Anthony's, Leeds

[slacker]

There may be flights from Newquay to Leeds in the spring, which means our trip up is alot easier Gary

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......and look out Cornwall. Much seat reinforcement planned with Objective One funding. What's the payload on the new chairs, Basildog?

Seriously good news for eveyone. Is this airsouthwest, or airyorkshire?

[Gary Marshall]

There may be flights from Newquay to Leeds in the spring, which means our trip up is alot easier Gary

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......and look out Cornwall. Much seat reinforcement planned with Objective One funding. What's the payload on the new chairs, Basildog?

Seriously good news for eveyone. Is this airsouthwest, or airyorkshire?

←

leeds is ready and waiting for the padstow 'massive'

cheers

gary

[Basildog]

click

[daw]

Today was Christmas shopping day - that is we both have a day off work and try and do as much of the shopping as possible - dreadful day I know but vastly improved by lunch at Anthony's.

We both had the set lunch - warm salad of belly pork with roasted cherry tomato for me followed by roast partridge on cabbage base and cheese to close. Veloute of potato with salt cod, partridge and chocolate clafoutie with reduced milk and mango sorbet for my wife.

The pork salad was more pork than salad, but excellent pork complete with crackling, the potato a beautifully smooth and creamy complement to the salt cod.

The partridge was succulent and complemented by a Morgon Beaujolais. The cheeses are perhaps a little underwhelming but well presented with a second smaller bread loaf and home made crackers, the choclolate was reported as excellent.

Talking to Anthony senior he said that they are very busy, a fact born out by our inability to get a table for the last Saturday in January, in fact he said bookings are now filling up for March, so we booked for April! (close to my birthday which was when I first went to Anthony's and joined egullet). He said they are very pleased with the way things are going, and plan to increase from 28 covers now to 34 in the February.

After a very pleasant couple of hours it was back to the Christmas shopping, roll on April

David

Edited December 2, 2004 by daw (log)

[Gary Marshall]

i'm heading there tomorrow lunch, provided i make it back from a cafe du marche lunch and st john dinner today

gary

[Gary Marshall]

It was a close call but with the aid of a 'it's the fastest route to alcoholism- but it works' hair of the dog bloody mary i got the train back to leeds after a shall we just say 'hectic' friday in london.

i was meeting the esteemed majumdars and J an american friend who had also joined us at st john the night before. Being slightly more abstemious they managed the 9-ish train and i met them to the scarborough taps in leeds where they had enjoyed a couple of beers, i had also forgotten that it was 'match day' and the place was full of 'leeds, leeds, leeds' fans i think they were quite relieved to see me and head over to anthonys!

On arrival we opted to head straight to the table and got stuck into a few glasses of champagne with a sherry for younger majumdar.

amuse today was a variation of the passion fruit cocktail. Today it smelt of coffee, but didn't taste of it, only passion fruit and bourbon. very clever.

next up the veloute of yeast with pine nuts and a new addition of grapes, still doesn't do it for me, it's their 'marmite' dish.

bread then arrived the usual tin loaf with parmesan, salted and a new one 'toasted' butter, made from beurre noisette, and very good it was too.

Simon fancied a savignon blanc so we had a new zealand one with our starters, which for me was the comforting red mullet/horcharta combo, still excellent, we also had a quail & garlic ravioli and a black pudding /salmon cheek/ mango. Simon and robin are pork connoisseurs and J makes his own chorizo so these were serious piggy eaters and all were impressed, all were enthusiastically scoffed though, i was pleased that such seasoned london/ny diners were blown away by leeds finest!

Although there were new dishes on the mains such as 'game of the day' and turbot, which the others had, i couldn't get pass the venison, for the third time (!) and i am confident it is my favourite dish of the year, i told Olga but she quite rightly pointed out they haven't yet been open a year yet!

the usual chorey-les-beaune accompanied this, i am a creature of habit!

a couple of portions of cheese were ordered, fleur de whatsist, mrs bells etc all with the usual pickled celery.

desert was a high point, the rest of the table shared a selection, but i had to try the pineapple tatin (?) with black olive ice cream, I think i may have the description wrong but that's not an issue, if you go you'll see it on the menu and it needs pre-ordering i highly suggest you do. Olives are known for being sour, and pineapple is not let's face it a know haute cuisine ingredient. But Tony has put the two together in a stunning dish, desert of the year.

retiring to the bar for ginger milk, coffees, calvas, and of course rasberry beer rounded off a extremely pleasant afternoon.

Georgio Locatelli (CLANG!) once told me that lots of people told him his food was brilliant, but what really counted was if they made another booking and returned.

suffice to say that robin and i are heading back for lunch next week!

