The Alchemist

This post was originally posted by Lorna in the summer. 

Last night I had a late celebration of my birthday with one of my best friends, Harriet. We're normally so bad at doing anything for my birthday because she's always holidaying over the summer - but this year, for the first time in many, many years we managed to actually get together. We went to The Alchemist, a reasonably new restaurant and cocktail bar in the Trinity Leeds shopping centre - and I've been verrrry excited about going since it opened!

We grabbed our seats and got to grips with the extensive cocktail menu, I'm not usually one for cocktails (pint, anyone?) so I didn't know what to go for - we settled for a strawberry daiquiri and a strawberry mojito. Nommm...We grabbed our seats and got to grips with the extensive cocktail menu, I'm not usually one for cocktails (pint, anyone?) so I didn't know what to go for - we settled for a strawberry daiquiri and a strawberry mojito. Nommm...
I had The Colour Changing One. This looked more like a science experiment than a cocktail - it came with two glass vials to pour over ice and then just to sit back and enjoy!I had The Colour Changing One. This looked more like a science experiment than a cocktail - it came with two glass vials to pour over ice and then just to sit back and enjoy!
After that, we were trying to decide which cocktails to go for next, when as if by magic some freebies arrived at our table! We can't remember what they were (which sounds a bit ominous..) but the mysterious freebies were a massive thumbs up in our opinion.After that, we were trying to decide which cocktails to go for next, when as if by magic some freebies arrived at our table! We can't remember what they were (which sounds a bit ominous..) but the mysterious freebies were a massive thumbs up in our opinion.

It's such a fab looking venue - I wanted to sneak some photos of inside but it was so packed I couldn't really get any, so I pinched these from their own gallery.
We'd reserved a table, and I'm so glad we did because otherwise we'd have been queuing for ages to get in, if you fancy going then I'd definitely recommend booking. I hate queueing!
Then it was time for a proper catch up! We looked over the menu and supped our cocktails and felt very fancy indeed. For starters I had Duck Spring Rolls with hoisin sauce, whilst Harriet went for the Potato Skins with dips. We'd already decided we were going aallll out and eating as much as we possibly could manage... It was a treat after all!
Then came the matching mains - we went for the Fajitas. I had fillet steak, Harriet had chicken. They came with sauteed peppers and onions on a hot skillet, with warm tortillas, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and salad. They were very good, but very messy!!
Smokin'!
After we'd made a massive mess of our table, faces and clothes.. We opted for some more cocktails before digging through the dessert menu.



The photos don't necessarily give the drink any justice - it looked amazing, and it bubbled up and smoked for ages, I almost didn't want to drink it because it looked hot, but eventually gave it a go. It was interesting to say the least and very sugary. Not sure I'd order another in a hurry but it was worth it for the special effects.
We finished off our meal in the best possible way, with Belgian waffles served hot with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla ice cream. These are mine and Harriet's all-time faaaavourite desserts so they were a must-have!
And boyyyyy were they good?! They were amazing, even looking at the unfortunate blurry photo now is making me want more right now. We savoured our desserts, tipped back the last of our freebie cocktails, then headed past the crowds forming in the bar for home. We were home before midnight, much like Cinderella, and we stayed up chatting late into the night - which meant we had shameful lie ins this morning, but after our feast we felt we deserved it!

Lorna - Life by LDE

Rustique, York

I met up with a couple of old friends in York this week and for lunch we tried out popular restaurant Rustique, located on Castlegate near the Jorvik Centre. York is a popular city with locals and tourists alike and has a number of fine dining establishments, such as Melton’s restaurant and The Blue Bicycle, but it also has its fair share of chain restaurants too. This means independents need to work increasingly harder to stay open, e.g. just a number of weeks ago, J. Baker’s Bistro Moderne, arguably one of York’s finest restaurants closed down unexpectedly.

As their name suggests they serve rustic French food, in a bistro setting. The restaurant has a pleasant dining room, with walls covered with French prints from artists such as Toulouse Lautrec. 
They offer an extensive ala carte menu, but also a very reasonably priced set menu of 2 courses for £12.95 or 3 courses for £14.95. It was good to see there was plenty of choice available for each course on the set menu too, including French classics steak frites and moules marinière.We ordered a bottle of the house white and some sparkling water, which was brought over promptly. Our starters were brought out and we were all pretty pleased with what we saw: they all looked good and we tucked in immediately. I chose the Basque egg and it was a very tasty starter, even though the component parts were all put together in the same dish, they all still had their own individual flavours and were cooked very well. I really liked the mix of the different sausages with the potatoes, and the paprika with the oil from the chorizo gave it a lovely flavour. It looked like a small tapas-sized dish, but it was a sizeable portion to start off with.  I was reliably informed that the crab cake was crispy on the outside, soft and nicely ‘crabby’ on the inside. Very tasty. The pâté starter seemed to go down well too, to the point that my friend, who had quickly wolfed down her crab cake was then sampling some of the pate and onion marmalade!

