luck LUST LIQUOR & BURN - Manchester

So I’m back. Apologies for the brief hiatus in posting, I’m sure lots of you were sweating a little waiting for your next read of another post on another food blog by another guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

I’ve been on holiday in turkey all inclusive and hence the food was pretty average. (Consider that my holiday post) 

Last weekend I went to Luck Lust Liquor and Burn in the Northern quarter of Manchester. It’s a Mexican restaurant made by the people who brought you Almost Famous, which sadly has burned down and is closed for a little while. Not to fear though they’re serving the burgers in LLL&B if you can’t wait for the refurb to be finished.

 We ate in the bar as we were covered up to our eyeballs in paint from the Color Run (See image below) at the Etihad earlier in the day. As I was starving from the run so I went for the triple bacon burger from Almost Famous even though really I should have had some Mexican food. To counter the predictable burger we got some street tacos to share and a side of trailer trash fries (the fries were small and naff. I think they’re going through a few teething problems as these were off the AMF menu and usually come in a hug basket but LLL&B just serve small portions with the food. I guess almost famous did just burn down so we’ll let them off.)

 

First up the burger, fucking awesome as always, even my lady friend enjoyed and she never eats beef burgers. I can’t stress to you how good the burgers are. They’re better than any I’ve had in London or anywhere else for that matter. It’s all down the quality of the beef, it would be just as good having one plain patty in a bun with some ketchup. All of the other dressing up with sauces and slaw is just surplus to requirements compared to beef hmmmmmmm. . .  Here’s my original review of almost famous if you’re thinking of going (http://amoosbush.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/almost-famous-manchester.html).

Next up pork and pineapple tacos, these were pretty good as well and I loved how spicy they were. We’re talking mega hot here and they don’t look it. That’s the best bit, its sneaks up on you. They were however a bit small and didn’t really weigh up for value compared to other things on the menu £6.50. Still they were delicious and lasted about 20 seconds and went great some of the habanero and orange hot sauce (plenty of flavours going on there for a hot sauce).

 

To finish we shared some brownie with ice cream a steal at £3.50. I say shared but I had one mouthful. The salted caramel was particularly good with the sugary ice cream and appealed to my savoury outlook on life.

IN CONCLUSION! I had a great 2 hours here stuffing my face after the Color Run and drinking Brooklyn Lager on draft which was pretty good as well, nice and hoppy. You might struggle to get a table upstairs, it was fully booked when we were there on a Sunday!!

8/10

You know where it is – Northern Quarter, Manchester

lucklustliquorburn.com

The Hummingbird Kitchen, Leeds, Chapel Allerton - Brunch Menu

Brunch, the latest culinary trend to come floating across the pond from the states.  I don’t think it’s quite the craze that the burger has been causing in London and Manchester but certain people, myself included are starting to dig brunch in a big way.

Breakfast is already my favourite meal of the day, and nothing makes me happier than a long relaxing breakfast of adventurous dishes served fashionably late at lunch time. Problem is there isn’t anything that exciting for Breakfast in Leeds at the moment, I’m obsessed with chilli’s, peppers and eggs there made for each other, as is Frank’s hot sauce on nearly any breakfast bap with an egg in. No one seems to be brave enough to step away from the bacon sandwich with brown sauce in Leeds when it comes to breakfast.

Hold the press! I’ve just been made a fool of by Giraffe. I don’t like this place at all having eaten an average burger there once, but their new breakfast and brunch menu is full of Mexican themed dishes. I will have to try it out then I guess (I bet its crap). Apologies for ranting about breakfast, I’ll move on.

The hummingbird kitchen in Chapel Allerton has been open a while now and recently launched its new brunch menu hooray. Well don’t get too excited the menu isn’t the most adventurous thing ever, how about a bacon sandwich? Or if that doesn’t take your fancy why not try the chef’s latest culinary creation, a shining example of how much breakfast in the U.K has come on leaps and bounds recently . . . . . egg on toast.

To be honest I’m being overly critical the menu isn’t that exciting but at least they use good quality stuff and sometimes less is more anyway.  So we turned up for brunch at about 2:30pm (granted this is a bit late), the upstairs was rowdy with a large group of ppl getting lairy already so we sat downstairs.

