Anthony's, Leeds

[ravelda]

I was really pleased to hear that our former junior restaurant manager who left us earlier this year to go back to her home city of Leeds has now been made restaurant manger there. Well deserved as she was superb and had a fantastic wine knowledge. I will have to get myself back up there for a meal at some point soon. Will be interested to hear your review Oli

[Gary Marshall]

yes - she's good, we met her last time i think scott and sam are after some headhunting fees there!

give me a shout if you make it up.

[ravelda]

yes - she's good, we met her last time i think scott and sam are after some headhunting fees there! 

give me a shout if you make it up.

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Will do Gary - should be in the next month or two!! Sam and Scott were great actually - without them, her CV and my referance would have never made it to Anthony, so I know Emma and I for that matter owe them a huge thanks!

[olicollett]

OK, quick review -

Excellent. I went with the set lunch menu which was great value at £23 but I was both dissapointed and surprised by how quiet the restaurant was (only 4 other people eating from 12.30-1.30).

The pigs cheek with crispy pigs ears was superb to start with, a beautiful contrast of textures to go with the rich flavour from the cheek.

I went with the seared tuna with rhubarb for main - this was nice, although I think it missed that contrast of textures from the first course, and i wasn't convinced the foam was really necessary, but the presentation was fantastic.

Finished off with the chocolate rice pudding with peanut ice cream - this was spot on. Quite a contrast to the main course but hit the spot for me!

Service was very formal, which at times felt a bit odd because it was so quiet - it was one of those situations where it all goes really quiet when the waiter arrives at the table and you could hear a pin drop. Having said that, it was also faultless and I got the impression the restaurant would not seem any more flustered if packed to the rafters.

It seems a crime that this restaurant has not been deemed worthy of a michelin star. Whilst accolades are not everything, I'm sure it would do the restaurant no harm business wise.

Off to red chilli later now for yet another meal out, I think I'm turning into David Goodfellow

[Gary Marshall]

I was intending to go last friday lunchtime and have exactly that selection.

i also went to red chilli on sunday, spooky eh?

everywhere seems quiet at the moment unless they are offering a promotion, it's grin and bear it time. And holiday time too.

[olicollett]

I was intending to go last friday lunchtime and have exactly that selection.

i also went to red chilli on sunday, spooky eh? 

everywhere seems quiet at the moment unless they are offering a promotion, it's grin and bear it time. And holiday time too.

←

haha

I think my waistline is going to regret this week, found out my local gym is closed for 2 weeks and i've got a weekend of drinking and eating in belfast coming up!

[david goodfellow]

Well I finally got around to dining here today. I wish I had a quid for every time that we have considered it.Along with the River Cafe and St John,seems like we always end up somewhere else I can now finally put a tick in the box.

I'm sad to report that only two other tables were taken at todays lunch service, a sign of the times in recession hit Leeds.

Anthony was not in the kitchen, (I checked before I booked)but its his food on the plate, so he must trust his sous, so I was not that bothered.

I'm on a mission to find the best value/quality lunch, so was keen to put this to the test.

We started well with an amuse of very moist and tasty pork terrine, green olives, micro herbs and pistachio crumbs.

Its good to see a choice of three starter, main, and dessert, with a choice of cheese instead of dessert at no extra cost

Braised Pigs Cheek, Crispy pigs ears, peas, and rum.

Sous Vide Trout, Smoked Feta, Pickled celery.

I had the Pigs Cheek which was in a soup of jus, cream, and rum, although there was no hit of rum. ( I think the chef drank it ) There was a smattering of lemon balm leaves, and the peas of course giving it a bit of colour.

This was a very good dish and I was hoping the rest would be to this high standard.

The Trout was a pleasant starter, which my wife enjoyed, and it tasted good to me.

The bread was terrific, even Mrs G enjoyed it, served as a small loaf cut into six portions, this was one the best this year, and come to think of it the butter was excellent too.

Roast Cod, Mussel Chowder.

Confit Lamb Breast, Smoke Sprat, Lime bulgar.

My Cod was timed perfectly, again in a soup, with carrot, potato, and celery dice, baby gem lettuce, and more micro herbs.

The Lamb was rolled, crisp skinned, well tasty and sitting on a line of bulgar, which according to my wife soaked up too much of the meagre amount of jus. A veritable bush of mustard frills sat at the side, and the smoked sprat adjacent.

Loads of flavour from humble ingredients is essential at lunch service given the prices charged, and so far so good, except both mains were over seasoned, by quite a measure.That was a real shame because we were enjoying ourselves.

Chocolate Rice Pudding, Peanut Ice cream.

Cherry and Almond Fancy, Toasted Almond Ice cream, Balsamic dressing.

The rice pudding was a very good helping, dotted with peanut brittle, to give it crunch, sadly it did not do it for me, I only ate half of it including the ice cream. I think this is a first for me.