[Gary Marshall]

so tuesday rolled around and thus started my run of three lunches this week (today tbc-that would be 4 ). I met a shivering Robin maj outside leeds station, although originally from rotherham, the years of london dwelling have obviously softened him up!

Swiftly we were in Anthony's and working our way through a couple of glasses of festive house champagne which warmed us up nicely whilst checking the menu.

Robin fancied the white onion risotto, i went for the black pudding and salmon cheek. With seasonal game to follow for robin, woodcock i think and suprise, suprise vension for me.

once downstairs we busied ourselves with a bottle of riesling as Olga brought the amuse, a variation on the coffee/tobacco/passion fruit/bourbon, previously it was in a shot glass, now it had been gelatinised and was presented in a small dish.

next up should have been the pine nut veloute but olga kindly remembered i don't like it and so tony gave us a preview of his new for 05 amuse, grated fresh hazlenut (from olga's aunts garden!) with pomme puree and smoked pumpkin air, very good and seasonal- a winter warmer i think was the considered verdict.

breads next with parmesan, salted and toasted butters as good as usual.

then the starters arrived, i knew i should have slipped in a risotto somewhere but given my greedy schedule this week didn't think it wise to go down the 'two starters' route- though i do recommend it ! Robin's looked just the dish for a cold december day and although my black pudding/salmon cheek/mango was textbook, i think i definitely had a bad case of food envy. ( he did give me a taste though!) .

We had the obligatory chorey-les-beaune with the mains, Robin seemed very happy with his woodcock, though given his propensity for 'nose to tail eating' he was a little disappointed not to get the head and brains, chatting to tony afterwards it appeared he did have them but most customers don't fancy them. My Venison/carpaccio/foie/quinoa was again most excellent.

we decided on a cheese course and shared a selection and also a new pre-desert a chocolate and banana concoction, lifted by the strategic addition of salt, which robin and i both heartily approved of.

we had pre-ordered the black olive and pineapple tatin, once again this dish has to be eaten to be believed. Such ingredients just shouldn't taste this good!

coffee/choc's/calva/grappa followed and considering we were in the restaurant at just gone twelve, time rapidly vanished as in no time robin was running for his 4pm train.

It was good to see the place full on a tuesday lunch with as robin noted, a good cross section of punters, neither suits nor students but all seemingly enjoying themselves.

I will also confess to popping in last night, but restrained myself, i merely ensured a friend from london got to the restaurant safely and ordered well, ie risotto/vension/tatin/chorey les beaune! I had a rapsberry beer and left her in the flinn/s capable hands and whilst imagining it was white onion risotto, enjoyed my big mac meal on the train home!

cheers

gary

[patrick]

Gary

In reply to your question on the "Confessions- 3 last restaurants" thread...

Prior to my visit i had heard and read great things about the experience "offered" by dining at Anthonys, and i arrived with great expectations. However, on the night of my visit i don't think i was in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate everything that the place has to offer. this is why i did not make a full post on the forum. I found some aspects of the meal truly brilliant, but these were mainly the "extras" such as the bread loaf, the parmesan butter, and the gingerbread milk. This is not to say i did not enjoy the red mullet or the risotto though! The yeasty/pine nut veloute completely passed me by, as did a peach and nectarine mousse, and several other dishes did not provide the wow factor. I also found that the dining layout did nothing to aid my enjoyment of the evening. The service and personnel were faultless though. I still regard Anthonys to be a very good restaurant despite this.

I shall definetly return and i never judge on one visit. It was just that something did not click for me on that evening.

Briefly regarding Tom Aikens...

I found my dining experience at Tom Aikens to be the most stimulating in culinary terms since eating at The Fat Duck. Every plate challenged the senses and provoked debate around the table. I found it inspiring, refreshing and individual.

To answer your question...Tom Aikens wins on this occasion, but i'm happy to be proved otherwise in the future.

[Gary Marshall]

thanks patrick,

i can agree that the pine nut and mousse have not been amongst my favourites this year.

but knowing tony there'll be plenty more dishes to debate next year!

cheers

gary

[Gary Marshall]

want to know what anthony's restaurant looks like? what exactly are the famed jacketless potaotes? what's on the menu?

answers to all these and many more questions can now be found on www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

cheers

gary

Edited January 24, 2005 by tarka (log)

[VeryApe77]

want to know what anthony's restaurant looks like? what exactly are the famed jacketless potaotes? what's on the menu?

answers to all these and many more questions can now be found on www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

cheers

gary

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Thanks Gary, I've been waiting for this for a while now...doubt I'll find myself in Leeds anytime soon, but at least I can look at some pictures now

Was pleasantly surprised to Goose Island on the Beer List, I didn't know you could get that in the UK.