I opted for the poached duck egg on toast with wild mushrooms. On the whole it was pretty weak, good idea bad execution. Simple things were overlooked. Cheers for the dry toast with no butter and the over cooked egg; simple mistakes meant this could have been so much better. The mushrooms were great I appreciate the extra effort in serving up a variety of wild mushrooms and the little bit of shredded beef they were muddled with was a nice touch. I’m not convinced I actually got a duck egg as oppose to a chicken egg. It was the smallest duck egg I’ve ever seen and it didn’t have that richness in the yolk you would expect. The rapeseed oil they used to dress the plate was no substitute in my opinion for a slice of salted butter.

My partner opted for the French toast with fresh berries and syrup, which credit where credits due was pretty bloody good. Better than any French toast I’ve ever made, the berries left a little to be desired though.

To wrap things up then, the Hummingbird Kitchen had some good ideas if a little unadventurous and I like there obvious direction with an emphasis on quality of ingredients.

6.5/10

Stainbeck Corner,

Harrogate Rd,

Chapel Allerton,

LS7 3PG

http://hummingbirdkitchen.co.uk/menu/brunch-menu/

Beer Post – Local & Exotic

I’ve been getting into my beer recently, don’t know why? I just have. So I’ve got two beers for you from very different breweries.

First up we have the Raspberry Blonde pale ale from the Saltaire Brewery. The Brewery borders The World Heritage Site of Saltaire, famous for its Victorian industrial heritage and is situated in an old generating hall that once provided the electricity for the Bradford trams. It’s only 12 miles from my house so I definitely have time for this place.

 

The beer itself was a choice of my girl friends back on the roof top terrace at Angelica again. It came served in a glass with ice, bit weird but it was nice cold. The beer itself was good, definitely a proper beer as oppose to those weird fruity ones you can buy now. Refreshingly bitter and light, smacking with raspberry undertones that didn’t overpower the rest of the beer.

Its not bad this beer I’d have it again, but its not something to get overly excited about.

6.5/10

www.saltairebrewery.co.uk

Ok beer number two! This one I enjoyed at Fazenda recently and I’m sorry to say  I cant find anywhere to buy it in the UK to take home. The brewers website list of UK suppliers seems a bit outdated.

Anyway this one is Xingu black beer from Brazil. It was pretty confusing for my pallet this beer. It looks like a stout which is not what I usually go for but drinks like a complicated lager, very trippy. Apparently this beer is a Schwarzbier? (I’ve never heard of it either don’t worry).

 

Definition: “Schwarzbier ("shvahrts-beer"), is simply German for black beer. It doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily heavy or light in body, although they tend to lean towards light. Unlike other dark beers, like porters or stouts, they are not overly bitter with burnt and roasted malt characteristics that the others tend to depend on. Instead, hops are used for a good portion of the bitterness. Very refreshing and soul lifting beers, they also make a great alternative for the Winter. Especially when you are looking for a lighter beer, but one with depth of colour and taste.”

Apparently Brewdog’s Zeitgeist is also a Schwarszbeir and seeing as this is my new favourite tipple I’ll have to make a concerted effort to try it.

This beer was really good, so good I put it up there with some of the best I’ve had. Personally I think a lot of beer tasting is down to personal preference and what suits me will not necessarily suit you. Still you’ve got to try this one I loved it, It went so well with all the strong flavours of the steak I was eating at Fazenda, standing up well but not leaving me heavy and sleepy like I was drinking Guinness.

Someone obviously agrees with me because “Xingu Black Beer is a two-time winner of Beverage Tasting Institute’s Gold Medal as the best dark lager in the world. “

9/10

www.xingubeer.com

Fazenda – Unlimited steak!!

Monday night I went back to Fazenda for my second visit. If you haven’t been already it’s an Argentinean steak restaurant with a twist. To be fair to the owner when this place first opened in 2010 it was quite a novel idea which has become more widespread in recent years.

The restaurant is essentially a buffet, (I know  . . . .  Sigh), but it’s a posh one and its actually quite good. Once shown to your table you are given a double sided card, one side red the other green. If your card is green side up the men walking around with great big skewers of meat come over and pop some on your plate, turn it to red and they’ll leave you alone. Trust me you will need to turn it red at some point to stop the onslaught of beef overwhelming you.

Meats available include: Picanha (Cap of rump), Filet mignon (Fillet), Contra Filet (Sirloin), Bife Ancho (Rib Eye), Alcatra (Rump), Costela (Beef or Pork Ribs), Bife de Presunto (Gammon), Cordeiro (Lamb), Frango (Chicken), Coracao de frango (Chicken’s heart), Linguiça (Sausage) and finally Morcela (Black Pudding).

