Frankster's, White Rose Centre, Leeds

The day after we visited Frankster's at the White Rose Centre in Leeds the government announced its obesity programme, but sometimes fast food does not always have to be unhealthy. It is more about what you eat over the course of the day and having enough exercise to burn off any excess calories consumed in the day.

Take for example Franksters, the Yorkshire based restaurant chain that use fresh food which is cooked to order. The chain that started off in Batley seems to be doing fine so they must be doing something right.

They have realised that there is a big market for serving burgers that use Halal meat. If you add to that comfy seats that are more akin to an American diner than the traditional fast food joint you are, pardon the pun, onto a winning recipe.

All contact details are taken when making your order so that track and trace can be followed up if need be and we observed that the staff were very fastidious in cleaning the tables and chairs when our fellow diners had left the restaurant.

The menu is basically Angus Beef Burgers and Chicken Burgers with all ingredients sourced locally, with even the bottled water coming from Harrogate. All the cups and packaging is re-cycled too.

I chose the Double Whammy burger priced at £9.99. You really need to go with an empty stomach as it is all you really need for the rest of the day. A combination of Angus beef, Crispy fried chicken, Cheese, Peri peri sauce, New Yorker sauce, Franksters sauce, Red onions, Jalapeños and Lettuce it comes served with fries and a drink.

Cooked to order and served very hot, you would be surprised how many restaurants serve up food that is only lukewarm. It all tasted fresh and not like it had been hanging around for an age waiting to be served.

My partner decided on the Classic Chicken Burger priced at £5.99 which came with a drink and fries. They do salads too, so to see how fresh it was she ordered a Light salad. The mixture of mixed leaf, olives, feta cheese, cucumber, red onion, tomato and peppers was indeed market fresh.

The real seal of approval came when she commented: "I don't normally eat fast food, but I would come here again to eat as everything is so fresh and tastes good and it's clean too." Not bad coming from someone who tries to pull me away from the doors of such establishments.

The desserts are ice cream and milkshakes. I tried the latter in a Lotus biscuit version. Yes it was probably laden with calories, but as I done a day's physical work before our visit I had probably already burned off the calories. Weight control is all about balancing what you eat and how many calories you burn up - I should know as I used to weigh 18 stone back in the day, until it was time to take control and I lost 7 stone, which has never gone back on.

Frankster's seem to have got the balance right too, with showing that fast food does not have to be plastic chairs and plastic food. Give it a try, you might be surprised.

Frankster's, White Rose Shopping Centre, Leeds LS11 8LU
Telephone 01132 775 451
https://franksters.com/store/franksters-leeds-white-rose/