Mrs G enjoyed her dessert and cleared the plate, although we both thought the balsamic did not work.

I can understand all the attention this place gets, on this showing, and even though its lunch, we can see the quality, just a shame about the seasoning and that pud

2 x 3 course lunches £47.90

1 x btl Merlot £14.70

tip £7.40

Total £70

Yorkshire Water foc

[CalumC]

Will have to get along for dinner sometime soon, I check the menus most times I walk past.

As for Anthony's not being there, I believe he works at the Piazza most daytimes, I always seem to see him either getting stuck in to the baking or doing the 'businessman' thing when i'm in there.

[Gary Marshall]

He sets up for service at anthonys then heads to the piazza bakery, does evening service at anthonys then often back to the piazza!

And now working 7 days a week until xmas, more energy than most, that's for sure!

[david goodfellow]

He sets up for service at anthonys then heads to the piazza bakery, does evening service at anthonys then often back to the piazza!

And now working 7 days a week until xmas, more energy than most, that's for sure!

He's clearly doing a terrific job at the bakery, the bread we had was memorable, just wished we had bought some cakes on our visit.

By way of comparison we had bread at a Michelin starred place in London yesterday and it was very poor.

[Gary Marshall]

Well after nine years, (where did they go etc.) Anthony's is closing, but fear not, it is to be reprised and re-launched within the Corn Exchange in Leeds where Tony can keep his eye on both the piazza and Anthony's without having to sprint down the road.

Looks a very sensible move and one they mentioned years ago, Pool Court in Leeds had a similar set up of fine dining and brasserie which Tony has always fancied.

There will be a run in March of the classic Anthonys dishes of old and then on to the new. Exciting times!

[Plutocrat]

Terrible news.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2013/06/22/70-jobs-go-as-flockton-chef-anthony-flinn-s-leeds-restaurant-group-collapses-86081-33509262/

They are to make a statement on Monday.

[Harters]

Bad news. One of those places that I always promised myself to visit, but never got round to.

[Putty Man]

'this place pis*es all over the fat duck'

Can't help thinking that Flinn was a victim of the Matthew Effect. While Heston rose vertiginously to become the demiurge, Flinn, inversely vertiginously, slid into national obscurity. Shame really since, on paper at least, there wasn't much between the two.

[Gary Marshall]

Very sad indeed, having fought the recession this long to close as hopefully things are finally picking is up is a kick in the teeth.

The classic dishes menu at Anthony's was also interesting that despite being at the vanguard of creativity at the time, they hadn't dated, they were just great dishes and combinations.

I thought the move to the Corn Exchange would mean that his cooking finally got the surroundings it merited and would get the recognition it deserved, Boar Lane was never meant to be a long term site.

I'm sure Tony and the family will bounce back, but in the meantime it is no doubt a very depressing time for them and their c.70 staff.

[marcusjames]

I think the journalist from the Examiner's claim that, 'At just 33, he has already made a much bigger impact on the British restaurant industry than his peers Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay did in their early careers,' is the biggest load of bull$h!t journalism I've ever read. MPW got his 3rd star at 33, the youngest chef in the world (at that time) to ever to achieve the award. And Gordon wasn't far behind, I think RHR went 3 star when he 34.

Whilst this is sad news I'm not surprised. I went to Anthony's once and thought it a crashing dissapointment. That basement dining room was horrid and the experience average at best; some of the combinations really didn't work, the execution was dubious in a number of places and the service utterly sterile, bereft of any personality whatsoever. I never went back as a result and I'm the sort of punter who'd be most likely to, which speaks volumes. Putting my personal experience to one side, I suspect the lack of that first star (which again speaks volumes), coupled with the emergence and evolution of far better regional chefs such as Sat Bains, Glynn Purnell, Kenny Atkinson and Simon Rogan were the major contributions to drowning him out and losing his place in gastronomic consciousness.

Ironically, a second, decent starred restaurant in the Leeds area probably wouldn't have hurt either. People are far more likely to make a desitnation effort when they can combine, look no further than Bray / Marlowe, Edinburgh or Padstow / Rock as great examples.

[Gary Marshall]

Wow, that's a pretty mean spirited post.

Obviously hyperbole is to be expected from a local newspaper writing about a favoured son.

The point I think they are a little clumsily making is that Anthony hit the ground running at 23 iirc with his own restaurant and was the talk of the foodie world, with recognition from every national critic and guide bar Michelin, way before Gordon or Marco who at the same age were working under others, yes they gained kudos once established very quickly, Anthony gained other restaurants very quickly.

The business as a whole pulled Tony's attention away from fine dining alone, and the recession put paid to a planned move from the original Anthony's site which was only ever meant as a cheap start up and had obvious issues.

