The Tetley - Leeds

 

 The Tetley was right across the street from our flat in Leeds and I took many pictures of it from our balcony. When we first arrived in Leeds, the building was undergoing a renovation and it opened at the end of November as a museum, art space, bar and restaurant. We finally ate there just days before leaving Leeds, we decided we owed it to the wonderful staff working there. We had visited once before and had a beer at the bar, while the manager explained the menu and beers to us. We decided to go back one afternoon to share a sandwich for a light snack.

 We sat on the bar side, a large open space with plenty of tables, and ordered at the bar. We decided to share the Drunken Grilled Cheese and Roasted Artichoke w/Sage Sandwich (5.50 pounds) and a side of Proper Chips for 3 pounds. The food was amazing, that grilled cheese would be pretty hard to top and the chips were crispy and hot. The staff was very good and very accommodating. The Tetley beers were good too!

They are located on Hunslet Rd. Leeds. LS10 1JQ 0113-320-2323
www.thetetley.org

Herby Chicken and Butter Bean Soup

I came across this recipe in the February 2014 edition of BBC Good Food. I made a few changes to the recipe, but I'm sure it's pretty close to the original. I know I complained some about how hard it was finding ingredients for my recipes while in England, but the same thing happens here. When I went to my local Price Chopper, there were no butter beans! If you need black beans, pinto beans, baked beans or pork and beans, then Price Chopper is the place to shop. I ended up at Hy-Vee where they actually carry butter beans and I was able to make the soup. This is a good soup, especially when the weather is so cold. Serve it up with a nice green salad and some warm bread.

Herby Chicken & Butter Bean Soup

4 chicken thighs
1.5 liters chicken stock
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
3-4 sprigs each rosemary, sage and thyme, leaves picked and chopped
2 tsp. each ground cumin and coriander
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. anise seeds
400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle both sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper, place on baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes. When the chicken is cooked, remove meat from bones and shred.
Meanwhile, heat oil in large sauce pan. Add onion and cook for 10 minutes until starting to carmelize. Add carrots, herbs and spices and stir for 2 minutes to toast the spices. Add the stock, shredded chicken and butter beans, cook, covered for 30 minutes. Using an immersion blender and blitz the soup, leaving partly chunky. Add thawed peas, heat through and serve.

The Handmade Burger Co. - Leeds

The Handmade Burger Co. in Trinity Leeds serves up a pretty good burger. They are similar to Nando's Chicken Restaurant - Leeds , in that hybrid fast-food restaurant style of being seated with menus, ordering at a window and having the food brought to you. The night that we ate there, the service was outstanding, much better than some of the better places in town. The burgers are char grilled, grass-fed, Scottish beef and are really good. They have over 40 choices, so the options are pretty limitless. I ordered the American Cheese Burger (8.25 pounds) which came with Swiss cheese, onion rings, handmade gherkin & American mustard relish, mayo, lettuce, tomato and red onion. Dan had the Avocado and Bacon (7.95) with crushed avocado, smoked bacon, handmade burger relish, mayo, lettuce, tomato and red onions. We ordered a side of Fresh Cut Cajun Spiced Chips for 3.35, which were nice and crispy. For the chips we ordered 3 dipping sauces for 2.25; chipotle-mayo, garlic-mayo and blue cheese-mayo. The blue cheese-mayo was not good, but the other 2 were. We drank a couple of ice cold Stellas for 3.55 a piece. All in all, not a bad place to eat.

They are located on the top floor of trinity Leeds Unit R5b trinity East Leeds LS1 5ER.

www.handmadeburger.co.uk

 

Kirkstall Abbey - Leeds

Kirkstall Abbey, the ruins of a Cistercian Monastery founded in 1152 and surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539, one of my favorite places to visit in Leeds.

Watch for the upcoming BBC 7 part series of Jonathan Strange and Dr. Norrell as the chapter house, seen in the 2 following photos, turns into a library of exploding books.

 

 

 



M & S Woodfired Margherita Pizza

One of our favorite things to eat while in Leeds, were M & S Woodfired  Margherita Pizzas. We typically picked one up at the little M & S Food store outside of the Leeds' train station on our way back from a weekend trip. They are located in the fresh food aisle along with other pizzas, but we found that the flavors of this pizza were very to close to the pizzas from our home favorite Pizza Bella. The crust is chewy and thin topped with a light tomato and basil sauce. Which is then topped with buffalo mozzarella and roasted Sicilian cherry tomatoes. Twelve minutes in the oven and dinner is ready, brilliant! We will definitely miss this quick pick me up.

