Ups and downs of a meal at the cliff-lift station

Fairly new to the Scarborough dining scene is The Cat’s Pyjamas, a venue that is cafe, bar, eatery – and where in one day potentially you could eat brunch, have lunch, enjoy afternoon tea, sip gin while listening to jazz, and have an evening meal!

It occupies the Central Tramway building in St Nicholas Cliff; the cliff lift still plies its trade up and down and you get a good view of it from upstairs.

And it was upstairs we went one Saturday evening recently; an empty upstairs until a few drinkers arrived later. It was slightly worrying that there was no record of our booking, although we would hardly have had to fight for a table.

It’s a sparse and spartan dining area – 1920s inspired in keeping with the building – plain wooden tables and chairs and little in the way of decor. But the warm manner of the waitress, who was friendly and attentive throughout, made it a little more welcoming.

Evening dining at The Cat’s Pyjamas is only available on a Friday and Saturday, and the evening menu isn’t very extensive, but the four of us each found something to whet our appetites.

Of the four starters and sharers we chose two. The cajun chicken, with mango chilli salsa and mint yoghurt, was tasty. The creamy garlic mushrooms were like little icebergs in a sea of garlic sauce, with life rafts of nice warm ciabatta bread.

And so to the mains. The hand battered fish and chips went down a treat with my son; a chunk of succulent fish and almost-as-chunky chips.

My wife’s chicken skewers, with grilled peppers and mushrooms, and tzatziki, were filling, although the cous cous was on the dry side.

There’s an impressive array of burgers; my Yorkshire burger, accompanied by fries, featured blue cheese and was excellent. My daughter opted for smoked salmon and Atlantic prawn salad; the prawns were abundant but overly watery, the salmon much better.

One dessert completed the meal – a chocolate fudge brownie, accompanied by ice cream and strawberries, and went down well.