Posts Tagged ‘steak’

Having decided to stage a curry night to discuss some of the pressing issues for Leed Skeptics I set about trying to find us a nice restaurant to enjoy said curry. I eventually settled on Cafe Guru – but they were full so we went to Chaophraya instead.

Luckily, they didn’t disappoint either. The service was excellent and the restaurant was well fitted out. It was however very easy and the place itself was quite cramped with the amount of tables they were fitting into the size space. In reality though, it’s hard to fault a place with does a Thai curry sauce, in a Yorkshire pudding, on a steak.

James gave the place a similar thumbs up though having later spoken to Gijsbert about it, he said that he had a good experience the first time but since then it has been poor – maybe we need a second visit to get a more well rounded view, which definitely sounds like an excuse to go back.

While wandering around, trying to find an open pub at 11am on the Saturday morning we found a place which described itself as the “home of beef”. We decided this was something we really couldn’t ignore and so headed back there in the evening to check it out and grab some dinner.

The food was good but not great – it was very reasonably priced given that it was 400g of steak which was very well cooked but nothing compared to the great steaks I have had in Leeds. So worth checking out but no replacement for a proper steakhouse.

Following on from Andrew Copson’s talk on the Wednesday of Reason Week, we headed to Sam’s Chop House for dinner.

I was initially a little sceptical, especially given they didn’t book my salmon (on purpose, I presume), but once we tucked into the steaks, it turned out to be an excellent choice. Not quite up to the standard of the steak powerhouses in Leeds, but I would say it easily topped Brooklyn and The Restaurant. The sides were excellent as well as was the desert which featured no less than three different types of chocolate-based baked product.

It was reasonably pricey, but no more so than The Restaurant, and I would definitely return there given the quality of good – and hopefully next time I go they won’t have run out of chops. Rather a big omission given the name of the restaurant!

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.

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.

Earlier this evening Jonni dragged us out to Eccup so we could have dinner at a pub named the New Inn which he had been raving about for a while.

It was a bit of a mission to find. Having headed up Scott Hall Road I ended up on some windy country lane which was only one car wide and had trees overgrowing, entirely blocking out the sky making it feel like the Forest of Fangorn. Having got through that we eventually found what I can only describe as being similar to Westfall at night with no lights and just the occasional rustic farm signpost.

Never the less we eventually found the place and ordered ourselves up a couple of 16oz t-bone steaks. The photo really doesn’t do them justice, we spend a good 30 minutes going at them and what was left at that point still looked like an entire meal. Ignore the massive onion rings, compare the size of the plate to Kat’s meal behind. Needless to say, I was eventually defeated (which to be honest, I’m quite proud as, as I actually managed to tell myself to stop eating because I was full lol).

When I went to bed on Sunday night I wondered if I would feel any different turning 23.

Turns out I would feel much worse as I woke up the next morning with my cold having returned with avengence. Still I eventually dragged myself out of bed and got as far as sitting on top of my bed for another few hours until I felt good enough to move.

Luckily Michelle was here to cheer me up so we headed into down to grab some lunch ending up at Brio in The Light which did a rather nice Italian roast chicken dish.

This left me with an afternoon of taking it easy on my birthday and as such I headed home for a business meeting. Well, sort of anyway, myself and Norm had a teleconference with the BHA so we could consult on Humanist Week 2010 – exciting times and all that.

Finally in the evening we headed down to River Plate on The Calls which served some absolutely amazing steaks including my delicious fillet and George’s huge 700g cow. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a great restaurant though obviously it’s Calls prices. We managed to balance the night out by ending at ‘Spoons though so all was good.

Last night saw the usual weekly A-Soc summer social at the Cuthbert Brodrick for much steak and drinking. As ever a good time was bad by all, except Rich, who we managed to drive crazy with talk about the logo. On the plus side however, Kate and Steven are now “official” according to Rich.

Interestingly Sophie couldn’t make it and Paul cancelled on us at the last minute leading us to the conclusion that Paul is actually in control of, and indeed has been in control of, the society all along through his puppets, myself, Norm and now Sophie. We always suspected, but never guessed…

Sunday lunch took the usual form of heading down to the Cuthbert Brodrick for some steak. It’s go great that we can all get together once a week and spend our time together each on our own smart phones browsing the web :D. Good times!

Tuesday night was the usual A-Soc social though attendance was a bit slow to pick up – it starts at 7pm and people actually waited until then to turn up. So myself and Tom having got there at 6:20 because I expected people to already be there by then had a bit of a wait for company. It did however provide a rather nice gap for us to sink a few first.

Reassuringly, Paul put in an appearance having been missing for the previous few weeks so it was good to see him again. And, as ever, the steak was very nice.