Northern Monk Brewery / Grub and Grog Shop - Leeds

There’s certainly something in the water in Leeds at the moment, resulting in a new wave of original and independent food and drink businesses popping up all over the city. As a city to visit for the weekend it’s up there with my favourites in the UK. It seems like there’s always something food and drink related happening in the city and something I’d say only London can compare with. As of late August, Northern Monk joined the party by opening their new brewery premises just a short distance from the city centre.

Having seen no photos of the premises before I visited it’s no exaggeration to say I was pretty staggered by the whole thing. The building itself (a converted flax mill) looks incredible - the first sight of the branded banners with their impressive artwork hanging from the front of the building framed by a dark bleak Yorkshire sky really is a sight to behold. As a package it's certainly the most impressive restaurant and tap room combo I've visited - in the UK it's pretty much unique (I'm certainly struggling to think of anywhere).

As you enter the building you’re greeted with sneak peaks of the brewery itself through the large glass windows throughout (just my luck I chose to visit on a day that no brewing action was taking place though, unfortunately). The taproom is up on the first floor is made up of a large room with exposed beams, original brickwork, local artwork and filled with a mixture of smaller bar style seating and large 10 person communal seating. As a brewery taproom, it’s pretty much my idea of the perfect place to sit and quaff a few quiet pints. Beer wise we’re looking at 16 keg options and 4 cask options – heavily focused on Northern Monk but with some cracking guests (Bad Seed, Magic Rock, Kirkstall, Red Willow amongst others on this visit) as well as a small but well curated UK focused bottle shop.

The good news is that the booze is more than well complimented by the "Grub and Grog shop" who are also based on site and provide breakfast, lunch and dinner in this ‘refectory’ area. I hadn't heard a lot about them so did a bit of reading in advance and was immediately impressed by their imaginative menus. I loved having a read through their 'Friends and suppliers’ section of a website and which in this case links to a selection of suppliers who were all impressively local.

The menu on the day of the visit was different to that on the website. This is something i'm always keen to see in a place that serves smaller dishes as it typically suggests an imaginative chef making the best of seasonal ingredients and pushing themselves rather than serving up the same old dishes day after day. On this occasion I got stuck into the following:

“Ox tongue hash, celeriac mash, pickles, kale, hop syrup and stout gravy”

This was a good looking plate of food indeed. The tongue with the mash and stout gravy was just fantastic, think rich and with a mountain of deep flavour. The kale was roasted and added a great crunchy texture to proceedings, pickle had been finely sliced and was mild enough that when mixed in with the other ingredients it didn't overwhelm anything. On a day in the height of winter when it and absolutely freezing cold outside, this was a perfect winter warmer of a lunch. 

“Yorkshire fries”

A generous portion of red hot freshly roasted seasonal vegetables served with a dollop of reassuringly stodgy home-made mayonnaise. The veg involved resulted in a mix of textures, some extremely crisped up and others more part baked resulting in an enjoyable mix of consistencies, a great little take on a boring old side of fries. Really enjoyable.

“Stuffed Mutton in Ale, glazed beetroot, sautéed sprouts and puy lentils”

I didn’t actually dig into this one myself but I was being so enthusiastic about my dish that my friend offered me a spoonful of his. The mutton was cooked well and full of flavour - the sprouts and lentils as a base made for another great hearty dish, one that seemed just as impressive as the one I was tucking into.

I don’t have enough good things to say about the Northern Monk Refectory; offering the holy trinity of excellent fresh beer in stunning surroundings and with delicious well-priced original food could not have impressed me more. It’s right at the top of my very favourite places to visit in Leeds and you’ll be sure to see me propping up the bar tucking into beer and food in here at every opportunity I get whenever I'm over the Pennines in the future.

The Man Behind The Curtain - Leeds

Now i'm firmly based 'Up North' and finally out of my (admittedly short-sighted) bubble of only keeping an eye on new openings in London, the announcement and buzz late summer around Michael O'Hare opening The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds city centre certainly captured my attention. Mr O'Hare was an entirely new name to me but having done a bit of research and seeing details of the previous restaurants he'd worked for and menus he'd been responsible for certainty piqued my interest enough to book in. Am I ever glad that I did.

Michael is clearly somewhat outspoken about what he expects from this restaurant, just take a look at the 'thoughts' section on the restaurant website. Amongst the bravado, he talks about the goal for Man Behind the Curtain is "to create a restaurant serving ultra modern food that has its own identity. I like the idea of always having one iconic dish on the menu – not classic but iconic". I love that he's set himself such a high standard and set a mission statement like this on the website for him to be judged by in the future, and one that I look forward to checking back on in a few years to see whether he's succeeded.

