BrewDog Leeds

Just a quick one today. Mainly because its getting near the end of the month and I haven’t been out anywhere to eat.

I went to the New BrewDog bar in Leeds on Tuesday night and was impressed.

Firstly the place looks great I’ve included some pictures off the Brewdog website below (I didn’t get any of my own because I was to busy getting sloshed on 13% beer).

Also I have to recommend the staff, they were the most attentive bar staff I’ve ever come across and every pint was followed with “enjoy your beer”. They were also helpful in choosing what drink I wanted and coerced me into tasting 3 different beers before I picked, when all I asked for was the palest. Very helpful indeed.

The beers were all delicious and I drank plenty of stuff I wouldn’t normally touch, which is great. Prices were a bit high end, £4.20 a pint. Some of the 1/3 pints were £3.65 but you’re paying for the taste I guess.

But, It’s the kind of place you might take your lady friend to enjoy a drink, or maybe your dad for one. I wouldn’t go with the attention of having a heavy one as after 5 different drinks which came to a total of about 2 ½ pints in volume I was pretty full and sickly.

I expect it isn’t the intention of BrewDog for their customers to come down and enjoy copious amounts of alcohol and then go hit the town, but that was my mistaken intention on the first visit.

So get yourself down here and try some beers you wouldn’t normally drink. Some of there stuff is delicious and the men all have great beards, what more could you ask for.

(Oh and the played some Fleetwod Mac that’s worth 1 bonus point)
9/10

Unit 2, White Cloth Hall,Crown Street,
Leeds,
LS1 7RB.

www.brewdog.com

Bahn Mi, Brick Lane

A friend took me for a trip down Brick lane a little while back and took me to the Boiler House Food Hall for some lunch. Think of it as an indoor market, but with only the food stalls.

Its here I had my first taste of a Vietnamese style Baguette or Bahn Mi as its more affectionately known. Bahn Mi typically consists of various Vietnamese cold cuts, such as sliced pork or pork bellies with the liver pate and vegetables.I can’t remember the name of the stall so sadly I can’t credit the producers of this lovely little number.

I ordered the “Special Dong”  . . . .  yes I know. Which came with predictably some form of pork and pate. The accompaniments being  pickled carrot, white onion, cucumber, fresh coriander  and chilli sauce. All served in a crusty roll.

Fab, I’m converted. The same friend who brought me here had recently visited Vietnam and told me that practically the only thing he ate whilst in the country for 2 weeks was Bahn Mi he liked them that much and I would have to agree with him. This may not have been the finest sandwich ever to leave Vietnam but as a starting point I was pretty pleased. The pickled carrot in particular marries great with the greasy pork and the layers of flavour definitely surpass your average baguette.

So next time you’re going down Brick Lane on a weekend pop in and grab one of these babies. . .  Just avoid the Chinese stand its crap.

7/10

http://www.boilerhouse-foodhall.co.uk/

The Old Truman Brewery
152 Brick Lane,
E1 6RU London

Almost Famous, Manchester

Let me just start this review by saying I was massively hung over/Still drunk when I visited place, because I didn’t get to be till about 6:30am after going to the Warehouse project  on Trafford wharf road in Manchester.

With one massive hangover I headed into Manchester city centre and ended up queueing outside a nondescript door in the Northern quarter which houses Almost Famous one of the best burger joints in Northern England. Once the queue had reached about 30 people a bouncer appeared and ushered up the stairs. This place has been around for about 2 years now I think and you can expect to queue most days to get in, but trust me it’s worth it. I’d stand in a line for half an hour to eat here any day.

I’ll be honest I cant remember to much about what the place looked like, I think I was still some way off being declared sober. I do remember it was light airy and pretty simple and that the bar was cool, that’s about it for the venue I’m afraid. I suffered pretty bad tunnel vision once the food arrived.

So the food. It’s not cheap and it’s not expensive, I ordered the DD burger and a flashy imported beer (Cos I’m a lad and drinking is cool) and shared some chili cheese fries with a friend and I don’t think it was much more than £10? (Once again I can’t remember, sorry).

The Food was absolutely bloody amazing. Possibly because every knows deep fried food taste 10x better when your hanging or possibly because it just was bloody amazing!! I think it’s the latter. The burger was great, 2 smallish patties combined to give just the right amount of beef loads of cheese fried onions and a toasted shiny brioche bun Yummmmmmm. The beef must be decent quality because it was beautifully flavoured and let’s not forget the all important burger sauce.

My mate ordered the Triple Nom burger which is 2 patties and pulled pork, I can’t comment on what it tasted like but he seemed to enjoy it quite a lot, he went back again the week after if that says anything.

The chilli cheese fries were the highlight for me though. A mixture of sweet and normal potato fries, topped with chilli, cheese, jalapeños and fresh red onion. They were huge and bloody awesome. The chilli was full of flavour and refreshing red onion helped cut through some of the grease, I say “some” its all pretty greasy. The fries had managed to stay crisp underneath all the stodge which speaks volumes for the speed of the service, Fries would go soggy in about 60 seconds with chilli con carne on top, you do the maths. The fries had been tossed in some type of seasoning so no added salt was required and I love salt. It was all just too much for my little hung over heart to handle I had to have a nap after to recover, before unsuccessfully trying to persuade my friends to come back again on an evening.

I was blown away by this place, I heard it was good and when my friend suggested going to “this awesome burger place” I was quite surprised he’d even heard of it but the cats been let out of the proverbial bag along time ago in Manchester and deservedly so.

MESSY, TASTY, HONEST FOOD. Don’t let people put you off by saying its gimmicky or pretentious to have a bouncer for a restaurant, its just totes amazeballs.
The people behind almost famous have recently opened up there latest business venture “Luck, Lust, Liquor & Burn” serving Mexican dishes. I haven’t been here yet but initial reviews sound good, if Almost Famous is anything to go by it’s probably a knock out.

9/10

100 High St
Northern Quarter
Manchester

http://almostfamousburgers.com/