Apart from the meat on  a stick you could always hit the salad bar, I say salad bar it also serves hot and cold dishes to accompany the steaks, an aperitif is always served as you sit down we had deep fried cheesy balls and beef empanadas and each table gets a little basket of fries. The salad bar is actually very good, with everything from smoked salmon, mozzarella and tomato salad through to Mexican beans. There are also absolutely loads of different types of good quality olive oils and some exciting fruit based balsamic vinegars to dress your heap of salad with.

The staff are very attentative and have good knowledge of the produce on offer. Our waitress recommended a Xingu black beer to me which was bloody lovely, more on that one to come.

Some of the meat could have been cooked a little better, the belly pork in particular was very chewy as was the lamb but the rest of the steaks were good. The more adventurous offerings are definitely worth a try the little black puddings are bursting with flavour and easily better than the lamb or chicken. Speaking of chicken the odd chicken heart comes round on a skewer which I urge you to try I found it up there with some of the best offal I’ve eaten.

We paid £68.59 for 1 glass of wine, a beer and the buffet (£25.99 pp) including the tip. Its not cheap, I’ll give you that but ironically it does offer good value. This place wouldn’t make any money if they charged you any less. Its not often you have man repeatedly coming past your table asking if you would like any more fillet steak couple that with a pile of smoked salmon and your in the money. Oh and they gave us minty tipped tooth picks to finish the meal (Nice touch).   

Larger parties on a weekend can expect to book a month in advance, the first table we could get on Monday night for 2 was 9pm.

In conclusion this place falls down on quality just a touch to much to achieve an 8, but it is essentially a buffet and the staff are great and you get a lot for your money. I’ll be back in winter to fill up before I go into hibernation.

A word of warning if you do decide to go, you won’t sleep well and the meat sweats will find you!

7.5/10

Waterman’s Place
3 Wharf Approach
Granary Wharf
Leeds
LS1 4GL

http://www.fazenda.co.uk/

Leeds food fest 2013

It’s that time of year again and the build up to Leeds Food fest 2013 has already started.

 

 I’m mega excited so here’s a quick summary of some of the more interesting events coming up you may want to attend:

·        Cocktails in the City – 30^th May – £15 ticket gets you 2 free cocktails and entrance to the event full of music food and main stage demonstrations within Leeds Town hall. http://www.cocktailsinthecity.co.uk/leeds-ie8.html

·        The Pink Shed – 24^th May – 9^th June - £20 gets you an intimate dining experience in the pink box in Leeds Trinity, with set menus from some of Leeds best restaurants and bars. Looks really good value for £20. Sadly most of this is already booked up unless you want to go for lunch midweek. http://trinityleeds.com/news-events/the-pink-shed-pop-private-dining

·        Cream tea in the Park – 1^st June – West Yorkshire Play house is to be transformed in to a country park with live music and scones with jam and cream all for £4. http://www.visitleeds.co.uk/Leeds-Cream-Tea-In-The-Park/details/?dms=13&venue=1583220&feature=1079

·        Yorkshire Food and Drink Show – 7^th – 9^th of June – The grand finale in Millennium square, if last years was anything to go by it should be a really good show and it’s free!

Last years show was amazing and the weather was very kind to us, I got extremely sunburnt/drunk whilst eating twice my own weight in good food. My favourite bite from last year had to be this little offering from chino Latino. Rumour has it their stall will be back again this year.

Shit I nearly missed national Sandwich week!

So I love a sandwich, probably even more than the next guy loves sandwiches. Despite my love of scrummy sarnies I still had never heard of the BSA. Oh I’m sorry  you haven’t heard of them either? Well would you believe it they’re the British Sandwich Association!! But wait it gets better Last week was the official National Sandwich week for the UK.

God knows who is funding all of this or paying to run their website, but not only have they declared this week as national sandwich week but they’ve actually got an active group of members who get together and talk about sandwiches HA!

Here’s a few of their upcoming events in June.

JUNE 

• 12^th – BSA Annual General Meeting and Member Luncheon (London)
• Technical Group Meeting at Bel UK, Sevenoaks

The best one has to be the Technical Group Meeting. God knows what they talk about there. Anyway I fully intend to join and hopefully this time next year I’ll make it to the Member Luncheon woooop.

