Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

With the anniversary of Arthur Fonzarelli having arrived once again, I organised a birthday meal at Piccolino. As it happened Fonze turned up late to his own birthday shin dig so we ended up eating the main course without him, but never the less we didn’t let his tardiness spoil our fun.

The restaurant was a reasonably up market place and this was evident from the pitiful amount of change I received back from my £10 note having ordered myself and Elina a drink.

The staff were friendly though it was sometimes a little hard to get their attention. Some of them didn’t seem to speak very good English which I always find a good sign in restaurants as it can often be because they’re actually from the country that the restaurant’s food style is based on, though of course equally it could be a placebo effect.

The food was nice, the portions were small but I didn’t come away from the meal still feeling hungry so no concerns there. I had the crispy duck for main which wasn’t actually that crispy but the sauce was excellent and duck is a fantastic meat in general. Piccolino’s real strength seems to be in it’s desserts however.

I enjoyed the meal, but given the above average bill which didn’t translate into above average food, I think I would pick one of the multitude of great restaurants in the city centre rather than heading back there any time soon.

At the end of March, we headed over to The Original Oak for Simon G’s leaving do.

Unfortunately, what we hadn’t factored in was the amount of end of term Otley Run’s which would be in there. Still, as time went on they moved on to later pubs and actually gave us chance to get somewhere near the bar.

It was disappointing to see Simon go as he had really come out of his shell since handing in his resignation and was actually a treasurer trove of interesting stories – not nearly as entertaining as those told by Disco Dave but then you get the sense that when Simon was telling a story, it was actually true (not that I’m saying Dave didn’t have a gunfight with a drug dealer in Nottingham…).

On the Tuesday night of Reason Week we dropped by Elettra’s place to drop off some equipment. She is living in Charles Morris which was recently renovated and is the poshest student hall I have ever seen – automatic doors and gates, automatic lights in her en-suite room, the masquerade ball and a 24 hour concierge desk!

Having not really done much with my Saturday other than try and get some work done, I decided to ask George out on a romantic man-date (which also would have involved Norm, but he hadn’t been paid yet).

We ended up at the recently opened Brooklyn Bar at the bottom of Call Lane, as they had a restaurant upstairs which looked good. The bar was well stocked as well – anywhere which stocks 42 Below and Belvedere gets a big thumbs up in my book.

The steak was very nice, but not amazing. It was reasonably well cooked and good quality meat, but can’t stand up to the amazing flavours of Blackhouse or River Plate. Never the less, I wouldn’t have any hesitation in eating there again.

Last Saturday we hit up Wendy House for a good old fashioned night out. The theme was in disguise to which some people really put the effort in – notably Viv who managed to survive a night in that outfit without slowly cooking herself, which is no mean feat.

I hadn’t blogged about it until now as I was waiting on someone to post some photos. The ones below were posted by Kat, and I have to say how impressed I am that someone managed to get into so many photos taken with her own camera lol.

Sunday finally marked the arrival of George’s long awaited fry up. Given there were five of us in the apartment, we ended up having a bit of a family style breakfast round the table. These are the days kids, these are the days.

I spent last Saturday at Spice Quarter, catching up with Si and Sarann.

A few things became apparent throughout the evening. Firstly, all you can eat buffets attract an interesting crowd. It is just packed with chavettes wearing what they consider to be high class outfits. I’m still not quite sure why.

Secondly, Si needs to move to the city centre. He is clearly wasting away out is Guiseley, and who cam blame him? There is nothing to do, nothing to see. He clearly needs to move to the city centre and live it up before he is too old. Oh when will we see the return of Crazy Party Si?

Despite his 11pm curfew, he certainly managed to exert his bad influence as both myself and Sarann went home rather drunk having worked our way though a number of jugs of cocktails at Ha Ha until we eventually got kicked out at closing time.

Blackhouse, along with River Plate, fights for the title of best steak restaurant in Leeds. So when we heard that they were doing 50% off food throughout January, there was only one thing to do – book a table and cash in on the offer by ordering two steaks each!

So on Monday myself, Norm, George and James returned to Blackhouse for some more amazing steak. The food didn’t disappoint, nor did the wine, and given the relatively cheap cost, it was a great night.

Last Sunday I went over to Jason and Sarah’s house for Sunday dinner.

It was nice to take a break from working as despite being out for a heavy night the previous evening, I was up and ready to work at 10am and didn’t finish until gone 2am. Dinner was excellent too, the food was delicious, especially their secret recipe for roast potatoes.

Having seen the house a few months ago when they had just bought it and were beginning renovations, it has really come along. It now looks like a real family house, in the suburbs, just round the corner from a school – it seems to me to be only a matter of time before we hear the pitter patter of tiny footsteps from Little Jason.

Last night we headed out to say goodbye to Craig, as well as welcoming a few new faces to the company. We started off at Cuthbert Brodrick which was crazy busy but awesome as always before heading to Red Hot World Buffet.

Even though our table wasn’t booked until 9:30, they didn’t get us sat down for over twenty minutes and then once we were sat down, they had the cheek to tell us ten minutes in that they would be closing the buffet at 11! Despite the food being excellent, this kind of service simply wasn’t on so after a quick chat with the manager we also found ourselves with a free round of drinks, which went quite a way to making up for it.

Afterward we hit Selabar followed by Smoke Stack, both great bars that I had never actually been to before and thanks to Rebecca’s contacts at Smoke Stack we managed to miss the queues and get some amazing drinks too – it’s quite nice having some Old Money in the office 😀 .