Distrikt

Distrikt is a bar/tapas bar/restaurant/live music venue slightly hiding on Duncan Street in Leeds City Centre. Do not mistake these multiple identities for a lack of direction, as this is intentional and pulled off spectacularly, if you haven't found it yet do so now because the creative kitchen deserves a wide audience.


First thing you notice on entering is the funky interior with its underground bar, lit up alcoves and cool artwork. Then you open the menu. The focus is on tapas but not the usual Spanish or Latin American fare, the menu at Distrikt is very much modern British cooking drawing influence from the Mediterranean and Middle East.


The provenance of food is particularly important at Distrikt as everything is fresh and local as possible, to the point that the menu names particular stalls of the Leeds Kirkgate Market where the ingredients are sourced. On Mondays in the season they focus on foraged ingredients which you can taste at £5 per dish.


We visited Distrikt on a Wednesday when all the tapas dishes are half price, which averages them at about £2 each. This must be one of the very best midweek dining deals that Leeds has to offer, we will be back and we will be back on any day as the food is definitely worth its full price.


Distrikt also has a very very nice drinks menu, as you would expect, with a good selection of wines, beers and cocktails.

Carpaccio of Yorkshire beef with fresh beetroot, basil, cherry tomatoes and orange reduction

Crayfish tails & cockles with lime, coriander and tomato salad

Smoked haddock ceviche with tomato, caper salsa & crispy tatas

Rare poppy seed tuna with endive, mandarin & crispy shallot salad

Med veg stack with goats cheeese, rocket & balsamic

Field mushrooms on sour dough with kentish truffle & pinenuts

British pork belly with roasted peaches & wood sorrel

Salt & wild pepper squid  with spiced ragu & cous cous salad

Roasted banana with amaretto & cream

Strawberries with balsamic & licor cream

For an introduction to Distrikt half price Wednesdays is a great idea, to put it in perspective the full price of Distrikts tapas is around the same as you will pay for tapas at certain tapas chains and the quality  of the food at Distrikt is obviously far superior in every way, on a Wednesday to pay on average just £2 a dish for food of this quality is just ridiculous.


I haven't really mentioned anything about the individual dishes because everything was so good, a truly local, independent business with a definite sense of style, that has a chef like they have who cares about the provenance of the food they serve deserves the support of this city.


Distrikt
7 Duncan Street
Leeds
LS1 6DQ
Web: http://distrikt.co.uk/

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