Posts Tagged ‘ribs’

After our final tournament day of the season, we (Leeds Samurai) stopped off in Skipton to visit the pirate-themed restaurant Calico Jack.

It was okay. I go the steak and ribs combo. The steak was over-cooked. I asked for it medium and you might be able to argue that it was medium-well if you were being generous, but I would not have argued if you had called it well done. The ribs were reasonably tender, but not a patch on Cattle Grid of TGI. Similarly I thought the coleslaw and potato wedges were just very average.

It’s a cool place to go, and everyone seemed to be happy with their meal. I feel there is definitely room for improvement food-wise though.

For my dad’s birthday we went to Cattle Grid in Leeds. We had ribs.

Last month, a paid a visit to one of the other Area 15 Toastmasters clubs, Doncaster Speakers.

Some of the other clubs I have visited have not been able to match the standards of Leeds City, but Doncaster did an excellent job – it was well organised, professional and entertaining. I also came away with a few ideas I’m considering for Leeds.

I did feel a little guilty about cleaning out their awards though – I took home the best table topics ribbon while Anthony, our Division Govenor and Leeds City member took home the best evaluator ribbon.

After the meeting, we decided to get some dinner locally, so wandered down the street until we came across a restaurant named Cactus Jack. It was American themed and did some amazingly tasty ribs – fall off the bone TGI style, but with more flavour! I think next time I visit Doncaster Speakers, it will be more accurate to say I’m visiting Cactus Jack’s, and stopping by Toastmasters on the way…

Last week, we all gathered round to watch the third most watched sporting event in the world – the Super Bowl.

Actually, I don’t know where those figures are from. The reality is, we have almost no idea what the most watched events in the world are, but if we did, it probably would point to the Olympics. But it’s safe to say a fair few people were watching with us.

While ultimately, my favourite team, the San Francisco 49ers, lost to the Baltimore Ravens, a good night was had by all, and no one went away bitter about the fact that the 49ers only lost because the judges refused to throw a flag for the blatant pass interference against Michael Crabtree on the 4th and goal that decided the match. No one.

As usual at these sorts of events, we made too much food, allowing us to spend another two days living off ribs and wings – and what a happy two days they were.

It is also worth noting that Chris Culliver netted himself $40,000 for his appearance – more than a lot of my friends earn in an entire year. I guess homophobia does pay after all. I hate it when life works out like that.

Last weekend, me and Elina went to Red’s True Barbecue for dinner. As you can see from my restaurant review, I wasn’t overly impressed. But, to their credit, they did literally provide a bucket of ribs.

Apparently, in there, every day is Friday. Except for us, it was a Monday. But now that me and Elina work over the road from each other, and TGI Friday’s is just next door, we decided to try it out for lunch (I have been to TGI before, but not in the past 15 years, which is quite a long time lol).

We both went for the ribs, which were good, but then given how close we live to Cattle Grid, it was always doomed to leave us a little disappointed. It didn’t help that they had run out of the beer glaze sauce, so we had to have the regular.

Service wasn’t too snappy either, so ended up getting back slightly late. It is otherwise very convenient for lunch though.

Rebecca, being very well to do, had recently mentioned that she had been invited to the launch part of Rib Shakk, a new restaurant slash takeaway which was opening up in the basement of the Corn Exchange, alongside Piazza by Anthony.

So, when hungry one Sunday night, and being inspired by seeing Norm watching Man v Food, I decided to head down there to try out some of their ribs.

When I arrived there was only one group in the restaurant and with nobody else in sight they seemed to have more staff than customers. It’s no surprise really. There is no mention of the place on the Corn Exchange, nor any on the website for Anthony’s Restaurant (I’m not entirely sure if they are linked or not). Their website simply says “under construction” and there is no signage outside. I would have gone before, to be honest, but I didn’t believe it was really there.

Not to mention that googling their name doesn’t help because you put “rib shack” into a search engine and they are nowhere to be seen due to their unconventional choice of spelling. However, I eventually managed to stumble over their Facebook and Twitter pages.

I opted for their meatier rips with a classic BBQ sauce. They were excellent, they are some of the meatiest ribs I have ever had, though I was a little disappointed by the BBQ sauce which wasn’t quite as special as I was hoping for.

Overall, I would probably go back, as the price is comparable to Nando’s – around £10 for a half rack and two sides. That said though, for another £5 I could pick up a full rack from Cattle Grid next door, and their baby back rips really are amazing.

Recently, a new steak restaurant named Cattle Grid opened inside Waterloo House at the back of the Corn Exchange in Leeds. They have a number of restaurants in London, and I believe this is their first outside the capitol.

So, last week, myself, Norm, George and James headed down for a reunion of the steak based man date club, to try it out.

It’s good. Very good. I had the ribs. They were immense!

I haven’t had a steak yet as I couldn’t fit one in for dessert, but I’m looking forward to it as from the judgements of everyone else, they stack up well against the competition. The ribs were excellent though, almost as good as the ones I had in Edinburgh, which were the best ribs I ever had – so we’re talking very good!

Already looking forward to our next visit. Bring on the steak…