So to celebrate National Sandwich week I decided to make a sandwich. Over the years my sandwich taste has evolved and a lot of it depends on how I’m feeling on the day or more importantly what’s in the fridge. I used to like them packed with 10+ ingredients now I appreciate a more simple considered approach.

With this new approach in mind I have chosen 4 Ingredients to go in my Celebration sandwich, chorizo, mozzarella, rocket and piquillo dip. I’m gonna talk you through in a bit more detail about each element, seeing as it is sandwich week.

Chorizo – I only have the naff plasticky kind of chorizo because it what my mum gave me for free last time I was home, ideally I would go for the softer fresh version which needs cooking before eating in this sandwich.

Mozzarella – you don’t have to go for buffalo mozzarella in this sandwich I would hedge a bits to mild to tackle chorizo anyway, just make sure you buy the fresh balls of mozzarella not the crappy grated stuff.

Rocket - I like rocket, but any salad leaf will do preferably something which can stand up to cheese. Just not lettuce.  (I couldn’t get hold of rocket so used some watercress)

Bread – were talking crusty roll here e.g French baguette or ciabatta that kind of thing, just make sure its not to thin so you can pack loads of filling in without it all spilling out. The bread I used was shit because I couldn’t get hold of anything any better on a Sunday.  It was a loaf cut into giant chunks, to much bread to filling ratio.

Piquillo dip - I had this for the first time last weekend at my mums, it a dip made form blended piquillo peppers with garlic, lemon and herbs. There is loads of variations for this dip and if you can’t find jarred or tinned piquillo peppers just use some other pre roasted tinned red peppers and if you can’t get them roast your own J.

Piquillo Dip recipe:

Fresh Parsley – 1 large bunch

Fresh Coriander – 1 mall bunch

Fresh oregano – 2 large chopped pinches (if you can’t find any just use half the amount of thyme)

Garlic – 3 Cloves

Piquillo peppers – 3 Jarred

Extra-virgin olive oil – a good glug

Sherry vinegar – 2 tablespoons. (any vinegar will do except malt)

Lemon Juice – ½ a lemon (you may want to use less but I wanted to cut the grease of the sandwich)

Instructions to make the dip are as follows – Shove it all in a blender and season to taste.

 

Sandwich Recipe: makes 2 large ones

Chorizo – 400g

Mozzarella – 500g

Rocket- 2 handfuls

Piquillo dip – 4 big tablespoons

Baguette – sliced and cut into 2 halves.

To make the sandwich fry off the chopped chorizo in a frying pan, once cooked tear up the mozzarella and lay on top of the chorizo. Turn of the heat and leave the mozzarella to melt. Spoon some of the oil from the pan onto the bread then slather in piquillo dip. Spoon In the cheese and sausage mixture and shove a handful of rocket leaves in and season with salt and lots of black pepper.

ENJOY your belated celebration of sandwich week. See you at next year’s technical group meeting, hahaha

http://www.sandwich.org.uk/

National Sandwich week - Some thoughts on a ham sandwich

Building on from my previous post about Meat liquor and the upcoming review of the Delaunay in Aldwych, I thought I’d tell you about something very strange that happened to me on the same day I visited these venues.

It all started with a ham sandwich from Pret A Manger and I know where you think this is going but I assure you it isn’t (there’s no hidden finger nails in this cake).

Long story short I went into Pret and got a ham sandwich and I am deeply sorry to admit this but it was the most delicious thing I ate day.

I’ve been telling people to try Meat liquor for about 2 years now and I’d finally made the pilgrimage there only to find it trumped earlier in the day by a prefab ham and pickle sandwich made by a corporate monster. I should also point out that I had afternoon tea for 2 later that day at the Delaunay which came to £53 and none of the sandwiches on offer there came close to this baby.

I don’t know about you, but this bombshell has kept me awake recently. What kind of crack are they lacing the sandwiches with at Pret A Manger to make it taste better than a double cheese burger with a side of chilli cheese fries?

