Brio, The Light, Leeds city centre

Brio is great if you are starving. I was starving as I had been up at the crack of dawn and not considered breakfast. So when I arrived at 12pm, I was determined to order a big bowl of pasta. I wasn’t disappointed – the Rigatoni Bolognese was a huge portion and generous on the meat Bolognese sauce. We also shared a side dish of garlic tomato bread which is excellent at Brio – a very thin base which is just how it should be.

Another plus is that they serve tea. I have decided that I don’t like soft drinks – fizzy pop and the like. If I am not on the wine, I would rather drink what I would drink at home – tea or coffee. So far this new plan is going well – the Roundhay Fox made tea for me, as did Brio.

This was a half term lunch with mum, sis and the nieces. Brio is a very family friendly place and lots of families were taking advantage of the children’s menu. It is not somewhere I would go to for a nice evening meal out, but for a hearty lunch during a shopping trip or before a visit to the Light’s cinema, it fits the bill.

My only criticism is that there was a bit of a “held-hostage” moment at the end. This is a Leeds Food Leads pet peeve. Despite mum practically waving the bill and her card in the air, and me pointedly standing up and putting my coat on, it took a while for someone to arrive and let us pay. Who knew it was so hard to part with your cash in Leeds?

Fazenda Rodizio Bar and Grill, Leeds city centre

After a few drinks in The Hop, we had a table booked at Fazenda for an early dinner on Saturday. On the website it says “a unique dining experience - we are proud to bring you all the tradition behind the unique and original Brazilian way of serving meat”. Walking through the doors, we were invited to have a drink at the bar before being shown to our table. Fazenda serves a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio.

We were seated in a booth, where we were told about the “Fazenda experience”. Basically, you get a card rather like a beer mat that is red on one side, green on the other. When you want meat, you turn the card to green and a server arrives with a large skewer of meat and proceeds to cut some off. Each diner is given a pair of tongs for taking the meat from the server. All sorts of choices appear - rump steak, ribs, lamb, pork, chicken and some salmon served from a trolley. When you want the meat to stop coming, you turn the card to red.

In addition to all this meat, there is a buffet with a huge choice of salads, including cous cous, coleslaw and potato. There are quite a few appetizer items as well, including sushi rolls (which I was not expecting but was very pleased to see!) The servers also brought other sides to the table including chips, cheese bread and empanadas.


The buffet!


For pudding, R had the Toffee pancakes, which looked great.

The place became busy pretty quickly, even though it was still early. I believe this would be a great place to go in a large group, as you would avoid the problem of waiting for everyone to be served, while your food goes cold, which seems to happen in some restaurants.

The Fazenda eating experience is not really me, though. I think I am a bit underwhelmed with buffets, as I have had my fill of those on our many trips to Vegas. I am also not a massive meat-eater. I eat meat often, but my eyes are never automatically drawn to steaks on a normal menu, and I don’t believe that lots of meat makes a meal that memorable.

In addition, I found it quite interesting that certain meats were coming thick and fast to the table, but there was no filet mignon to be seen, despite it being on the menu. After a few visits to our table with other meats, one of the servers quite abruptly asked us what we were waiting for. We said the filet, and finally it arrived.

Despite this, I am glad we went and tried it – I had seen it reviewed in a few places and it sounded like an interesting experience. It is definitely suitable for a more committed carnivore than for me.

Roundhay Fox, Roundhay, Leeds

Back to the Roundhay Fox for lunch last Saturday. Not as busy as a Sunday and so we easily got a table for six adults and two children. A and I shared a pot of tea in the bar while we waited for our dining companions and we were all shown to a table quickly when they arrived.
The menu is extensive and so I spent ages trying to decide. They have a set menu with a number of choices on for £8 for two courses, £10 for three, which is really good value. I decided to choose from the main menu though and settled for the sesame chicken starter that I had last time!

For main, I ordered homemade haddock fishcakes, which came with chips, side salad and a herb mayonnaise. The fishcakes were full of fish and very pleasant. Presentation is excellent.

