The Living Room, Leeds City Centre

There’s a lot more to bar work than when I was a barmaid in 1990. In my day, when people asked what wine you had, it was either red or white, and it was served out of an optic over the bar (eeugh!) A cocktail was a vodka and orange. Things have moved on since then, thankfully, and at the Living Room, the bar staff have a detailed knowledge of the different cocktails on offer and the ingredients of a traditional Martini. Despite this wealth of information, we ordered glasses of prosecco. How predictable.

The place has had a bit of a facelift since I last visited. Starter was a pea soup, served with pea shoots, crusty bread and butter. This had a lot of flavour and was the perfect starter.

For main, I ordered the fishcake served with wilted spinach, poached egg and hollandaise. This was ok, but I don’t think prawns go well in a fishcake – they tend to come out a bit overdone and rubbery.

For pudding, I ordered the cheese – a generous plate with oat crackers.

I generally recommend the Living Room. It is a chain, but this doesn’t prevent it from serving good food from a menu that gets updated now and then. Service is always polite and friendly.

The Gray Ox, Hartshead

Wracking my brains for somewhere to go for Sunday lunch, I had a brainwave and went on Leeds Grub’s blog. I had a vague memory of a review several months back of a pub that did a good Sunday lunch which was not that far from home. After scrolling down for several pages, I hit on it – The Gray Ox in Hartshead! I remembered being impressed by the pictures and thinking the prices seemed reasonable for what looked like good quality.


So we programmed the postcode into the SatNav and set off. We arrived about 12.15pm and were asked if we had a reservation, which we hadn’t thought of. They said they could squeeze us in if we vacated the table by 2pm, which we had no problem with as we were heading to the cinema afterwards.

There was a specials menu, and a £13.95 set menu for two courses. I ordered off the set menu, having smoked salmon ballontine which came with herb salad and small pieces of toasted bread.

A had the chicken liver pate, which he reported excellent.

For main, I had the roast lamb Sunday lunch. This came with a large Yorkshire pudding, goose fat roast potatoes, mash and a jug of “proper” gravy. On the side – mashed swede, broccoli and cauliflower cheese. The lamb was “melt in the mouth” and the meal was beautifully presented, despite being a generous portion.

A had the beer-battered haddock which came with homemade chunky chips and a little silver bucket of mushy peas. All very good.

The bill came promptly and was around £40 for 2, including a pint for A and a large glass of pinot for me. I would definitely visit again, but would probably make a reservation, just to be sure.

Side issue: probably my first real experience of the now acceptable rudeness to smokers happened outside this pub. I had just nipped outside and was sat on my own on a bench having a cigarette and reading a bit of the paper when an older man walked past. He said something to me, which I didn’t catch. When I looked up, he walked over and said something about smoking and dying. I didn’t catch exactly what it was but it was not presented in a friendly way but instead in a rude confrontational manner. I just looked away but was amazed that it has become the norm to approach a woman on her own and berate her for something that isn’t anyone’s business.

Anyway that is a side issue – The Gray Ox is awesome!

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.

The Old Silent Inn, Haworth

Just outside Haworth, in the village of Stanbury , there is a lovely country pub that does great food. They have actually won an award for the best pub food in the Great British Pub Awards (2010).


We were on our way to an overnight stay in Haworth, but couldn’t check in until three, so it seemed prudent to eat lunch on the way. I found the Old Silent Inn on google maps before we set off, and duly programmed it into the sat-nav.

We decided to sit outside as for once, the sun was shining. A few other diners had the same plans.

I ordered a prawn marie rose and rocket sandwich. It came on thick cut granary bread, served with a side salad. I was a little disappointed that the prawns were the big king variety, which I think are ok in a Chinese dish, but not so good in a sandwich. I prefer the small cocktail variety (not as chewy). This is just a personal preference, however, and I can’t really fault the way they served it.

A had a chicken club sandwich which was served on crusty French bread – it was huge. We ordered onion rings on the side which were clearly home made and very good.

Service was pleasant and friendly. Lunch was complemented with a glass of Pinot for me and a pint of real ale for A. The Old Silent Inn is perfect if you fancy a day out in the countryside and a visit to a traditional pub.

Lucia, York

The schoolfriends’ lunch with a difference was last Saturday. It was different because I am turning forty and this was an opportunity for us to lament this fact coupled with prosecco, pinot and some good food.