So let’s find out. I’ve been on the Pret website (yes I’m that sad, but I write a food blog so you knew this already) this is what they say goes in their sarnie:

• Malted Wholegrain Bread
• Wiltshire-cured Ham
• Pret Pickle
• Freshly sliced Tomatoes
• Free-range Mayonnaise
• Salad Leaves
• Pret Seasoning 

“Pret Wiltshire cured ham is hand filleted and slowly matured in a live Wiltshire cure, which gives it a deep tangy taste. The hams are then slow roasted and trimmed of fat before being sliced into this simple, delicious sandwich featuring our dark, sticky Pret pickle and our four leaf crunchy gourmet mix”

I can’t really describe what this sandwich tasted like to be honest, because it sort of crept up on me. I wasn’t expecting to be emotionally overwhelmed by this little morsel of bread and ham, so when it kissed me with its creamy mayo goodness I was for want of a better saying, caught with my pants down.

I’m not really sure where to take this post from here, I’m as baffled as you are that this sandwich was as good as I say it was. Maybe the planets aligned on that fateful morning or maybe I was just starving and a bit hung over, which worked in the sandwiches favour.

I do know one thing, if I’m ever to sleep again I’m going to have to march down to Pret A Manger in Leeds and buy of these sandwiches and take it

Meat liquor

Meat liquor.

Yep I finally went to meat liquor. It didn’t live up to my high expectations spawned from 2 years of waiting for a visit.  I’m bitterly disappointed that is was merely good and not amazing. The burger was nice the meat was tasty but it didn’t blow my mind. The chilli cheese fries had nothing on Almost Famous’s version in Manchester and to top it off about 18 months ago I told my GF this was meant to be the most amazing burger on the planet, she wasn’t that impressed I’d dragged her away from the Disney store for this vaguely average offering.

So I’m going to go cry myself to sleep. Please leave me in peace. Here are some pictures. 

 R.I.P two years of lofty anticipation.

7/10 (I was expecting 12/10)

www.meatliquor.com/

74 Welbeck St  London W1G 0BA
020 7224 4239

Angelica, Leeds trinity - Bar Review

Angelica, Leeds trinity.

The entrance to Angelica can be found on the top floor of the Trinity shopping centre or from the lift out the back off Boar lane near Holy Trinity church. It’s Bar/Restaurant situated above Crafthouse, the other offering from the D&D London.

Let me just start by saying I wanted to hate this place! I tried to come here on the opening night of the Trinity shopping centre but I was refused entry to Angelica by the doorman because I had trainers on and there was about 2 inches of snow outside! Anyway I can see where the management was coming from on the opening day keeping out the riff raff. After all Crafthouse and Angelica are D&D’s first offering  outside London and only the cream of the northern crop should expect to visit.

Second time around I came after work suited and booted and was allowed to venture inside this time. I would like to point out the dress code doesn’t seem as strict now as it did on opening night, some cheeky chops had made it in, in his trackies (I salute you sir).  

 

So no food this time I just popped in for a quick drink, the menu looks good for light bites and lunch and they have a raw seafood bar which grabbed my attention maybe next time I’ll order some sushi. We sat on the outdoor terrace which has some great views of the city, I can see it being packed out here when the weather picks up i.e. bank holiday Monday coming up. There is plenty of heating outside as well to try and compensate for the glorious British weather. We had a cognac I can’t remember which but it was about £5, a glass of white wine and a bottle of Timothy Taylor’s landlord beer. It came to around £16 with a tip for table service included, which I think is very reasonable when you take the luxurious surroundings, table service and the view into account.

 

Get your self here for a bite to eat and a drink on a sunny day, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather go in the city centre if the weathers nice?

Level 6 Trinity Leeds 70 Boar Lane,

Leeds, LS1 6HW

http://www.angelica-restaurant.com/

Da Breakfast Club, Soho.

Da Breakfast Club, Soho.

Yes I know everyone in London has already been to one of the Breakfast club’s branches, but I haven’t so I went and I’m going to tell you about it.

After queuing for half an hour from 9:15am on a Saturday morning, we finally made it in to the Soho venue of the Breakfast club. This places reputation precedes itself when it comes to breakfast in London and to be honest I don’t why? I can’t tell you any specific reason why I felt I had to go on Saturday morning, maybe they’ve just hit the nail on the head with the name? “Where shall we go for breakfast? How about the Breakfast club.” Who could say not to that?

Anyway we went so it doesn’t really matter now. The place is bright yellow and crammed full of tables with some trendy looking staff and a great soundtrack thrown in the mix. Top that off with loads of bacon and pancakes and were cooking on gas woo.

