodles and cous cous. This was reasonable at £6.50 for a nice-sized tub.
Salad is not normally particularly filling, but this one hit the spot and was absolutely delicious which is an obvious plus. The flavours were a mixture of sweet, spicy, and tangy and complemented each other beautifully.
Everything was perfectly cooked, even the tenderstem broccoli, and my friend was a bit jealous of my meal even though they enjoyed what they chose.
(Image: Hull Live)
I also ordered a pizza which the counter staff offered to heat up and drizzle with oil and parmesan. It was quality; you could tell it was homemade and with the perfect dusting of cheesiness so it was not overly greasy and the tasty tomato base still had a chance to shine.
As a dessert, I ordered a vegan caramel bake. It had a heavenly texture and was surprisingly buttery with its rich, but not sickly, caramel flavour. With freshly roasted coffee on the side, it was superb.
It came to under £22 for two people with real coffees, two lunches, and a sweet treat to share. I would say that is incredible value for money.