Harvey nic's Leeds
We arrived in Leeds late on Saturday afternoon. We had intended to have a snack and go for dinner later that evening but when we saw the menu for lunch we, well, we gave in. My mate Dave owed me an expensive meal so I wasn’t fazed by the prices – because I knew he would be paying!
The menu is adventurous and appealing. For example, one of the starter dishes is slow-cooked pork belly, soy, seared squid with an orange and sesame sauce. I ordered this. Waitress very keen to make sure I understood there were squid on top; I assumed she was worried about squid being non-kosher. I wanted this with Dover sole but disappointingly, they had no Dover sole, so I changed the whole choice to plan B.
I had:
Cream of celeriac soup with crème fraiche and apple. Super. This came with a little posy of finely (and expertly) grated carrot bundled on top. Each taste element was distinct – some may criticise this as a failing but personally, I like it. Served with a choice of bread and Normandy butter. I went for the rye bread (unusually sponge-like for rye but I’m not complaining)
Rack of lamb. Yes, yes, I know it’s ordinary but it was what I fancied and it was smashing, perfectly cooked for me (actually, come to think of it, the waitress didn’t ask me how I wanted it). Just the slightest hint of red in the middle and no blood running out. The meat was tender, the aroma and taste were subtle lamb, not sheep-on-the-hillside-woolly-sheep-dropping lamb. By the time we got to it, it was lack of ram rather than rack of lamb – the wine caused this!
The rack came with a small dish of Lancashire hot pot! Yes, I agree, strange isn’t it? But it worked. Gooey and thick and sheep-on-the-hillside-woolly-sheep-dropping lamb to complement the finer aromatic rack. Of course, being Yorkshire, the menu didn’t mention Lancashire. A couple of insignificant char grilled baby leeks accompanied this – better to have left them off I thought, added nothing – and some beetroot jus.
We ordered a dish of new potatoes and a dish of carrots to share. Both fresh and expertly cooked to just the right al dente texture needed for vegetables and rolled in butter and herbs, which did not overshadow the natural vegetable flavours.
For dessert, I ordered Trio of Damson: sort of carrot-cake style damson cake covered with damson sauce (I left some), a small portion of damson ice-cream and a damson mousse. A couple of home-made style shortbreads. Disappointing as a dessert. No intense damson taste and disparate in conception.
We had the Dog Point New Zealand Sauvignon blanc, from the Wairau Valley region: a fine choice by my dining companion. So fine that we had two bottles. I also had water.
All this with coffee for just £120 for two. My only negative was the noise level. We had to shout to communicate really. I had a headache from this. There are no tablecloths at lunchtime, lots of other hard surfaces (in fact they are all hard) and no baffles between areas of the restaurant apart from one between the (very noisy) bar and the rest of the floor. Good way to spend two hours.
The menu is adventurous and appealing. For example, one of the starter dishes is slow-cooked pork belly, soy, seared squid with an orange and sesame sauce. I ordered this. Waitress very keen to make sure I understood there were squid on top; I assumed she was worried about squid being non-kosher. I wanted this with Dover sole but disappointingly, they had no Dover sole, so I changed the whole choice to plan B.
I had:
Cream of celeriac soup with crème fraiche and apple. Super. This came with a little posy of finely (and expertly) grated carrot bundled on top. Each taste element was distinct – some may criticise this as a failing but personally, I like it. Served with a choice of bread and Normandy butter. I went for the rye bread (unusually sponge-like for rye but I’m not complaining)
Rack of lamb. Yes, yes, I know it’s ordinary but it was what I fancied and it was smashing, perfectly cooked for me (actually, come to think of it, the waitress didn’t ask me how I wanted it). Just the slightest hint of red in the middle and no blood running out. The meat was tender, the aroma and taste were subtle lamb, not sheep-on-the-hillside-woolly-sheep-dropping lamb. By the time we got to it, it was lack of ram rather than rack of lamb – the wine caused this!
The rack came with a small dish of Lancashire hot pot! Yes, I agree, strange isn’t it? But it worked. Gooey and thick and sheep-on-the-hillside-woolly-sheep-dropping lamb to complement the finer aromatic rack. Of course, being Yorkshire, the menu didn’t mention Lancashire. A couple of insignificant char grilled baby leeks accompanied this – better to have left them off I thought, added nothing – and some beetroot jus.
We ordered a dish of new potatoes and a dish of carrots to share. Both fresh and expertly cooked to just the right al dente texture needed for vegetables and rolled in butter and herbs, which did not overshadow the natural vegetable flavours.
For dessert, I ordered Trio of Damson: sort of carrot-cake style damson cake covered with damson sauce (I left some), a small portion of damson ice-cream and a damson mousse. A couple of home-made style shortbreads. Disappointing as a dessert. No intense damson taste and disparate in conception.
We had the Dog Point New Zealand Sauvignon blanc, from the Wairau Valley region: a fine choice by my dining companion. So fine that we had two bottles. I also had water.
All this with coffee for just £120 for two. My only negative was the noise level. We had to shout to communicate really. I had a headache from this. There are no tablecloths at lunchtime, lots of other hard surfaces (in fact they are all hard) and no baffles between areas of the restaurant apart from one between the (very noisy) bar and the rest of the floor. Good way to spend two hours.
posted by Julius Caesar at
10:17 am