I was determined to pick something I wouldn’t normally eat this time of the morning so I went for Huevos al Benny (eggs Benedict with chorizo peppers and fresh chillies). It was bloody lovely I must say, except the yolks weren’t very runny in my poached eggs L . I’ve always been a fan of peppers and spicy food with eggs on a morning, ever since I had migas with chorizo and fried eggs one morning. Oh and after my friend’s American gf convinced me that hot sauce on a cheese omelette is amazing. The charred peppers hiding under the poached eggs were particularly good on this dish and the addition of fresh chilli really helped cut through the rich hollandaise, the chorizo was pretty good quality as well. So we’re in agreement then it was good even without a runny yolk.

The other thing we went for that morning was the classic full works pancakes, these were pretty good as well, a nice errrby sausage, eggs and loads of bacon and unlimited maple syrup yummmm. They really don’t skimp on the bacon in this place, it comes in a giant tangled ball straight out the deep fat fryer I think.

So there you go, you probably know all about this place already anyway it’s not exactly a hidden gem anymore. My advice it’s worth the queue if you get there early enough. When we were leaving at 10:30am the queue had grown to about 30 ppl, so I wouldn’t bother turning up any later than 9:30am.

P.S. check inside the drawers in the tables, I had a good 10 mins of delight leafing through the notes and poems previous customers had left in there.

8/10 (would be 9 with a runny yolk)

www.thebreakfastclubcafes.com

The Alchemist Leeds - Good ideas, bad service

The Alchemist – Good ideas, bad service.

Apologies for the brief hiatus in blog posts, to put it frankly I’m skint and I couldn’t be arsed to write anything up I’ve tasted recently.

The Alchemist is a new cocktail bar/restaurant (mostly bar) in the new Trinity Leeds shopping centre. The jury’s still out on Trinity in my opinion but half of the shops haven’t opened yet and neither has the Trinity Kitchen, so we’ll let them off for the moment. The whole place looks nice anywayJ.

Back to the bars. The Alchemist is nice looking place found on the first floor of the shopping centre, tucked away in the corner near Urban Outfitters. It serves quirky cocktails hence the name and some standard gastro pub food, which I have to confess I haven’t tried so I can’t comment. The drinks menu has plenty to choose from and props to whoever came up with the cocktails some of them are quite creative not only with gimmicky dry ice etc... But flavour combinations as well.  

So first up a passion fruit and lychee meringue martini, the meringue being a glazed vanilla foam, oooooh well posh. Very well done and surprise surprise actually tasted of lychee. 

 

Second drink an Antica Collins basically orangey stuff, gin and bitters. Also very good and epically refreshing if not a little boring compared to a meringue martini.  

 

So exciting drinks nice looking venue what’s not to love? Well seeing as you asked I’ll tell you.

• One this is place is mental busy! Probably because everywhere else that serves exciting drinks is a lot harder to find in Leeds.

• Two the bar staff are crap. They’re well trained and know how to make a decent drink, the chap who made my Antica Collins stopped to taste it 3 times to check it had enough ice melted in it to serve. (By taste I mean tip a stirrer in and give it a lick, using a fresh stirrer each taste, so no he wasn’t pissed.) But he definitely looked like he didn’t want to be there. I’ve been twice now and each time been made to feel like I’ve just asked the bar staff to lick a turd off the bottom of my shoe when I’ve asked for a drink.  The last time I was there the queue was so big that the one girl actually bothering to make drinks had to plead with the other staff to stop chatting and actually serve some customers.

So in conclusion definitely worth a visit, maybe I got unlucky with the staff at the end of a long day?

7/10

1^st Floor

Leeds Trinity shopping centre

www.thealchemist.uk.com

Salvos Salumeria, Otley Road, Leeds

Hey ho, I’m still unbelievably poor as I’ve got a pending trip to London planned this month. However my mother has turned up to take me out for lunch with my sis Hurray.

We visited Salvos Salumeria which is found in the Headingley area of Leeds, It’s a small café which is next door but one to the main Salvos restaurant. For those of you who don’t know Salvos is the crown jewel of Italian dining in Leeds. Its awards include Salvo’s, voted the UK’s Best Neighborhood Italian Restaurant by Gordon Ramsay on Channel 4’s the “F Word and has received an AA Rosette in October 2010, 2011, 2012 and hopefully 2013

The Salumeria is an intimate dining room come deli, showcasing some fine Italian produce alongside serving classic Italian dishes. The restaurant features special dinner evenings, from musical soirees and wine tastings to regional dinners showing the best in Italian regional dishes. These themed evenings come highly recommended and offer tremendous value consisting of a ten course tasting menu using genuine and artisan ingredients, typical dishes and traditional specialists of a particular region in Italy. Accompanied with wine and at only £33.95 per person!!! This really is stonking value.

