Anthony's, Leeds

[YKL]

enjoy !

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and you know what? I most certainly did enjoy my journey into chocolate!!

I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who may be visiting soon so SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING THE CHOCOLATE DESSERT

... but it was delicious. All four parts of it. From memory there was a homage to the ferrero rocher chocolates which was a light and frothy chocolate mouse with some hazelnut (?) base at the botttom, a perfect morsel of coffee and chocolate cake, a glorious chocolate fondant which just melted in your mouth (seemed to be similar to the chocolate fondant they used to have?) and then my favourite - an ickle ice lolly stick of chocolate icecream, with a thick covering of chocolate and nibs of hazelnuts .. reminded me of Big Feast ice-creams although that's probably more revealing about my childhood. Holly had said that it was a journey into four countries - but I couldn't figure out what that was.

There was so much richness on the plate that I had to enlist the help of my friend to finish it. Which may explain why she managed to leave her mobile behind - but marvellous people that they are - they figured out that this is what happened, and rang me the next day so that I could arrange collection on Tuesday. Which was actually another excuse to stay for dinner because they had a last minute cancellation - hurrah!

Superlative black pudding starter and delicious venison for my main, and the pineapple and olive tatin was remarkably successful. So if you haven't been yet - why not?!

Cheers

Yin

[MobyP]

Yin - are you a Leedsy sort? I fort you were farva Saf.

[Gary Marshall]

enjoy !

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. Holly had said that it was a journey into four countries - but I couldn't figure out what that was.

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It is because the chocolate has been sourced from around the world, well four different countries with the highest cocoa %.

i suspect this will be on our list to try on saturday, perhaps with a big desert wine mmmm- desert wine. (can you tell i've not had a drink for a week, think i might try and hang on another week until my anthony's trip )

[YKL]

Yin - are you a Leedsy sort? I fort you were farva Saf.

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Yep, living and (mostly!) working in Leeds ... although I grew up in Birmingham - so maybe that's why you thought I was from somewhere else.

cheers

Yin

[BertieWooster]

(can you tell i've not had a drink for a week, think i might try and hang on another week until my anthony's trip  )

I managed all the way from New Year's Day till, uhhr, Tuesday this week without a drop of alcohol touching lip, palate, throat or anywhere else. Then I got given this redundancy package, and it seemed rather a waste not to spend some of it on liquid clear king alcohol. Ah, hangovers, how I've missed them...

[Suzi Edwards]

Didn't really like Anthony's. Not a popular opinion I'm guessing but I thought it lacked consistency and atmosphere and he service was pretty poor despite good intentions, some excellent technique and some interesting food. I guess I need to write about it, but I'm more interested in writing about places I like, not places I don't like.

Overall, I'm not surprised it didn't get a star and I came away feeling that I had travelled a long way for a not great meal. My brother was flabbergasted that I'd taken him there. The last place I took him to was WD-50 and he was scared and amazed in equal measures.

Could just be one of those meals where expectations were sky high though, so maybe they never had a chance of delivering. I also know that I've been spoiled recently. Maybe I need to recalibrate my expectations :-)

[Gary Marshall]

what did you have suzi?

cheers

gary

[Scottf]

Overall, I'm not surprised it didn't get a star and I came away feeling that I had travelled a long way for a not great meal. My brother was flabbergasted that I'd taken him there. The last place I took him to was WD-50 and he was scared and amazed in equal measures.

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Having been to both myself in the last couple of months, which was my 3rd visit to WD-50 and my 4th visit to Anthony's I can't have them in the same ball park. Anthony's is to my mind superior technique wise as well as deliciousness wise.

Interestingly a NY ex-poster, who's a regular at WD-50 accompanied me to Anthony's last year and came away with the same thoughts as mine.

[Dirk Wheelan]

I was impressed by my meal at Anthony's, I felt the food was excellent, i.e. 'modern delicious', rather than 'molecular pretentious'. However, the newness of the operation and the strain of very early (and deserved success) was palpable in the service, despite good intentions.

It's not, to me at least, surprising that there are one or two negative comments to made about Anthony's, it's a really new operation. What's really surprising is that, given its newness, negative comments are so few and far between.

[Scottf]

It's not, to me at least, surprising that there are one or two negative comments to made about Anthony's, it's a really new operation. What's really surprising is that, given its newness, negative comments are so few and far between.

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Agreed.

[Gary Marshall]

It's not, to me at least, surprising that there are one or two negative comments to made about Anthony's, it's a really new operation. What's really surprising is that, given its newness, negative comments are so few and far between.