I don't think the other chefs you mention suddenly got a whole load better (or Tony got worse) as a result of him spending the last few years firefighting a large business on many fronts!

[Soundman]

Here's another mean spirited post, Anthony's just wasn't good enough. We tried all the various places a few times, only once had a good meal (At the one above the clothes shop, I forget what it was called) Apart from the one stand out time, there was always something wrong, most often terrible service, fairly often odd flavour combinations that just didn't work. We used to live a taxi ride from Leeds centre and would have loved to have loved Anthony's, but it just didn't cut it, and if we weren't prepared to travel 30 minutes, it's no surprise it never turned into somewhere people would travel further to.

[Gary Marshall]

Haha, glad to see everyone's popped the brave pills and suddenly become so precsient in their thoughts to have predicted the demise of anthony's!

I think there's a confusion of the issues here, the closure of the business involved 3 businesses, the pattisserie, anthony's and the piazza.

Now i'm not privvy to the numbers but i'd wager that the cause of the problem wasn't anthony's or the pattiserie but the piazza- corn exchange, so to start blaming the wacky combinations , the decor etc at anthonys is pretty pointless if the biggest business in the group isn't doing the numbers and pulls everything down well that's the issue, i don't think anyone in the flinn family would deny that Anthonys fine dining suffered because of the other interests, but once you're committed to a lease and costs of a property like the corn exchange and a recession hits you've got to manage your way out of it, and it looked like they'd done it.

Relocating anthonys made sense, out of another lease , a proper setting and Tony fired up again, but Trinity opening and everyone trying the new places probably was the final nail. That's the shame, to have got this far and be tripped up just as it looked like things were improving.

I take your one/several meals that gave the impression is wasn't all that (hence the inevitable demise naturally) and raise you the 30 - 40, maybe 50 i've had, often in the company of some of the most knowledgable foodies/chefs in the food world,( that i've paid for too,) and rest in the comfort that i know on his day Tony's up there with the best, so he gone bust? That unfortunately is not an unusal position for a chef/restaurant to find himself in, it isn't a call on ability, Pierre Gagnaire gained stars in st etienne, went bust relocated to Paris , rest is history, and whilst i'm at it, you all must know about the Fat Duck's earlier financial problems?

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/14/world/europe/heston-blumenthal-fat-duck/index.html

[Soundman]

Calm down dear!

I just said that in the bigger picture, that in my fairly well informed view, but obviously not as well informed as you, Anthony's simply wasn't good enough to survive. I did start to write something about the Corn Exchange, expanding too quickly etc etc, but I'm a diner, not a restauranteur.

[RDB]

I think it is a shame that this has happened to Anthony, his family and the staff. Whether I liked the flagship restaurant is irrelevant, at the end of the day this is a lot of peoples livelihood and hard work ruined.

Sometimes this gets forgotten.

I suppose

Calm down dear!

I just said that in the bigger picture, that in my fairly well informed view, but obviously not as well informed as you, Anthony's simply wasn't good enough to survive. I did start to write something about the Corn Exchange, expanding too quickly etc etc, but I'm a diner, not a restauranteur.

[Peter Green]

I'd weigh in on the positively negative side.

I was at the Corn Exchange a couple of years back, and had a very good meal, and an extremely positive chat with Anthony's dad. I'm sorry to see them go, as I was hoping to return to Leeds next year, and do more time in his restaurants.

As with most biases, my dislike of heading to Leeds was poorly founded. It was a good trip.

However, the business is the business (as his dad would say), and if you're not making money at it, then you have to question why you're there.

Still, I liked his food.

I'll be interested in hearing what they do next.

[marcusjames]

Look, I used to work in the industry and didn't want to be mean spirited, I merely said I didn't think it much of a surprise based on my experience there. I do sympathise with all the issues regarding livelyhood etc.

I agree the Corn Exchange was a bigger venture and may have had more to do with pulling the overall house down from a business model point of view, but these sort of empires are built on flagships and Anthony's buzz and reputation died out way too soon. Had the fine dining gained a star, or his TV exposure continued, there's a strong arguement the CE may have ridden its coat tails as is usually the way.

I do still stand by my comment about some of his regional peers being much, much better though.

[alex chef]

having eaten at Anthony's sevral times, some great, some not so, i'm very saddened to hear this news.

Having said that, the last time i went was a valentines day treat with a stay ina hotel and brunch the next day at the piazza. dinner was ok at best service was pretty shoddy (my then fiancee was a restaurant manager, picked up on loads of problems and faults!) and the brunch at the piazza was simply terrible on every level.

Don't get me wrong i've taken some very good chef's and FOH staff and they have all said how impressed they were. However, in recent years the likes of Sat Bains, Glynn Purnell et al have simply surpassed Mr. Flinn by miles.

Sad times though, and very sorry to see the business fail, although i'm sure he will be back.