Requesting a table is recommended as these evenings are popular.
Before I get onto the review of the food I have to mention the tinned tomatoes they sell. They’re the same they use in the restaurant for the pasta dishes and not to belittle the chefs to much, but you can’t really cock it up when cooking with these beauties. I think they’re about £1.80 a tin but the tin is around 1kg in size and so much better than anything else you’ve ever tried trust me. They’ll make any pasta dish 10x better for minimal effort.

So the food. The service is attentive and fairly informal, it is only a café after all. We started with an Italian meat platter with fresh bread and olives and bottle of wine. The meat is of the highest quality as you’d expect I’d also especially recommend  the fennel salami, it was so delicious we bought some from the deli along with about 10 tins of the aforementioned tomatoes. The wine list is fairly extensive for such a small place this venue really benefits from its bigger brother 2 doors down.

Second course was a round of pizzas for my family and a Caesar salad for me. The pizzas were probably the weakest aspect of the meal, there very good just nothing special. If you’re dining in the main restaurant I’d recommend getting something a little out of your comfort zone, Last time I had liver which was the best I’ve eaten. The main restaurant excels with some very accomplished fine dining, if you’re after a pizza just go somewhere else.

The Caesar salad was huge and very tasty with large juicy pieces of chicken breast and massive croutons, maybe a little strong on the anchovy for some people but I can’t get enough of the salty blighters so I was happy.

We finished the meal off with some coffees, also pretty good. The bill came to about £70 I think, I can’t remember exactly because my mother paidJ.

I would highly recommend a trip into Headingley and spot of lunch at the Salumeria, The staff are really friendly, the guy that runs the place is always really helpful and they sell some simple food which is of the finest quality and the quality speaks for itself really.

8.5/10


107 Otley Rd
Leeds,
LS6 3PX

0113 275 8877

www.salvos.co.uk/salumeria-restaurant/

Forkly, Food App

Seeing as I am skint, I’ve decided to tell you about my favourite food related App. Some of you may have noticed that most of the photos used in my blog, contain a small fork followed by the words “Forkly”. This is because most of the photos I use, I have usually uploaded to Forkly beforehand and use them later in the blog.

So what is Forkly and why is it so amazing. Forkly is a free food rating app from Brightkite founders Brady Becker and Martin May which lets you Taste and discover other dishes. Released in 2011 the App has had relative success and now has a hardcore fan base of daily users, myself included. Although similar to competitor Foodspotting , Forkly’s emphasis has been more on rating food items, not just taking pictures of them. There is also more of a community feel to Forkly, once you get to know the regular users in your area.

On Forkly, add a "taste" to say what you're eating or drinking and what you think about it. The app presents you with the option "Loved It," "Liked It," "It's OK" and "Not for Me" options. You can choose to add a photo or comment on the dish, and share the bite-sized review with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Your tastes are posted to the activity feed. Other users can follow along and indicate that they want to try your tastes, and also gain you influence points in the process. Think of it as Twitter but for food J

The discover tab is used to find out what's popular at nearby places, as determined by other Forkly users' tastes. You can also specify if you’re wanting to look for Breakfast, Desert, Drinks etc.

The App offers an easy way to look at specific dishes of restaurants in your Local area or further afield. You can also look for dishes you have “wanted” in your local area which is one of the best features of the app. I have used this feature religiously when in London and deciding what to do for lunch on the spur of the moment to great success.

 The app also provides you with a daily dose of “food porn”, I find myself most evenings spending 5 minutes to scroll through my feed of followed users and ogle at the tasty things they’ve eaten or cooked recently and the “Want” tab saves anything you want reminding you to eat it later on.

Bringing pictures of beautiful food right to your doorstep and providing an easy insight into the best pig out spots in foreign territory Forkly really is a top class app for true greedy guts.

Or to quote their website “Forkly makes it ridiculously easy to match your taste buds with the food and restaurants around you. Capture and share your tastes while dining out, and Forkly will help you discover a new dish around the corner, the best burger in town or your favourite cocktail in a new city.”

BOSH