One thing I wasn't particularly impressed with was the booking e-mail that requested that I call them to make a £20 deposit per person and a note near the bottom that stated "We kindly request that guests dress smartly for the experience, as such gentleman are requested to wear a jacket for dinner. Sports shoes and leisurewear are not permitted." I like getting dressed up for a nice meal as much as anyone and would've rolled with a suit anyway but I absolutely hate being told what to wear - especially when i'm sat in the restaurant dressed up and see people traipsing in wearing jeans and a scruffy check shirt. Some sort of consistency would be good in this regard, but I appreciate that a newly opened fine dining restaurant in the North can't always be as fussy as they'd like to pretend to be, given the reduced audience in the first place.

As a first impression on arriving at a restaurant, this was certainly one of the odder ones - there was a small sign in the window of Flannels clothing store advising that there was a restaurant on the top floor which I feel like could very easily have been missed, especially after a few drinks. Being greeted by a security guard holding a scrap of paper with reservation names on and then walking through a darkened store early evening was certainly a pretty underwhelming start to things and must be an absolute security nightmare. I did read afterwards that it has been used for a restaurant in the past making me even more surprised that they've never sorted this out with a stairway or some other means of access. It definitely made the restaurant feel secondary to the shop and given the attention to detail that was displayed throughout the restaurant itself (i'll get to this later), this introduction was a real shame.

Spirits were immediately lifted once we got into the lift and the menu was displayed to whet our appetites on the way up to the third floor. The evening menu is made up of one option - the  12 course 'Degustation' menu (dictionary definition of degustation, to save you looking it up is "the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions").

The wine pairing to match the tasting menu was pitched at a very reasonable £20 which covered 4 glasses in total or 3 courses per glass. 

The small but perfectly formed cocktail menu sounded interesting so it would have been rude not to get started on those.

"Violet Gin and Tonic"

"Tahitian vanilla"

This came encased in a solid ball of ice with the alcohol melting away in the bottom like a boozy slush puppy. The hollow vanilla pod as a straw was a nice touch.

"Antipasti"

A great show-piece to start, served on a silver tray and consisting of olives and anchovies with a drop of oil served within a clear edible bag. They were to be dipped into the glass of vermouth for two seconds to allow the outer casing to begin to break down and then popped it into your mouth to allow the bag to disintegrate leaving a delicious salty snack. A wonderfully imaginative small and perfectly formed introduction.

"Salty Fingers"

Creamy oyster emulsion served with an oyster shell, sat on a bed of flakey salt and surrounded by tart oyster leaf and 'salty fingers' which are a second type of edible leaf and a new one on me - crunchy and pleasantly bitter. The leaves were used to dip into the 'oyster' and the tartness of the leaves combined perfectly with the rich sauce. The sauce was so great it was a proper finger into the shell job to try every last drop.

"Potato"

Served hot, ths consisted of a piece of potato which was light almost like a tiny dumpling and served with a thin sliver of lardo and sprinkled with frieze dried raspberry for some extra crunch and sweetness. The spoon was still slightly warm to the touch and this whole course was like perfect miniaturised comfort food. 

"Pea"

One of those clever dishes that was both hot and cold simultaneously, served with a scoop of pea ice cream as the centre piece and which had hot pea soup poured onto the dish by the chef at the table. Beetroot, red cabbage and carrot sauce where then swirled through the pea to add colour and tartness to the soup. The whole thing tasted of the freshest most flavoursome peas and was incredibly light and enjoyable. 

It came served with a side of fresh bread with a portion of delicious fatty lardo and what was described as bacon crunch, essentially tiny flakes of crispy bacon. I assume the bread was meant to be used to dip into the pea soup but the fatty bacon spread was so good on it's own that it almost completely distracted from the pea. I was so impressed that even a casually introduced side almost took attention away from the stunning pea dish.

"Langoustine"

The crustacean was served in a moules mariniere consumme with drops of parsley oil. At first each spoonful was almost too much like taking a mouthful of salty sea water but as the initial burst of flavour subsided it became much milder, especially once i'd swallowed some of the juice and had the plump langoustine left to savour. The presentation was once again stunning, each spoon could be lifted away from the centrepiece but this was initially barely noticeable. 

"Fish"

The fish course apparently changes daily based on whatever is fresh at the local Kirkgate market which was great to hear from the chef. On this occasion I was served a beautiful looking piece of incredibly delicate cod loin, covered with tiny scraps of crispy potato and served in squid ink with a dose of what must've been vinegar powder sprinkled over the top. It was like fish and chips turned up to 11 and smelt absolutely incredible as it was placed in front of me. A truly stunning plate of food. 