I couldn’t manage a pudding, but SH ordered the Banoffee Cheesecake which looked amazing.

I am impressed with the Roundhay Fox. Second visit and still great. A step up from basic pub food in a really nice atmosphere.

Bird by Vineet, Alea Casino, Leeds

Another trip to the casino meant trying their other restaurant, Bird. A Lemon drop Martini in the bar before dinner needed to be sipped, not glugged, and I think I pulled it off. I am not used to delicate small drinks so I had to put the glass down between sips to ensure I didn’t neck it in seconds. It was a perfect drink to begin the evening.

A few rounds of Blackjack saw me twenty quid down, but A was about fifty up so thankfully saved my bacon and bought my dinner. Seated in Bird by nine, we were provided with menus along with poppadoms and dips.

Bird has quite an unusual Indian menu although some of the dishes were familiar.  Sarah T and I decided to share the Street Food selection for starter. This came served in cones, a brilliant presentation. It was made up of onion bhaji, paneer salad, mini samosas, Goan chicken wings and fish amritsari. This is a great sharing plate which I would really recommend – not too much to fill you up and gives you the opportunity to try different flavours.

The main courses were great and you can order them in half portions which are perfect for Indian food as too often, there is way too much and I end up needing to lie flat and nap. We ordered the Lamb Bhuna and Saffron Chicken Korma.

Steamed rice and keema nan on the side complemented the dishes perfectly and were great for mopping up the sauces.

Bird is a lovely restaurant and really good value. There are a few set menus you can have which looked like a great deal, but we wanted to try the a la carte. There were not many diners but perhaps it gets busy later when the gamblers have lost their shirts at the tables. We prefer to break up the gambling with a nice meal, and Bird fits the bill perfectly.

I read today that James Martin is opening up a restaurant in Alea soon. I can’t wait to try it when it does but really hope it is not replacing Bird.

Edit:  Turns out the James Martin restaurant will replace Fig, not Bird, and will be opening in March.  Can't wait!

The Bankhouse, Fulneck, Pudsey

A bit of a last minute decision to eat out on Saturday evening led us to the Bankhouse pub in Fulneck, Pudsey. After a long month with payday still a week away, we wanted some cheap and cheerful pub food.

The Bankhouse has a lovely beer garden with views over the Fulneck valley. In the summer, it is a fantastic place for sitting out and enjoying a leisurely pint. In January, however, you definitely need a seat inside so we booked a table for 7.30. (They don’t require reservations but it is a good idea as it gets busy, especially for Sunday lunch).

The pub is a lovely traditional pub and serves a good range of real ales. As we walked in, we had a bit of a wait at the bar as there were quite a few customers in. We let the bar staff know that we had booked and were pointed in the direction of the “restaurant bit” which is a small area to the right as you walk in the main entrance. We weren’t really shown to our table so we just figured out ourselves which one it was.

The menu is typical pub grub. We shared starters of deep fried brie and chicken dippers (we wanted the pate but it was off). For main, I had the lamb shank (one of the specials) which was served with bubble and squeak, leeks and peas. The Bankhouse is not mean with the gravy, thick and delicious and plenty of it! The lamb was tender and fell off the bone.

A had rib eye steak. He said it was okay but realised it was probably a bad move to order steak in a pub – he asked for medium rare but it was served more on the other side of medium. Pubs tend to be good at the scampi and chips and roast dinner-type meals. But a steak is better ordered in a restaurant.

G had the steak and ale pie which was homemade and served with some really good thick chips.

V ordered the salmon and mushroom tagliatelle. It was quite a strange mix – lots of salmon, mushrooms and other stuff, not much tagliatelle. Pasta dishes seem easy to get right but there is actually a fine balance to be created between the pasta and the other ingredients. It is interesting as the dish was more balanced in favour of the more expensive ingredients, whereas the cheaper pasta was a bit on the lean side.