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I've often mentioned this, and although they've come a long way in a short time, it is still a very young restaurant, it's not a year old, it is tony's first head chef postion, holly's first restaurant job and tony snr's first restaurant. Only recently has the kitchen got its full complement of chefs -still only 3, and front of house dining room is essentially only olga and some new staff that are learning the ropes.

although now often compared to the likes of the fat duck, at the same point in his career heston was knocking out lemon tarts and steak and bearnaise (probably -the fat duck was a frenchy bistro styley when it opened)

going saturday looking forward to it

cheers

gary

[Dirk Wheelan]

although now often compared to the likes of the fat duck, at the same point in his career heston was knocking out lemon tarts and steak and bearnaise (probably -the fat duck was a frenchy bistro styley when it opened) 

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It really was like this and, imho, this was when it was at its best. I used to live nearby and I wouldn't be surprised if I was among the first hundred customers, lemon tart, parfait of foie gras, steak and chips with bone marrow sauce etc. I was quite a regular.

Compared to the FD, Anthony's has hit the ground running, but when the buzz wears off I hope the team will be able to sustain the initial interest without succumbing to gimmicks, a la Heston. It would be a shame if Anthony Flinn turned out to be yet another chef who looked upon cooking as just a waystage in personal promotion. Hopefully, he'll be more Shaun Hill then Heston or Gordon.

[BertieWooster]

Are you there in the evening on Saturday Gary?? We've got a 2pm booking.

[Gary Marshall]

Are you there in the evening on Saturday Gary?? We've got a 2pm booking.

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i'll be there then, table of 5, come and say hello!

cheers

gary

[SamanthaF]

Are you there in the evening on Saturday Gary?? We've got a 2pm booking.

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i'll be there then, table of 5, come and say hello!

cheers

gary

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1 bird, 4 geezers - you won't be able to miss us.

[Gary Marshall]

1 bird, 4 geezers - you won't be able to miss us.

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yes, we'll be the quiet table in the corner

gary

[BertieWooster]

we'll be three blokes and one (birthday) girl. Some of us will have sideburns, some of us won't.

We will not be quiet.

At all...

[Gary Marshall]

A very enjoyable lunch on Saturday in the company of scott, sam, robin majumdar and our resident 'super taster'-let's call him 'Mr X' who was fresh from giving heston a critical overview and lesson in cooking foie gras the day before! we were all eagerly anticipating the first real blow out of the year from Tony & co.

A swift livener in All Bar One, with as predicted by scott a bloody mary for me, the non-drinking coming to an abrupt stop the evening before!

Anthony’s was looking quite busy and mr x had a flight back to france to continue his culinary oddessey so we got stuck in straight away.

Given the 3 star background of many of the staff, they have brought some nice touches to bear, such the menu we had was selected by checking old menus to see what we’d had previously so as not to duplicate dishes we had already tried, hence some are ALC, some are works in progress, some made up on the day and there were some that never made it out of the kitchen.

First up

Carrot & Coconut Mojito – this was a 2am the night before thought from tony. A tall carrot and ginger juice shot topped with a coconut head. Smelt of hawaian tropic to me which wasn’t a bad associative smell. Was fine but not the best we’ve had. Think that accolade goes to the upside down guiness.

Cod Scratchings – a plate of fish skins, treated a la pub snack of pork scratchings. Sam was initially reticent but we assured her that despite where they had come from, the skins provided texture but not much fishiness which was fine by us. There was also a dip with these as well from memory.

Think we had bread at this point –with caramelized, parmesana and salted butter.

Cauliflower Truffle - quickly becoming a big favourite. A shot glass filled with cauliflowery trifle with a layer of apple in the bottom.

Turbot Liver Parfait, Biscotti – Pierre koffman had been in for lunch earlier in the week so tony had devised this as a take on his famous foie parfaits. A little dish of fine parfait with a slivers of biscotti. Having had an unfortunate incident with monkfish liver I was a bit suspicious of this but one mouthful dispelled those doubts. Smooth, livery, sublte very good. Maybe a few salt crystals on the side would have added an extra dimension?

Baby Squid,Garlic Veloute – a stunner. Looked like a mini donner kebab on a stick. 10-15 tiny baby squids (with their eyes & mouths individually removed in prep) skewered, griddled on the plancha I assume to a caramelized perfection. Laid across the bowl with a garlic sauce poured over at the table. To me a great dish, Mr X I think was even heard to mutter an ‘mmm’ at this point but quickly composed himself and pronounced the garlic finish a bit too long, his thought was to blanch and cool the garlic several times to remove the after taste but keep the initial impact. Must try this at home.

