Leeds Kitchen by James Martin

Whooop wooop, ever since my mum went on Ready Steady Cook with James Martin (yes that’s right my mum is officially a TV chef) she loved him so much it’s rubbed off on me. So naturally I was going to pay his fairly new (2 years old?) restaurant a visit.

Its situated in the Alea casino in Leeds, which is part of the Clarence dock development that bombed pretty badly during the recession, fortunately this place remains as one its redeeming features.

So the venue is nice looking and fairly small, I reckon it only seats about 40 people max? Apparently James was there the night before we dined, but he was definitely absent the evening we showed up, I promise you I checked. I was hoping for a little swoon as he walked by.

Both of us opted for the set menu of 5 courses and a glass of house wine for £30. Absolutely Spanking value! However this option is only available Monday to Thursday, 6-9pm. I think it’s been updated now to 6 courses for the same price, as if you needed another reason to go.

Now for a little confession, I did expect this place to be pretty average. I like Mr Martin and his cooking I’ve seen on the big screen, but I was expecting a much more rustic classic “Yorkshire grub” approach. Like really well done pub food, or that’s what I was expecting anyway. What I got was quite the opposite, a delicious meal of beautiful sophisticated food with impeccable service. .  .Oh except the waitress not giving me my change back, but it was smaller than the tip we would have left anyway, so we bolted.

I’m getting ahead of myself, on to the food.

First up was a amuse-bouche consisting of a tiny mug of delicious frothy thick creamy pea soup. Second course was some chicken liver parfait, creamy and morish but not enough bread to go with it.

 The fish course was the most beautiful little fillet of mackerel I’ve ever had with blood orange and micro coriander. This was seriously tasty and definitely the best course of the meal.

 The main was a trio of pork loin,  pork cheek and sausage roll. Yes the sausage roll made an appearance as if just to keep us grounded and remind us of where James Martin’s food loyalties lie. My rapture at the inclusion of a sausage roll was a rapidly brought back to earth when I realised it was just a sausage roll and didn’t taste much better than something I’d knocked up in my own kitchen. However the rest of the pork was perfectly cooked and the cheek was exceptionally tasty.

 By this point I was getting pretty full and it was time for desert. Dessert? I know a friend from university who wrote an entire exam answer about the prehistoric expansion of desserts in Northern Africa, ooops. Dessert was a chocolate mousse served with a berry compote. I thought it was ok but my partner liked it and to be honest dessert would have to contain some bacon for me to like it anyway.

That’s it done. All in 2 people £60, bargain if you ask me. I was really impressed with the cooking here, simple food done well, no bells and whistles required. So get yourself down to Clarence dock you wont find the same quantity or quality of food in Leeds for £30 anywhere else. :)

8.5/10

http://theleedskitchen.co.uk
Alea Casino,
Clarence Dock,
Leeds

Chadwicks Inn, Maltby, Teesside

A few weeks ago I was back in the North East and decided to visit Chadwicks Inn in Maltby village for lunch. Allegedly “the only 2 AA Rosette Gastro pub in the Tees Valley” or so it says on their website. Chadwicks used to be found on Yarm high street but moved about 2 years ago to Maltby site a few miles away.

The restaurant has a country pub vibe tastefully decorated with dark wood furniture and a log burning stove in the corner. This owes to the fact that it used to be pub not so long ago, but I wouldn’t come here for a cheeky pint nowadays.

We booked in advance and were promptly shown to our table and offered the menus. We both picked off the set lunch menu which was 3 courses for around £15-20, I forget the exact price.

First up was Pea soup with a poached egg and smoked bacon dressing. The soup was delicious, velvety smooth and fresh and the egg beautifully runny in the middle. However I didn’t get any smoked bacon from the dish, to be honest id be quite happy to just put two crispy pieces on the top. Bring on the bacon!!

My partner opted for the smoked salmon with quail’s egg and young onions. Which I’m told was very good, the young broad beans scattered about the place were a nice touch. This course also came on a slate which is pretty edgy for the Tees Valley. I bet the locals weren’t impressed? So far so good.

The final course was Pan fried sea trout with orange and fennel salad. The trout was cooked perfectly soft and moist in the middle with a lovely crispy skin but the salad seemed to have been dressed in water and there was no appearance from Mr Fennel, maybe they’d ran out? This really let the dish down. I love fennel but could have dealt with just a mixed leaf salad if it had some form of dressing to tie the dish together. Anyway the fennel was gone so I made do and quenched my thirst on my moist salad.

All in all I like this place, it’s about 1 mile from my parents and the lunch menu really is reasonably priced. I’d recommend it for those in the area that are after more than a trip to Frankie’s and Bennie’s, it’s probably slightly cheaper than most of the other “fine dining” alternatives around as well.

7/10

High Ln, Maltby
Middlesbrough

TS8 0BG

www.chadwicksinnmaltby.co.uk

Red’s true BBQ - Leeds

So apparently some people have viewed my blog already!! How they found me I’ll never know? On to post number 3 then I guess.

