All Bar One, Millennium Square, Leeds city centre

All Bar One on Millennium Square has replaced the old Ha Ha Bar and Canteen, the scene of many a school friends’ lunch in the past. So for Sarah T’s birthday, we decided to meet up for some drinks and food on a Friday night. A slightly earlier start was had by the birthday girl and SH as they could get to Leeds after an early finish at work. No such luck for me and H. We were “spending the afternoon with tongue stuck to roof of mouth for want of prosecco” as H eloquently put it, but we both made it in a little later.


The layout of the new All Bar One is pretty similar to the old Ha Ha. The place has had a bit of a redecorate though, and looks better for it. We were shown to our booth and decided to order a bottle of prosecco, to toast the birthday girl. Sadly, they had run out of our favourite Italian fizz so we were offered a bottle of champagne at the same price, which was a pretty good exchange.

We decided to stick with the small plates menu – perfect for picking but not too much to finish you off and send you home with a too-full belly. We chose the duck which came on mini-tortillas with cucumber and hoi-sin sauce. This is the All Bar One take on Chinese crispy duck with pancakes and they do it very well. It is served on a plank of wood which all adds to a very good presentation.

The tempura chicken looks quite heavy and yet the batter is very light and it is served with a good dipping sauce – always a winner for me.

For the vegetarian in our midst, hummus with pitta bread hit the spot.

We ordered some other small plates as the evening progressed – that’s the beauty of this type of eating. It generally suits my tendency to graze and also makes sure you don’t get too full! I can never understand how some people can go out and have a full curry and then go out drinking till the early hours. Bizarre.

All Bar One does about three different types of Pinot Grigio, and they had sold out of them all when we were there. We had a Pinot Grigio/Riesling instead and it was okay. Bit of a shame, really, as I always think of All Bar One as having a wide selection of wine. The waiter said there had been a do the night before and they had sold out of a lot of stock. (The service, by the way, was excellent).

It wasn’t a very pleasant evening weather-wise but I imagine the outdoor area on Millennium Square will be more used when the sun comes out (of should I say if....?)

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.