Showing posts with label Scallops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scallops. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Guinea Pig Night @ Piazza by Anthony

It has been a while since I updated the blog due to a medical emergency I had at the start of June, thankfully I am recovering well & able to eat out again :D

I haven't seen many reviews online of the Guinea Pig Night at Piazza by Anthony, so here is a little about what it is and what you can expect of the night.

Every Monday is Piazza's Guinea Pig Night, you get 3 courses and coffee for £19.95 per person, you can also have Guinea Pig Wine at £10 per bottle and/or Guinea Pig Cocktails at £5 each. The rules are: for the wine you can choose red or white, for the food you can share/swap courses between the table but cannot return dishes to the kitchen, you can also state when ordering if anyone at the table is vegetarian or has any food allergies and of course this is catered for.

So what are you likely to get? Well it could be anything really, but it shouldn't be anything really crazy as these are dishes that are in development with the intention of possibly ending up on the menu at some future point.


Guinea Pig Wine - Ancora Sangiovese

Fig & Prosciutto Crostini with Goats Cheese

Prawn and Scallop Skewers with Chilli Butter

Duck Breast with Five Spice, Pak Choi and Spring Onion

Red Mullet with Anchovies, Olives and Tomatoes

Summer Berries Trifle 

Mocha Syllabub with Chocolate Ice Cream and Brownies

The wine was a smooth easy drinking Sangiovese from Puglia, perfectly fine.


The two starters again were good, fig and prosciutto and scallop and prawn both being classic combos, the seafood was cooked to perfection.


The duck main course was amazing, I think the picture demonstrates that the breasts were perfectly cooked and of course duck marries beautifully with oriental flavours, the duck breasts were a generous size too.


The red mullet main was a good concept and would have been fine except the fish was a little over-seasoned, this was not due to the olive and anchovy taking it over the edge. It was the fish itself that had been over-seasoned, a shame really as it was perfectly cooked otherwise.


The desserts were really lovely, the trifle being particularly rich and creamy, I have mentioned before that I don't really eat desserts & due to my recent health issue it would have been unwise of me to eat these desserts so the girlfriend had to eat (most of) both! I did sample both though and as I said lovely, she thought so too :) Interestingly, since I left hospital I seem to desire desserts when I eat out now, I put this down to my diet at home on a day to day basis has become very healthy so the sinful stuff as a treat when eating out seems much more appealing.


We both declined coffee as we were too stuffed to drink one!


In conclusion, I have to say guinea pig night is a great success, the restaurant seems busy on this night and personally I found it a lot of fun. If you don't have a lot of food hang ups then go for it, you'll be well fed and as I said it is just fun not knowing what you're going to get but knowing it is highly likely to be very good food. £25 per person for 3 courses, coffee, half a bottle of wine and a lot of fun is a bargain in my opinion.


Piazza by Anthony
The Corn Exchange
Call Lane
Leeds
LS1 7BR

Telephone: 0113 2470995

Web: 
www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk/piazza/
Twitter: @anthonysltd 

Monday, 9 May 2011

Red Chilli Leeds

Red Chilli is a small chain of 5 Chinese restaurants and is my absolute favourite Chinese restaurant in Leeds.
Red Chilli specialises in Beijing and Sichuan cuisine unlike most Chinese restaurants in Leeds who serve Cantonese food.
The first thing to say about Red Chilli is that their menu is huge, and contains a lot of traditional dishes that you wouldn't find in other Chinese restaurants around these parts. The menu could be quite intimidating to some people, try to not be overwhelmed by the choice though as once you find the dishes that you like this place really is hard to beat!

For our dinner at Red Chilli we had:

A bottle of the house Sauvignon Blanc

3 delicacies hot and sour soup

Vegetarian hot and sour soup

Salt & Pepper stir fried Soft Shell Crab

A portion of fried rice to share

Special Seafood Bird's Nest




The 3 delicacies in the seafood hot and sour soup were scallop, prawn and squid, the soup was delicious and perfectly hot and sour, my dining partner assured me the vegetarian version was very good too.

The salt and pepper soft shell crab is our "go to" dish at Red Chilli, we order it every visit and it is always wonderful.

On the menu the special seafood bird's nest says oysters, prawns, sea cucumber, scallop and squid, our waitress informed us that you choose two of these but they had no sea cucumber available on the day, no problem I asked for oysters and scallops. The dish arrived with oysters, scallops, squid and prawns so I am unsure if the dish actually contains all the seafood and the waitress mis-informed us or if the waitress informed us correctly but she realised we thought it was a selection of all the seafood so asked the kitchen to do it that way. Either way it was a beautiful seafood dish, the bird's nest was made of crispy noodles that were softened by the sauce under the seafood.

A note on the fried rice, Red Chilli's fried rice is the best I have eaten anywhere! Every single time I have had their fried rice it is beautifully fluffy, delicious, and smells like popcorn. It is never, ever stodgy like it can be elsewhere.

Red Chilli is very reasonably priced and as I said at the outset, for me easily the best Chinese restaurant in Leeds.

Red Chilli
6 Great George Street
Leeds
LS1 3DW
01132429688

www.redchillirestaurant.co.uk