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/