"Veal"

In a change to the menu, the sweetbreads had been replaced with a portion of Lobster tail. Sweetbreads are one of my favourites so I was initially a little disappointed but what better than lobster tail as a replacement? The tail came served on a swirl of black garlic paste and a slice of dried milk skin on top as presentation. The milk and garlic were extremely mild taste wise, more there to add texture to the dish whilst allowing the flavour of the lobster to shine. 

"Ox"

A portion of wonderfully succulent ox cheek, swerved with a foie gras and cherry sauce then decorated with puffed salt and vinegar wild rice. The sherry paired with this course had also been used in the sauce which worked together and complemented each other exceptionally well. The crunchiness of the puffed rice with the ultra soft meat was another fantastic combination, another real highlight.

"Ice" 

Inspired by Tobacco and Vanille scent from the Tom Ford private collection. I'd had a sniff previously but it was a nice touch to have the sample card sprayed with the scent. Hidden inside the tin were two posh mini-milk type lollies flavoured with the rich vanilla and tobacco flavour of the perfume, which were chopped open with the haircutting scissors. A really inventive dish that worked on even more senses at the same time.

As a brief aside, I noticed this morning on a TripAdvistor review of the restaurant that ChesireTraveller80 mentioned "Top Tip... don't take the Tom Ford card you will have to give it back (you will know what we mean when you go)." WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? 

"Strawberry" 

This was a dessert right up my street - light, refreshing and cleansing after the prior courses. Made up of a couple of fresh compressed strawberries and a scoop of parmesan ice cream, finished with basil snow and pieces of freeze dried strawberry, all served on a base of 'raw crumble' and balsamic gel. What sounded like a lot to fit in flavour wise worked together fantastically, the sweetness of the strawberries toned down with the parmesan and basil and that tiny taste of balsamic at the end the icing on the cake. Wonderful.

"Chocolate"

Left to right in the photo below, these certainly kept the imagination levels high. 

Frieze dried raspberry with saffron encased in milk chocolate. 

I'm not 100% sure on this one, I believe it was cep mushroom in dark chocolate

The highlight was the Campari and grapefruit liquid hidden away in the hard white chocolate outer - a down in one job if there ever was one as the centre was fit to burst with the smallest of pressure.

The final chocolate was a strip of crispy bean curd encased in milk chocolate and rolled in lavender and caraway.

"Fruit"

The final course was an ultra-refreshing portion of compressed fruit. Consisting of watermelon, mango, kiwi, pineapple, pomegranate - like drinking a huge glass of fresh fruit juice. 

Attention to detail in high-end places like this always really impresses me and the presentation throughout the restaurant and meal here was just fantastic, with the yellow coat hanger theme ever present, It was worked into the menu layout, the cutlery boxes, the dishes, the receipt and even down to yellow loo roll in the bathroom. Clearly no expense had been spared on the tableware, with bespoke dishes for most courses, fresh boxes of cutlery appearing regularly and even down to niceties such as the geranium Aesop handwashes and creams as well as 'post-poo' drops (snigger). One particularly impressive highlight was the carefully lit service kitchen at end of dining room which added great showmanship to the occasion. You can see from the low table that absolutely nothing was left hidden.

Massively impressive.

Overall, this was one of the most enjoyable dining surprises of the year for me and it will easily make my top 5 meals of the year, I went in with little to no expectations and came away massively impressed. There was absolutely nothing I could fault, which is rare for me. The service was absolutely impeccable, with a mixture of servers and chefs presenting each course with the usual explanations you come to expect in a restaurant like this. Honestly, it was up there with the best service i've experienced - extremely professional yet at the same time it felt laid back and welcoming rather than stuffy and sterile like fine-dining often becomes. I was full of questions as the food being served was genuinely interesting to me and everyone had answers on the tip of their tongue.

The bill came to approx £200 which covered two of the 'degustation' tasting menus, cocktails before and after dinner, wine pairing throughout, coffees and tip. Excellent value for the quality of food and an extremely enjoyable 3 hours in the restaurant. I wouldn't hesitate to go back and whole-heartedly recommend it.

Bundobust - Leeds

Crossing the Pennines to Leeds over the past year since I moved North has become a real pleasure. There's a cluster of restaurants and bars just stumbling distance from the train station that I thoroughly enjoy taking in Brewery Tap, Laynes Coffee, Friends of Ham, Tapped, Trinity Kitchen, Brewdog and Reds (if needing stodge desperately). When I heard Bundobust was opening mid-July just around the corner from Friends of Ham, I was keen to check it out with a view to getting it into my regular rotation if it was any cop.

