• Added: 22nd of June 2008
• Area: Leeds
• Category: Restaurants

Leeds LS1 6EA
0113 245 5922

Jono said
lunch at anthony's
Having heard mixed reviews and being a self confessed food fanatic this restaurant had me extremely intrigued.

So on a return trip to my home town my girlfriend and i decided to give it a go.

It was midweek at the back end of january and as we were only on a short visit to leeds we could only find the time to go for lunch.

On arrival, we were greeted with a smile, had our coats taken and then showed downstair's to our table. First impressions of the dining room were a little mixed.....
Somewhat stylish but at the same time a little bleek with a hint of pretention.

On a matter of attention to detail or lack of... we couldn't miss the big clumps of dust that smothered the shelves carrying the awards.

At the table we were politley handed the menus followed by the complementary bread and amuse bouche...
The bread was fantastic, accompanied by 3 different flavoured butters - salt, parmesan and buerre noisette - all great.

I began to feel excited,if a chef can make bread and butter taste this good then what could one do with a whole menu.

Then the amuse arrived, a cured tuna dish which sadly did nothing but leave a extremley salty taste and a feeling of disapointment. The amuse is designed to wake up the palate and set the tone for whats to follow, unfortunatley this set the wrong tone!

Still feeling quite optomistic, we chose the set lunch menu. To start i had a cauliflower soup with wendsleydale fitters - delicious. My girlfriend had crab meat with chicken wings and tomato spuma - an odd combonation but she claimed it worked...

For mains i had crisp pork belly - lovely. My girlfriend had plaice with oxtail and hazelnut jelly - Not popular to say the least.

Techinically, everything was well done and i don't doubt the talent in the kitchen and admire the ability of a kitchin which constantly pushes boundaries, but i couldn't help in thinking that maybe he's just trying a little too hard.

The service was okay but i could detect a slight arrogance which was unnecessary considering we were joined by only one other table in the dining room.

Lunch for 2 - all in all it came in just under £50 with drinks.

Will be returning soon to try the evening menu.