Edited January 10, 2005 by VeryApe77 (log)

[Gary Marshall]

they are very proud of their beer list, you struggle to actually find a mainstream lager such as becks there, which was an issue for a lager lout like myself however tony snr introduced to me to raspberry beer and now there's no going back!

cheers

gary

[patrick]

Thanks Gary. The website seems particularly impressive for an independant restaurant! The "forum" idea sounds very original, and "The Journey" section gives a brief and interesting nod to the amount of the work involved in setting up the restaurant. I wonder if they have the Freehold on the place?

[Gary Marshall]

Thanks Gary. The website seems particularly impressive for an independant restaurant! The "forum" idea sounds very original, and "The Journey" section gives a brief and interesting nod to the amount of the work involved in setting up the restaurant. I wonder if they have the Freehold on the place?

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yes, i agree with the forum idea and the journey is interesting, as i put in my original post something like -'considering he's spent more time with a paintbrush than a knife for the past weeks'- you can see what i mean!

i am pretty sure it is leasehold. you can imagine the fun persuading the landlord- we've got this young chef, coming back from spain to do boundary pushing cuisine in the middle of leeds! the fact it ever got going is testament to the conviction they had in their ideas.

cheers

gary

[Gary Marshall]

i happened to be on the phone to anthony's making a reservation for Feb when i uttered these words, knowing in my heart i was just looking for a pathetic excuse to go for a lunch i really didn't need after a weeks worth of dining out,

'don't suppose tony's got round to changing the a la carte yet has he?'

'Oh yes' said holly ' and he's got some really interesting new things on'.

so that was that, a few days later i was in for lunch!

first up was a new 'shot' this one was cranberry with beer, a cranberry mousse with beer in the bottom. The mousse was fine, as predictably for me was the beer, but i didn't quite get the connection. Maybe i ate it wrongly as two seperate items?

next was a cauliflower trifle, again in a little shot, but this time with explicit instructions from olga to go right to the bottom first with the spoon. This was a great amuse. A light, well trifle, but slightly savory with- i think caramelised cauliflower pieces at the bottom. i could eat a bowl of this quite happily.

then a tuna dish, a chunk of seared tuna with rectangles of avocado and 'fuerte' i think, a spanish spicy sausage laid in strips with the avocado and shallot dressing/ vinaigrette,a perfectly cooked dish with a nice contrast between the avocado and sausage, lifted by the dressing, why can't i make dressings as piquant as this?!

to follow the usual bread with parmesan, salted and 'nut' ie browned butters. As usual i scoffed the lot.

Eventually the starter arrived! I had ordered a veloute with salt cod and kikos but tony said i should have a different dish, roast quail with foie gras and jambugo. Experience tells me that the chef knows more than i do about what's the best dishes on the menu so i happily switched! The roast quail was cut in tony's usual diagonal fashion and the foie in a disc sat upon the jambugo, also in a disc. There were peanut shoots on top of these as well which i'd never had before. the foie and jambguo was a great combination and even better with a bit of quail on top too, a bit of crunchy sea salt on the foie really tieing in well with the salty jambugo.

For main i had another new one, roast duck breast with malt loaf cannelloni ! As soon as i saw this i had to have it, i love malt loaf! Then when tony senior described the dish as confit duck rolled in malt loaf (panned out thinly) with confit potatoes and a malt foam i was signing on the dotted line. It didn't disappoint, the sticky malt loaf and unctous confit duck was sticky ducky heaven, the breast and potatoes mere sideshows to the main attraction!

With a dinner to follow that evening i skipped on desert but wouldn't have got passed the black olive tatin had i had any space. There's a few new deserts too, Chocaholics will love the 'journey of chocolate' and i'm pleased to say my favourite venison dish also remains on the alc, for a few more weeks.

however,

i think that will be my last meal.

in an unstarred anthony's

as hopefully thursday will see them get the award they richly deserve and have worked their 'bits' off for.

if you are thinking about a trip, friday nights are booking up into march, and saturday's into april.

cheers

gary

[estufarian]

It seems that Gary is the first to try each new dish – but on my visit last week, everything was new to me, so I’ll add my 2p worth.

The cranberry with beer ‘shot’ immediately reminded me of a Belgian lambic beer. Could this be Tony’s attempt to ‘deconstruct’ such a beer (I know, I’m probably reading too much into it)? But he does have a relatively large beer list, although I didn’t even peruse it.

