This weekend we took a trip to Ilkley Cinema - a boutique cinema based in the building of a former nightclub, it is the smallest ultra 4k cinema in Europe!
This was also the first time we had left Arthur in the care of someone else during the day, so I guess you could call it our first 'date' post baby! We went to see the new Bond film at a 12.45pm showing - here is how we got on...
A nice little touch upon entering the building downstairs, a reminder of what this building used to be, and used to mean to lots of the locals still living in Ilkley...
Upstairs there is a fabulous bar area where you can order hot or cold drinks, alcoholic beverages and food. They have a wonderful choice and the menus are displayed on wooden clipboards so you can browse whilst waiting to order.
It wasn't obvious to us at the time, but the food you order will be served to you in your seat once you are inside the cinema. We were advised of this once we'd ordered which was a relief as I was worried I was going to have to eat our meal really quickly before the film started. (we did arrive early with plenty of time!)
It may not be obvious from the photo, but the sweets in the jars are packaged in organza bags - amazing idea!! If only everyone in the cinema had done this, there would have been no crunching and scrunching of plastic bags and wrappers mid film!! I'd never have thought of this myself (despite filling hundreds of organza bags with mints the night before out wedding!)
Next to the bar, through an open doorway, before entering the cinema is a lovely seating area with sofas, tables, chairs and stools like this...
There were also lots of nice finishing touches dotted around which added to the feel of the place, making it seem like a real boutique cinema experience:
My mother in law always tells me that you can really judge a place depending on what the toilets are like, so here is a shameless photo of the ladies - complete with exposed brickwork, shaped mirror and brass coloured handles!
Through the patio doors, there is a wonderful decking area with fabulous views of the moors:
Inside the cinema there are a range of seating options, single seater, two seater and three seater sofas in various colours complete with cushions. We chose a two seater sofa in the middle towards the back of the room.
Every seat has a table next to it for drinks, with a wine cooler underneath...
...and the food was delicious! I ordered the risotto balls and thought that I might still be hungry afterwards! I actually struggled to finish them!
Whilst the food was being served, there were various short films and pieces of music played on screen. One film focusing on flowers growing and dying...at which point hubby piped up and said that if this was the TV at home he would change the channel! He did approve of the next film however, showing people skiing down a mountain in the dark, lit up by coloured lights - apparently this channel might have stayed on!
And then the film started...
What a brilliant experience. The only drawbacks on this occasion were that a couple of people were still being served their food and drinks at their seat after the film had started which meant staff were stood in front of the screen. The film itself was out of sync for the first 5 minutes meaning the sound didn't match up with the movement of the actors mouths - luckily this was sorted pretty quickly! Neither of these took away from our overall enjoyment of the film and we highly recommend Ilkley Cinema to anyone visiting the local area.
Tickets for the cinema can be booked online via their website.
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