Posts Tagged ‘steak’

With Si heading down south like a coward, we recently headed over to Little Tokyo for a meal.

Having asked for a knife and fork last time and been provided with kid’s chopsticks, I decided this time it was best to take my own, just in case. Luckily I ordered the steak and that comes with a knife and fork, so problem solved :D.

On Friday, myself, Norm and George headed back to Gattle Grid for some more steak.

Having had the ribs last time I opted to try the steak this time, though I was somewhat torn because the ribs were amazing. They are definitely the best thing on the menu, once again being bigger than the plate when Norm’s meal was delivered.

The steak was excellent, so not quite up to the standards of Blackhouse. For the price though, you can’t really go wrong.

On Norm’s (almost) actual birthday we headed down to River Plate for a good piece of steak.

Having already pre-decided, Norm went for the 1kg steak! It covered an entire dinner plate and to be honest, I think we all had our doubts as to whether it could physically be eaten by one man – never the less, Norm stepped up to the challenge and defeated it.

I decided a smaller steak would be a good call – especially as I was having half a rack of ribs to start with! Plus having only eaten what could be considered two meals in itself, I still had some room for dessert.

Overall, however, I was somewhat disappointed with River Plate. It was excellent, but it didn’t live up to my expectations given previous experiences. The judge’s verdicts are in, and Blackhouse is officially the best steak restaurant in Leeds.

Having hit Fazenda last month, and then again a few weeks ago, I took one more trip there recently, to celebrate Jonni’s birthday.

As usual, they delivered some good meat, though with us being there on a Tuesday, they seem to suffer from a lack of turn over, as the meat was often slow coming. This was a little disappointing, though ultimately we ate to bursting point, so we didn’t have any less food.

We also got a free cocktail for checking in – they weren’t shy with the alcohol either.

I think it clearly has a critical mass point though, so if you’re going to go, I would recommend going on a Saturday evening when there are plenty of people and plenty of meat coming round.

Last week, we headed over to Trio for a bit of a work social. Despite making it clear that partners were invited, but not welcome, it somehow quickly turned into a bit of a couples-fest and as a possible first for Buzz, actually ended up with an equal gender balance.

The drinks were good. Their Rekorderlig was a bit of a rip-off, they had a “special offer” of bottles for £2.50, but it wasn’t the kind of bottle you would expect if you got a bottle of Kopparberg, it was a small beer style bottle.

Far more importantly, however, we were there for the two for one cocktails.

These started well, they had a menu but the first bartender we got was willing to mix up anything and I was soon sipping on an apricot martini. The second bartender we got was far more disappointing, however, despite working at a cocktail bar, he had never even heard of a sloppy joe, let alone being willing to mix one. Service was at least reasonably speedy, however.

The restaurant was far more of a disappointment. Despite charging almost £20 for a fillet steak, it couldn’t even compete with the likes of Brooklyn Bar or The Restaurant, let alone Blackhouse or Cattle Grid, all of which are cheaper, despite being in the city centre!

All in all, a good place to go for cocktails, but I can’t recommend eating there.

Last week, I took Elina for a romantic night’s food shopping. Came back from Marko with 16 steaks, 30 bottles of Kopparberg and a box of chocolate bars. Job done :D.

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…

On Sunday, my sister was in town so we headed down to Fazenda for a family meal.

Fazenda is a Brazilian meat restaurant where you get a plate and help yourself to the salad bar, then they just come round with big slabs of meat and carve a slice off onto your plate. There are lots of different ones including beef, pork and chicken and you have a traffic light card with you turn to green when you want meat and red when you don’t.

Sounds good, but to be honest, I wasn’t overly impressed.

The food itself was good quality but as it’s all from large cuts you have to take it as you get it, whereas obviously when eating at a steak restaurant you can have it cooked to your liking. Also, the traffic light cards seem somewhat redundant as they just tend to ask you every time they come round.

Not that I didn’t enjoy it, it was excellent, but I wouldn’t say it was as good as say Blackhouse, and is similarly priced.

While I naturally dislike Sweden because I’m conjugally obligated to, I have to admit they make very good cider.

Last Tuesday we headed down to The Victoria for the usual A-Soc weekly social. However their otherwise well stocked drinks cabinet was missing the always popular Kopparberg. The surprisingly friendly barmaid recommended Rekorderlig instead, another Swedish cider.

Turns out it’s very similar, instead similar enough that I probably couldn’t tell the difference between it and summer fruits Kopparberg. They also had steak, though it was somewhat more expensive than ‘Spoons and not quite as good. Of course you’re setting unreasonable expectations to compare anything to my love of ‘Spoons but a good effort anyway.

Last week, Atheist Society were taking it easy during the exam period, with a screening of the film Saved. It has an important moral message – that we need to book Michael into Mercy House. He didn’t seem to keen on the idea though.

Afterward, we headed down to Stick or Twist, where I enjoyed a free mixed grill after having filled out all the required stamps on my loyalty card 😀 .