Seeing as I live in Leeds I thought it was about time I talked about somewhere that was actually in Leeds. The venue in question is Red’s True BBQ which opened in September 2012 and has been mental busy pretty much since it opened. I only went after it was recommended on the Leedsgastroguru.blogspot seeing as I’d managed to walk past it twice without noticing it had even opened.

As ever it was crazy busy and this is another place following the current trend of not taking bookings. Hence I only made it into the venue at my second attempt of trying after being turned away on the first for turning up at 6:30 on a Tuesday evening.

We were a party of two and were sat on the end of larger table, be prepared to share your evening with some other diners. The décor in the place is modern and quirky with the lights turned fairly low. The whole place is pretty smoky thanks to the open kitchen but you are going to a bbq restaurant so what do you expect.

The menu is made up of the usual culprits, ribs, burgers, pulled pork that kind of thing which you can get with a combination of sides. There were some exciting looking cocktails and a range of shakes and non alcoholic options. I went for the iced tea which was made with good old Yorkshire Tea. Very nice and refreshing it was to, with a pleasant mix of sharp lemon sweet tea and a bitter finish.

For food I opted for the cheese burger (naturally) and my dining partner got the pulled pork and slaw.

The burger was good, nice tasty beef, cheap cheese etc.. but the beef portion was a little small and dwarfed by the stodgy bun. On the topic of the bun I personally love a toasted brioche with my burger I like that light crispy shiny surface. However this bun was of the cakey cob persuasion like you get everywhere in Derbyshire. So if you’re going to have the burger, go double.

To the pork. My dear Mr Red what have you done? The pork was beautifully tender and could be eaten with a spoon but it tasted of thin air! Apparently this problem extends to the beef brisket as well which I’m reliably told was equally tender but bland as out. The pork was garnished with some pork scratchings which was a good idea but scratchings are a bit of a kop out if you ask me. Some warm fresh crackling would have been better than cold scratchings. The slaw served with the pork was good, I’m not adverse to a little mayo free slaw every now and again and it cut through the fat in the pork perfectly.

The sides that came with the meal were the highlight of the night. Onion rings were crisp, red hot and rather on the large side and the deep fried pickles were gorgeous. I’ve been meaning to try these deep fried vinegary slices of heaven for ages but not got round to it, I’m glad I did.

On the hole then this place did alright. It’s not expensive and once you finally get in the its pretty lively and service swift. I wouldn’t rave home about it, but the concept is fairly novel and new to Leeds and the punters seem to be lapping it up.

7/10

Cloth Hall Street

(nr Corn Exchange)

Leeds LS1 2HD

truebarbecue.com

Patty and Bun, London

On a recent visit to the capital I found my self near Bond Street and decided to visit Patty & Bun to see what all the fuss was about.

I’d like to take this moment to talk about a recent point made on Chris Pople’s blog (cheesenbiscuits.blogspot.co.uk) about his trip to the Electric Diner on Portobello Road. Chris pointed out that although many of you bloggers and critics etc in the Big City are getting a bit fed up of the whole sloppy burger craze, “this thing is still a relative novelty to most people”.

Now I know you’re all sick of sloppy American diner experiences and queuing for an hour to eat a burger! But in the North of England there is virtually no where to get a decent burger and the few places that do exist have “mostly” only sprung up in the last 12 months or so.

Rant aside, this leads me back to my excitement at being down “south” and popping in to the much talked about Patty & Bun.

The venue in question has fairly plain “wipe clean” Décor, but was nice enough all the same and the staff were pleasant and punctual. I ordered the Ari Gold burger, which was about £8-9 for the burger alone.

Anyway there it is, she’s beautiful isn’t she. Sadly that’s about as far as I got to the bedroom with this burger. It had all the right ingredients; good quality beef (so I’m told), oozy cheese, sexy bun, burger sauce mmmmm. But what it left in my mouth was a watery mouthful of blandness. The beef was under seasoned, fairly tasteless and the whole thing underwhelming. The Ari Gold has got all the right components, it should be great... but its not.

This is starting to feel like an overly negative post, especially as it’s my first review. So I’ll try and place said burger into context. Out of every burger I’ve ever eaten in my beleaguered culinary existence in the North East of England and Yorkshire, this ranks in the top 10%. The problem with Patty & Bun is the “hype” I was expecting Nirvana but it didn’t happen. My advice is go somewhere else, Dirty burger is cheap if your in Kentish Town, Almost Famous in Manchester is good (love that place) or if you like a burger beautiful on the outside and plain in the middle, go here. I know plenty of men that would settle for that in a woman.

6/10

54 James St,

London W1U 1EU 

www.pattyandbun.co.uk

This is Happening!!

So I've decided to write a food blog and promptly lost my shiny new iphone, so I can no longer take pictures of all the lovely or not so lovely things I eat out on my travels.
However I shall endeavour to carry on regardless. Just expect limited blog posts in the coming months until I sort my self out a suitable phone to take sneaky pictures of my dinner whilst eating out (as oppose to my giant digital camera).

Peace out.