All Bar One, Leeds city centre

I have developed a reputation as a “lady who lunches” (despite having a full time job). This means Saturday lunchtime is often an opportunity to meet up with friends, have a gossip, down a fair number of pinot grigios, set the world to rights and have something nice to eat. This Saturday it was lunch at All Bar One with my friend, Psycho Psu (named for being a psychologist, as opposed to other interpretations).

I got a craving for prosecco around 1pm, so off to La Strada on Greek Street for a glass of the bubbly stuff. (£5 a glass).

Then it was off to All Bar One. Despite visiting this place several times, I have never eaten there, and the food always looks good when I am having a nose at what other people are ordering. Plus it’s a fairly busy place and does a good selection of wine.

We decided to have another glass of prosecco (£3.95 this time, should have gone there first!)

The menu is a mixture of tapas style small plates, sandwiches, salads and traditional meals. We decided to have two small plates to share for first course. We wanted the mozzarella and artichoke dip with pitta but it was off, so instead decided to share a plate of falafel and some goat cheese and red onion on slices of French bread. Both were very good – the falafel was moist (can sometimes be a bit on the dry side, according to Psycho Psu).



I had cod in tempura batter with fries for main. The fries were good but the cod was a little dry and chewy. A tiny portion of mushy peas on the side were runny and lacked seasoning. The company had a lamb burger (of which I ate a quarter), fries and tzatziki. I wished I had ordered that as well.

Pudding was chocolate brownie and treacle tart, both served with vanilla ice cream. Both very good. The meal was washed down with a bottle of pinot grigio, nice and cold in an ice bucket.



There was no held hostage moment at the end - the bill arrived promptly.
I do like this place – the food is reasonably priced and mostly good. I would recommend going for the tapas dishes to share, rather than a main meal. A lot of customers appeared to be doing just that.