The cauliflower trifle was superb. Certainly the highlight for me in its ‘concept’. We’ll be attempting several savoury trifle variations at home in the future. AmuseGirl identified the bottom layer as coffee (or perhaps I’m already getting confused with the risotto)! And there was some apple in there too.

The tuna dish held less excitement. The best part for us was the tuna roe crumbled around. Similar to bottarga but more in harmony with the tuna.

And also a tangerine and ginger ‘soup’ with yoghurt ice and a muesli-like layer. A perfect palate cleanser.

We tried all four starters available. The white onion risotto has had many raves. Add mine. The highlight in the roast squab was the crunchy shoots – exploded with flavour, but didn’t realize they were peanut (thanks, Gary). Gary also mentioned the sea-salt on this dish. Ours was lacking this ingredient – we even commented that some Maldon salt would have lifted this dish.

Our favourite starter was the Black Pudding (best ingredient of the night) with roast salmon cheeks and mango. Just an amazing combination of flavours.

And also the cep veloute with salt cod and kikos. I know why they talked Gary out of this one. The weakest dish of the evening for us. However, this would have been a must order dish for us as two nights earlier we had eaten a cep veloute at Gordon Ramsay (name dropper!), and this had been the finest dish of that evening. On both dishes, the pure cep flavour came through, but the Ramsay version had layers of complexity, both broadening and heightening the dish. To finish that comparison, the Ramsay highlight for almost every dish was the saucing which was immaculate in all cases. But of course, it’s a different style of cuisine, French in heritage; and Anthony’s makes no claims or pretensions to being French – even his ingredients show a significant Spanish leaning (but still ‘English’). And Ramsay is MUCH more expensive!

On to the mains. The red mullet with langoustines seems to be a standard item – but this time it included an almond crème caramel. We ate every morsel, but couldn’t really understand what this dish was all about. The components were certainly tasty, but seemed ‘separate’ on the palate, rather than a more exciting combination. The roast and carpaccio of venison has been on the menu for a while so I can’t add much to what has already been said.

An excellent cheese course and all English – at Ramsay’s the only English cheese available was Stilton with most of the 20+ choices being French. I found the pickled celery (in the salsa) too overpowering but really enjoyed the different textures of the cheeses.

And an overall comment. What a pleasure to have space around each table. I know they could easily get more tables into the room but, the fact that they don’t, speaks volumes for the philosophy of Anthony’s. As a contrast, at Gordon Ramsay the same week, a party occupied the adjoining table where some members generously shared their perfume with their neighbours (us!). Luckily, we had the earliest reservation, and only had dessert to come when they were seated, so were able to move to the reception area to conclude. If this had happened simultaneously with our arrival, I’m not sure what would have happened, as there were no empty tables available where we could have been moved.

[YKL]

There's a few new deserts too, Chocaholics will love the 'journey of chocolate'

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I'm not a fully qualified chocoholic but in the interests of research - will do my best to save room for dessert when I go there for lunch tomorrow!

Cheers

Yin

[Gary Marshall]

enjoy !

[Andy Lynes]

however,

i think that will be my last meal.

in an unstarred anthony's 

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Gary, at the rate you visit the place it looks like you've got another 50 or so to go before that happens. As you know, I have not yet been to Anthony's (although I am positive that will change soon) but it seemed a done deal that they would get a star this year. Have you spoken to Anthony about his reactions to the news, or more accurately, lack of it?

[Gary Marshall]

yes,

They were realistic enough to realise that there was a big chance michelin would want to see how the restaurant develops over another year before deciding on any award.

With everyone, including yours truly, suggesting it was on the cards i'm sure they were disappointed but it won't hold them back. They can take solace from a full saturday night reservations book until late April!

They realise that the main achievement for any restaurant is to a) survive its first year and b) have plenty of satisfied customers.

They have achieved both and basically want to prove to 'all those who supported and awarded them in 2004 that their assesements were accurate and justified'.

think that about sums it up!

cheers

gary

[reuvens]

i just have a short questionn....

.....does "anthony´s" have a homepage???

[Suzi Edwards]

Try www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk

[BertieWooster]

ON which site the photo of Holly really doesn't do her any justice...

[dallardice]

If anyone's got a booking for this Saturday night, would they mind cancelling? We're booked for lunch, but are first on the waitlist for dinner, which would be preferable...

Edited January 25, 2005 by dallardice (log)

[Gary Marshall]

lunch is nice and relaxed though, and then you've got time to do number 3 as well afterwards haha!

cheers

gary