Bundobust combine Indian street food from the Prashad family who apparently (I haven't been) have a well regarded 'proper' restaurant elsewhere in Yorkshire along with drink supplied by The Sparrow craft beer bar in Bradford. The restaurant itself is a great little place decor-wise and had attracted a fairly broad mix of people, not just the young and hip that my photos below reflect. The huge windows at the front and sides (overlooking an outdoor covered seating area) made the whole atmosphere really airy and welcoming. It was fairly busy on a weekend mid-afternoon but there was still plenty of space to grab a table quickly, a couple of larger banquet style tables near the bar really help squeeze as many people as possible for those that don't mind communal eating.

First thoughts - the bar. It's clear that some thought has gone into matching the beer selection with the food on offer with a drink menu consisting of their own coriander lager along with plenty of refreshing pales, tart saisons, and various wheat options on draft and by the bottle. Prices are fairly typical inflated city centre fare, with pints starting at around £3.50 and with bottles all the way up to an eye-watering £22.50 for one of the special Mikkellers they have on the menu.

The food menu is made up of cold snack dishes on the left and then hot food on the right. The chap who took my order was extremely helpful in explaining it all and said a couple of dishes per person should be enough, he talked a lot about sharing the food between us but paper pots of curry don't particularly lend well to this concept at all. The snacks sure, but imagine handing round a bowl of curry and all digging in with separate spoons? I was with a couple of close friends but still find this a bit of a grim prospect especially as there was no hint of sharing bowls offered. Anyway, you grab a table and order at the bar Nandos style, get given a plastic spoon with a number drawn on and the food arrives fairly promptly afterwards.

Disappointingly for Indian food there was no indication of how hot these dishes might be and no option to ask for extra heat. I'm no fiend for a monstrously hot curry but I know people get very protective of curry and like the option.

I should make it clear that the top three of the dishes below (Popcorn, Idli Sambha and Okra fries) I ordered and ate myself so can add a little more detail. 

"Popcorn and pops" £3

A laughable portion of greasy popcorn served in the same size dish as the rest of the food was a surprise, this came with a neon green colouring which had hints of garlic and green chilli but extremely mild. The three pieces of popadom could easily have been replaced by a giant hand sticking two fingers up at me mocking me for having paid £3 for what most restaurants give you for free.

Okra fries £3

These were excellent, the highlight for me. I'd expected them to be warm like a side of french fries but they were served stone cold so I assume they must just cook them in giant batches and dish them up during the day. Whatever they'd used to batter them had stayed hard giving them a satisfying crunch. The sprinkling of spice made for a great snack.

Idli Sambha £6

Two dumplings sat either side of a portion of lentil soup, with a dollop of coconut chutney sat in the middle. The soup was lukewarm with a very mild chilli spice. A perfectly fine little dish, the spongey dumplings had absorbed the soup but still held together nicely, adding some necessary bulk to the dish.

Spice and rice £6.50

This was one of the specials of the day, described as "Low and slow mung bean curry served with basmati rice". On appearance alone I was very surprised it was the same size as the popcorn dish for the most expensive dish on the menu. I had a spoonful out of the bottom and it was a fairly generic tasting mild bean curry, nothing to really get excited about. 

Ragda Pethis £6

Another of the dishes from the hot side of the menu, this one consisted of "potato cutlets, spiced mushy peas, tamarind chutney and tumeric noodles". I didn't try this so can't comment on the taste. 

Bundo Chaat £4

Final of the hot dishes we ordered, this had a Samosa hidden away in the "chickpeas, potato, tamarind chutney and yoghurt" with a sprinkling of tumeric noodles on top. I didn't try this so can't comment on the taste. 

The food detailed along with 3 half pints of mid-priced draft beers came to a shade over £35 between three of us. £12 for a light lunch with a half of beer i'd say would be a shade expensive but we all left so hungry that we had to resort to raiding Marks and Spencers afterwards pre-train back to Manchester. If I were to compare it to somewhere like Mughli where a portion of their fantastic lamb chops would be the same price as the pot of spice and rice it's absolutely too expensive for my tastes, especially as the food was nothing special. If there were some sort of combo of a couple of hot dishes with snacks for £10 to create a proper 'meal' i'd be much keener.

I think it's worth noting here (if you hadn't noticed from the menu) that all of these dishes are vegetarian so there isn't even the excuse of expensive meats to bump up the costs of production. Charging £5-6 for a small bowl of curry sauce with rice must make them an astronomical mark-up.

