Sunday, 4 September 2011

Create, Leeds

Go and try Create
Have a meal at Create
Support this fantastic new venture in Leeds
Book a table at Create....

The End.

Not really, I just really enjoyed my first visit to Create a few Saturdays ago. I can’t remember how I stumbled across it – most likely on twitter. I had a good read of their website and perused their menu and decided a visit was definitely on the cards.

 
Create is a venture that is overseen by the Executive Chef at Harvey Nichols, Richard Walton Allen. It seems to be a similar project to Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, offering training and work to people who have fallen on hard times, become homeless or vulnerable - a fine reason for visiting and supporting the restaurant.

But not the only reason. Because it is really excellent. From the food to the service, I was impressed with the entire operation.

My dining companion was Psycho Psu, who regular readers will know as someone who will eat her way through as many courses as possible, so a great person to take to a new place.

For starter, we both ordered Poached egg and Yorkshire ham salad, with mustard dressing. This was a simple dish, but worked very well. The egg was poached to perfection, with just the right amount of runny yolk, so the bread served when we were seated was great for dipping (no ordering and paying for bread, here).


For main, I ordered the free range chicken with wild mushroom dressing. Sides were new potatoes and mushrooms with feta. The chicken was excellent and the sides in particular were wonderful, particularly the mushrooms, which complemented the chicken dressing perfectly.


Chicken
Mushrooms, feta, bacon

Plaice
Psycho Psu ordered the plaice with green beans and black bean salsa. This was served on the bone, which she admits put her off a little, but she couldn’t fault the flavour.

For pudding we ordered the Yorkshire and Lancashire cheeses, which were served with biscuits and raisin bread. Create got this just right with a larger range of six cheeses, small portions but great variety. Much more preferable to a larger slab of two or three cheeses. I admit I couldn’t identify them all, but that was part of the fun!


We also ordered the plate of brownies and biscuits which were perfect with coffee. The plate included biscotti and flapjacks.


Starters are around £5-6, mains range from £9-13. They also do a set menu. Very good value for top quality food.