Despite this, I have to say that the Bankhouse does good pub food in a pleasant atmosphere. They have a good selection of ales but sadly the wine leaves a lot to be desired. As regular readers know, I am a Pinot Grigio fan. Sadly, the Pinot at the Bankhouse was the worst I have ever tasted. I would argue it tasted more like a Chardonnay (which I hate) and I couldn’t drink it. An easy thing to rectify – Pinot is not expensive and there are plenty of lovely reasonable brands out there.

The pub had a band on after nine. They were great but too loud for us. With the possibility of conversation at an end, we called it a night.

Arts Cafe, Leeds city centre

I have blogged the Arts Cafe before here when we went for Sunday lunch. On a Saturday, they serve a lunch menu and you can also choose from the a la carte. Having had a look at the menu online, I was keen to give it a try. The chef has been in place since last March and comes from Hazelwood Castle. The menu still contains some of old favourites such as the Fish Plate, the Yorkshire Plate and the Arts Burger. But there were quite a few new options on there too, and it took some time to make up my mind!

Some of the new starters looked promising and I was particularly taken with the description of the smoked salmon and crayfish sushi nori. When it arrived, it was a generous portion of three sushi rolls, with some thinly sliced cucumber and wasabi crème fraiche. A bit of a change to the pickled ginger and wasabi that you usually get with sushi but it worked well and the plate was nicely put together.

My dining companion, Psycho Psu, ordered the Smoked Haddock Chowder with leeks, potato and spinach. It probably had a thicker consistency than she expected but had good flavour.

For main, I ordered the Arts club sandwich. Made with thick granary bread and a good mix of chicken, mayo, pancetta and lettuce, it was served with fries on the side. It is nice to be able to mix and match from the a la carte and lunch menu.

We went a bit mad on the puddings. Fig and lime bakewell tart with blackberry crème fraiche was a nice traditional pudding with a bit of a twist.

Orange cream posset with mulled winter fruits came with a cinnamon and walnut cookie. A little too much fruit and not enough posset, was our opinion. The cookie was great.

A cheese plate rounded off the meal. A good selection including Wensleydale with cranberry and brie, the cheese was accompanied by a nice choice of crackers and tasty chutney.

There are a fair few other things on the menu I would like to try so another visit should be on the cards soon. Once again, the Arts Cafe remains one of my favourite places to eat in Leeds.

Aglassto, Leeds city centre

After reading about it on Leeds Grub, I was determined to give Aglassto a try. It is quite difficult when you don’t work in Leeds city centre to keep up to date with the latest openings in the city. But due to this place seemingly focusing on wine, I couldn’t resist much longer.

On entering the bar, we were immediately welcomed by the barman, and invited to try some wines we were interested in. I had read online that they offered an English wine, produced in Kent, and so was quite interested to try it. Not to my taste, sadly, too fruity - a shame because I would really like to support the British wine making industry. Psycho Psu tried a Spanish white rioja, which I thought was lovely. So I ordered that. Psycho Psu was sorely tempted by the Sancerre by the glass on offer, so we were sorted.

Aglassto is a small bar, with rustic wood and a feature traditional fireplace. An old upright piano is the first thing you see when you walk in and I love the thought of people plonking themselves down and banging out at tune. Sadly my musical talents are limited to knowing the lyrics to the complete works of Abba (in English and in Spanish – go me!) but this is not going to cut the mustard in public!

We could quite happily have sat at the bar drinking wine all day. The barman was outstanding – he really knew his stuff and was a friendly bloke. In a discussion about music, I commented that the only new music I have really got into in the last five years was the Mumford and Sons album (due to great age, getting into any music post-1993 seems like such an effort these days!) Some minutes later, the lovely banjo and guitar of Mumford and Sons was playing in the bar. Now that is service!

Okay, so we didn’t have food – Aglassto does a range of tasting plates and sandwiches. Okay, this is a food blog and maybe I shouldn’t be mentioning my wine drinking sans food. But, bloody hell, Aglassto is good at what it does and is well worth a post. I will eat something next time.