Originally there were just three of us, and the day kicked off predictably with my train being cancelled and having to meet the girls in York, instead of on the train as originally planned. (This exact same thing happened the last time we went to York, but that time they wouldn’t let me on the train because it was full of Xmas shoppers of something, or maybe they just wouldn’t let me on the train!)

Anyway, it emerged that our fourth member had had a last minute re-organise and surprised me by turning up! The other two were in on it, of course, whereas I was oblivious to furtive texting and last minute changes to arrangements. I would make a terrible spy.

So we all tripped off to Lucia and waited for one of their patio tables. The restaurant doesn’t take bookings but we didn’t have to wait for long. The place seemed very popular with lots of diners sitting outside in a very pleasant courtyard.

Lucia does a bit of everything; I suppose you could call it Mediterranean. Some of it is typical Italian – pasta, risotto, along with a range of small plates, with a hint of a Spanish theme in the options.

I ordered the mussels to start, which came in a garlic cream sauce.

I had three tapas dishes for main – a smoked salmon salad, pate and meatballs. A bit of a strange mix, you might think, but I just decided to order my favourite things! All dishes were well presented and good value. The others had pasta and risotto for main and all gave good reports.


Meatballs

 

Smoked salmon salad

Pate

We got through a couple of bottles of pinot and the bill worked out at a reasonable £25 each.

Lucia would be easy to miss in York. It is on Swinegate Court East, just off Swinegate. I would recommend it for a varied menu and good value. The outdoor courtyard is great in the summer and the food is of a good standard.

Carluccio's, Leeds City Centre

When you have a vegetarian in your midst, an Italian restaurant is a good choice. One of the school friends has not eaten meat or fish since the age of 13, and unlike lots of other vegetarians and even vegans I have known, she has never buckled. This is admirable, but it means that when we plan the school friends’ lunches, we have to avoid any restaurants with “Grill” or “Steak” in the name, or as the Veggie calls them, “Evil parlours of cow-death”.


Anyway, we have generally found that Italian restaurants are very vegetarian friendly – pizza and pasta can be done equally well without meat. So we decided to try Carluccio’s, the new place on Greek Street.

On entering, there is a shop/deli area, where you can pick up coffee, a drink or even buy some Italian ingredients (the olive oils looked great!). To the left is the restaurant. I had booked online so we were quickly shown to one of the booths.

I ordered Pasta Crisps to start, just to see what they were! I shared them with the veggie. A little dry, and probably more suited to a side dish, not a starter.

For main, I had Milanese di Pollo - breaded chicken, served with a green salad. I also ordered rosemary new potatoes on the side. Although it was a fairly plain dish, it was very pleasant. I have a bit of a weakness for anything in breadcrumbs, probably a throwback to my love of fishfingers and chicken burgers as a kid (although this was much better quality, of course). The veggie enjoyed the spinach and ricotta ravioli.

A bottle of Pinot Grigio was ordered for the table. We managed to sink a fair few glasses before moving on.

I have since revisited Carluccio’s twice: once for after dinner cheese with some wine (sat outside and watched the world go by); and once for morning coffee (sat at the bar in the deli). It is a really pleasant restaurant with lots of outdoor seating for the summer months. Service is excellent and the prices are pretty standard for Italian food.

Sushi Hiroba, Kingsway, London

The conveyer belt sushi restaurant is a marvellous invention. So far I have only experienced Yo Sushi, so I was delighted to discover another one, Sushi Hiroba, on Kingsway in London. The conveyer belt style is known as “Kaiten-zushi” (thanks, Wikipedia). It particularly suits my enjoyment not only of eating food, but looking at it as well!

We were in London for the Taste Festival, but fancied some sushi for Friday night dinner. We were quickly seated at the bar and given menus. The food is priced in the same way as Yo, with coloured plates indicating the cost of the food. The conveyer belt was pleasingly full, and I enjoyed my usual choice of Salmon Maki along with a range of sushi rolls. Sushi Hiroba is probably a bit more adventurous with their roll designs, as I kept seeing a roll filled with a slice of banana passing by on the belt. (I didn’t try this one as it breaks the Leeds Food Leads rule of food – no sweet with savoury. This applies to Hawaiian pizzas, gammon with pineapple, and now I find, sushi).

Service was a little slow – it took a while for our drinks to arrive. The hot food we ordered arrived promptly, however. We managed about eight small plates each.

I would recommend Sushi Hiroba. The choice in Leeds is fairly limited so if you are a sushi fan, it is always worth checking out what’s available in other cities.