There has been a ton of hype on twitter after the obligatory freebie blaggers rolled in on opening night, were given free food and gushed accordingly. Job done. My thoughts and wariness on this type of scenario is something i've whinged about at length before but is a prime example whereby if you remove price of food from the equation here then yes, Bundobust is a great little restaurant but it's absolutely too expensive it's annoying to me that this wasn't reflected in all the positivity I've read.

So would I go back? I would definitely head to the bar again, the constantly changing beer menu would be enough to tempt me back on that front if they continue to keep it interesting. The food? Not so much unless they sort those prices out. 

Red's True BBQ - Leeds

I decided to do the unfashionable thing and swerve the opening of Red's in Manchester in favour of re-visiting the Leeds branch. Since i'd heard from friends that the wait in the new branch was anything between 90 mins to 2 hours at peak times this seemed like the most sensible approach for a meaty top up. Given there is a severe lack of BBQ in Manchester, the only real option being the fairly mediocre Fire and Salt food van, I'm genuinely surprised it's taken this long for someone to jump on this trend up here.

The wait in Leeds on a Friday night for a table of 3 was quoted at a very reasonable 45 minutes (and was actually only 30) – just enough time to duck into Brewdog next door and try a few of that week's specials. I tucked into Cocoa Psycho, a delicious 10% imperial stout with a deep coffee and dark malt taste.

I've had Red's take on BBQ a couple of times before - once in the Brooklyn pop-up bar near Christmas last year, which involved a quick pulled pork burger among many, many pints of overpriced beer. The second time I was part of a group of 8 who (and there is no polite way to say this) shared two dustbin lids full of a variety of meats, this gave me a great taster of the variety of options on the menu (I still get the sweats just thinking about how much meat I stuffed into my mouth that day.) Thinking back now to both visits despite genuinely not being able to recall any specifics of the food itself, they were both enjoyable enough sessions. 

I didn't get involved in cocktails during this visit but tried a couple of their decent and heavily american influenced beer menu, fairly typical of these type of fast food places. I rolled with a Brooklyn Brown and a Honkers Ale.

Starters were deep fried poppers - red hot jalapeño peppers floating inside lava-like melted cream cheese that exploded everywhere as soon as I tried to take a bite. Extremely messy to eat but the coating had a real crunch and the peppers a lovely hot kick.

The dish of rib tips was the highlight of the entire meal. Fat, juicy tips from the end of the St Louis pork ribs, the tang from them being partially burnt dampened the sweetness of the sauce leaving an incredible sweet and savoury flavour.

A range of different mains were ordered between us to sample the menu. The pit burger came in a soft brioche bun loaded with pulled pork, bacon, cheese, what tasted like at least two different sauces (a ketchup of some kind and BBQ sauce) and two burgers. The bun and pork did exactly what was asked but the burgers were very flavourless and dry – unimpressive, thin and certainly more McDonalds than Almost Famous.

The 2 giant 'Jacobs Ladder' beef ribs were quite a talking point with the waitress doubting they’d get polished off – the photo evidence below tells you all you’ll need to know. The meat itself was incredible, literally dripping off the bones but the sauce was so, so, so sweet that it totally distracted from the flavour of the meat itself so sadly I had to share them out. 

Finally, the pulled pork and brisket sharing plate with apple sauce. The consistency and flavour of the two meats was different enough to keep the plate interesting and was complimented well by the apple sauce and really crunchy coleslaw. Good but nothing spectacular.

Sides were entirely disappointing – fries were anaemic (see photo above) and not salted enough, sweetcorn was soggy without that essential crunch and the mac and cheese was watery.

By this stage I’d worked by way though the five sauce options and was developing a near addiction to the mustard based BBQ sauce, an absolutely perfect mild sauce that added a genuinely enjoyable flavour. The others covered all bases between more of the sickly sweet BBQ to the usual hot sauce - not hot enough to break you out into a sweat but hot enough to add a kick to the meat.

None of the desserts appealed so I had a bag of beef jerky to take away and which was like digging into a mouthful of sea salt - I had to bin half of it as I could feel my kidneys giving way with every mouthful.

I left comfortably full but not overly wowed by any element of the meal aside from the starter of tips. The main beef ribs came very close to stealing the show but the sauce was just too sweet, if it had been toned back slightly they'd have been up there on my list of favourite UK meat treats.

As it's my third visit now it's difficult not to recommend Red's if you have a craving for a decent range of BBQ options, it's perfect fuel after a few beers. Definitely worth a try but try and catch them during a slower period as 2 hours is pushing it a bit, at least they have the courtesy to take your details and call you back so you can get to drinking elsewhere while you wait.