Rabbit, Coffee Panacotta – Another off the cuff thought from Tony 5 discs of perfectly cooked rabbit loin laid on top of the pannacotta which was set in the bottom of a bowl, about 1cm deep. Turns out tony has just got a low temp oven and wanted a play. The rabbit had been cooked for 2 hours, it was beautifully tender and the pannacotta a subtle partner, mr x mentioned he would have preferred the pannacotta warm, I’m ambivalent on that score for me the rabbit was centre stage and enough to make the dish a winner.

Black Pudding with Smoked Spratts – this was the black pudding usually served with mango and salmon cheeks but this time with 3/ 4 dinky spratt fillets cut neatly into rectangles. Black pudding as good as home made black pud gets and the sprats well, smoky.

Mullet,Langoustine, Almond Creme Caramel – this is an a la carte dish, a rectangle of mullet a very fresh langoustine (from whitby it transpires) and the crème caramel in a shot. After a lesson in langoustine freshness from Mr X (who pronounced it almost as good as his famed San Remo gambas!) we quickly scoffed the lot. Unfortunately the Chorey-les-Beaune had been flowing for some time so I’ll need to see scott’s piccies to add more detail.

Suckling Pig, Quinoa, Rhubarb – this dish looked a treat, a loin of suckling pig –think canon of lamb encased in perfect golden crackling. Scott reckons the quinoa was in a sorbet which rings a bell but see above for my excuse. The pig was a highlight though.

Poached Rhubarb, Iced Parship Powder, Lychee Another, ALC dish think this was a pastiche of rhubarb and custard.

Journey of Chocolate (ALC) certainly one for the chocoholics from mild to strong, a mini feast ice cream to start, a fondant, and I think a ferrero rocher type, there was one other too. Paying the price here for enjoying myself too much and not taking photos/notes !

On the wine front we had a bottle of testulat house NV, a bottle of sancerre before deciding to stick with the red, the old favourite tollot-beaut chorey –les-beaune which we drank all the bottles of, and most of their stock of halves!

We took coffee and chocs/calvados and raspberry beers upstairs, and said hello to bertie wooster who sam had found on a fag break, unfortunately Mr X had to catch his flight and just missed Tony who ventured out for a chat but we stayed until train time about 7-ish. A very enjoyable lunch both company and foodwise, roll-on the next biggie - the scott and gary joint birthday celebration !

Edited February 9, 2005 by Gary Marshall (log)

[YKL]

Carrot & Coconut Mojito – this was a 2am the night before thought from tony

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See, posts like that will keep the rest of us up till 2am thinking of the food!

My next booking is not till March - that seems an awfully long time away

Yin

[BertieWooster]

We just got the normal menu, as obviously we're not in quite the same league os Mr. Marshall and friends...but, one of my companions pronounced the suckling pig to be a dish from another planet. Which I think was a compliment. And a great time was had by all. Nice to meet Sam and Gary as well.

MOst impressive moment was Olga remembering what we'd had last time in--given it was about three months ago, that wasn't bad going. Oh, and going all star struck and getting the four team members to sign a brochure for Mrs. W to commemorate her birthday.

[Gary Marshall]

MOst impressive moment was Olga remembering what we'd had last time in--given it was about three months ago, that wasn't bad going. Oh, and going all star struck and getting the four team members to sign a brochure for Mrs. W to commemorate her birthday.

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it's all about the details isn't it? bet you didn't go thirsty either

2 out of the 3 serving staff are ex-el bulli, A 3 star michelin - and it shows.

denis at no3 has experience at various 1-2 stars in europe and again you can tell.

cheers

gary

[BertieWooster]

bet you didn't go thirsty either 

gary

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Ah, you noticed a certain amount of imbibing going on did you? Finally got to try the champagne beer, which was VERY nice indeed. The drinking then continued elsewhere till about two-ish, so I'm lucky to remember a thing about the meal!

[SamanthaF]

MOst impressive moment was Olga remembering what we'd had last time in--given it was about three months ago, that wasn't bad going. Oh, and going all star struck and getting the four team members to sign a brochure for Mrs. W to commemorate her birthday.

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it's all about the details isn't it? bet you didn't go thirsty either

2 out of the 3 serving staff are ex-el bulli, A 3 star michelin - and it shows.

denis at no3 has experience at various 1-2 stars in europe and again you can tell.

cheers

gary

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It's for reasons such as this that I think that Suzi must have been at at different restaurant from the comments that she posted.

[ducphat30]

so I’ll need to see scott’s piccies to add more detail.

I think we'd all like to see scott's piccies. I am American so I am hoping to God that means pictures!?!?!

[SamanthaF]

so I’ll need to see scott’s piccies to add more detail.

I think we'd all like to see scott's piccies. I am American so I am hoping to God that means pictures!?!?!

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Sorry Ducphat,

But we can't post them here. If you go to the Anthonys website, you will see lots of yummy food pics.