Bibis Italianissimo - Leeds

 

 Bibis was a restaurant that people Dan worked with had recommended. Needless to say, we ate there the first month we were in Leeds and I am just now writing it up. I, personally would not recommend this place, unless you sat in the bar and ordered apps and drinks. The pizza was good as were the Prawns Diavola, but the meal it self was bad and overpriced. The Pollo Parmigiana that I ordered was down right disgusting and pretty much inedible. The eggplant was slimy and the chicken was a little on the strange side, I never could figure out how they cooked it. Dan had the Tortellini Carne and it was just okay. The service was slow and inattentive, I suppose that's why they automatically add the gratuity. That in itself is reason enough not too eat there. They do serve Peroni Gran Reserva, which is a plus and a wonderful beer, but not enough to get me back. The meal came to 66 pounds, which is 90 American, that's way to expensive for bad Italian!

 

Las Iguanas - Leeds

Las Iguanas is one of those places I have walked by many times, but never thought of eating there. They are a chain of restaurants offering Latin food, including Spanish and Mexican. Dan and I have been craving Mexican food and this looked to be about as close as we could get in Leeds. We decided to eat lunch here on Christmas eve and it was okay. Zara was our server and she was friendly and efficient as she presented us with about 3 menus. Dan ordered a hot tea (1.90 pounds) and I had a Brahma Beer (3.70). Ordering the food was a little on the confusing side, there were so many choices. I don't know how a restaurant can offer so many things. We chose off the lunch menu with me ordering the Blazing Bird (7.70) a half chicken grilled with spicy barbecue jerk sauce and a side of slaw and salad. Dan had the Gringas (5.50), which was a tortilla upon another tortilla stuffed with Tinga (Mexican smoked chipotle chicken). He was able to order a side of Nachos for 2.90 that we both shared. The nachos were very good, topped with melted cheese, jalapenos, salsa, sour cream and guacamole. The rest of the food was okay and did not quench our appetite for Mexican.

Unit 3
Cloth Hall Street
Leeds
LS1 2HD
Tel: 0113 243 9533
Fax: 0113 244 3696
leeds@iguanas.co.uk

It Bar and Food Joint - Leeds

 

 

Nice, big, messy, tasty, really good burgers from It Bar and Food Joint! Today, Dan and I had the chance to go to lunch and I have been bugging him about this place for a while. They followed me on Twitter and after checking out their menu I really wanted to try them out. Lucky for us, Mondays are 1/2 price food day, so we walked out paying less than 20 pounds for the meal. Good food and a bargain can't be beat!

When you walk in, you pick a table and order at the bar when you're ready. You also get a little bag of kettle corn to start with and I have been craving pop corn since we've been here, so another point for me. Today the young lady working the bar was very friendly and told us her favorite burgers were the Filthy Pig and the 8 Hours of Sloppy Joe, so that's what we ordered along with an Onion Tower. The Onion Tower was a stack of milk and spice marinated red onion slices, lightly floured and deep fried. These things were melt in your mouth brilliant! Dan had the Sloppy Joe burger and it was amazing. It was topped with 8 hour slow cooked chilli, cheese sauce, sour cream, lettuce and tomato. He loved it! I had the Filthy Pig and loved it too. It was topped with homemade BBQ pulled pork, coleslaw, streaky bacon, red onion, tomato and lettuce. Both burgers were a mouthful and we ended up knife and forking them. We asked to have them cooked medium-well and they came out perfectly.
Dan drank a diet coke, while I had an ice-cold Peroni. All that for under 20 pounds is unheard of here. Especially since the service and food were both outstanding.
You can find them at 57-59 New Briggate Leeds LS2 8JD  0113-246-9080
www.itbars.co.uk

Chaophraya - Leeds

We ate at Chaophraya back on the 14th of November and I am just now writing it up. I really don't like to waste my time on bad meals or places that I would never return, but here goes. We were seated at a little table in the back of the beautiful restaurant, right at the servers station. We were promptly greeted by a server who took our beer and starter orders. We ordered Singha, a beer from Thailand and very good (3.75pounds). Our starter was the Chicken spring rolls (6.95) which were also very good. They also set a bowl of shrimp? chips on the table with some of their very good sweet chilli sauce. The chips were okay, just not something Dan and I really cared for.

Another server took our dinner orders, Dan chose the  Lamb Massaman Curry (10.95), which she told him he could order with any meat and he went with chicken and he ordered a side of Steamed organic rice (3.55). I love Spicy Beef and basil fried rice and knew this was what I wanted. It was denoted as a Chef's Signature Dish and Staff's Favorite Dish, how could I be wrong?! The dish was terrible. The rice was so over cooked and mushy that it was inedible, Dan's rice was also over cooked. Since no one came to the table during the meal, I picked out the beef and ate it, leaving the rest. When a server finally showed up, Dan told her that the rice was inedible, she apologized and said she would talk to a manager and the chef. A few minutes later she showed up with the ticket, all items accounted for and no show from the manager. Needless to say we paid the bill (75 American dollars!!) and left.
Dan wrote a letter to corporate about the experience and they apologized and asked us to come back and give them a second chance. We just figured that we could wait until we got home and eat at LuLu's Noodle Shop for some good Thai.