Pate de foies de volaille – chicken liver pate with french bread
and red onion marmalade.

Pate de foies de volaille –
chicken liver pate with french
 bread and red onion marmalade.

Basque egg – pan fried Toulouse sausage, 
chorizo, new potatoes and peas cooked 
with smoked paprika and finished with a baked egg

After a good start, it didn’t take long for our main course to be brought out.

Steak frites – pan-fried rump
steak with garlic butter and fries

Tartelette au fromage de chevre
 et tomates séchées – goats cheese
and sun blushed tomato tartlet,
 served with new potatoes and
 a mixed leaf salad

Confit de canard – slow roasted
 leg of duck served with
dauphinoise potatoes, red wine
 and red currant jus

For me it was a toss up between the classics moules mariniere and the steak frites, but I was hankering for a decent steak, so steak frites was the winner this time. It had been really well cooked, medium rare as I’d requested and had a nice garlic butter sauce. The frites were thin and crisp and the portion size was not scrimped on either. The only thing I had a slight issue with, and it is a very picky thing, is I would have preferred pouring the garlic butter sauce myself, rather than having it already done. A nice little jug of the stuff would have done the trick, allowing me to control how much I wanted. Nevertheless, it was a pretty tasty dish and I was wholly satisfied and full at the end of the course. My dining companions also thought highly of their main courses, the goat’s cheese tart new potatoes and a well dressed salad was found to be yummy, its portion size was generous. The duck confit had a crispy skin, succulent meat with good dauphinois potatoes, and a lovely redcurrant sauce finishing it off nicely. When our waiter asked if we wanted any desserts, we all looked at each other and were resigned to the fact that we were all too full!

The staff were welcoming and efficient, our food was cooked well overall. The location of the restaurant is good as it’s in the city centre, but not on the more populated streets and a little out of the way. The total cost of the meal with wine was £58.20 for 3 people, so very reasonable and good value for money. Rustique has become so busy that they are opening another restaurant in Lendal next month, so if your in York it would be worth giving them a go.

Rustique28 CastlegateYorkYO1 9RP01904 612744http://www.rustiqueyork.co.uk

Diane - A Tale of Two Sittings 

Coffee Duran, Leeds.

I find that most articles about eating out tend to focus on big evening meals or more expensive places, and when you go on a shopping trip to a city and want to find somewhere good for a drink and a quick bite it can be difficult. Obviously chains like Starbucks and Nero are in every city but I find myself continually underwhelmed by them, and rather annoyed that I've spent so much.

So I want to share with you one of my favourite places in Leeds City Centre. My boyfriend and I came across it completely by accident when we were looking for somewhere to eat after we moved into our new flat, and have fallen in love with it. We are regulars and have a chat with the owner every time we go in, but don't worry he'll be extremely friendly to all customers new or not.

Coffee Duran is on York Street in Leeds centre across from the bus station and, although it looks completely underwhelming, the food here is phenomenal and extremely cheap! If you're just nipping in for a quick bite - as we usually do - I suggest the homemade burger. It's always fresh, perfectly cooked and the paprika seasoned chips are to die for. Although if you're wanting something a bit lighter there's a whole selection of Mediterranean food available for you as well as the old English favourites.

I'm not one that usually rants and raves about how great somewhere is (in fact I'm usually the opposite) but this is my favourite place in town, and I'm pretty sure the pictures speak for themselves. You should give it a go. 

Hannah - Possibly Vintage

Deli Delight : Lunch at Mannion & Co, York.

Today I am going to reveal to you a very special secret of mine - the best place for lunch in the whole of York. I stumbled across it with a friend, hungover and hungry, on a day out shopping and we were instantly enticed by the huge meringues filling the window. We ventured in and were greeted by a delightful deli and cafe, where we tried some tea and pork belly sandwiches and never looked back. The cafe is quaint and lovingly decorated with kitsch and vintage items - it's exactly my style and I love the small, intimate feel of the place. Now, I always take visitors to York to Mannion & Co and last week I took my parents for lunch there :

We started off with tea - great quality; my Dad even had real blackcurrants in his loose-leaf tea, and served in cast iron teapots which keep your tea piping hot for the whole meal. We then ordered the Deli Sharing Platter and a sausage roll. The Deli Sharing Platter is, in my opinion, the best thing on the menu, as you get to try a little bit of everything and I love 'picky' food to share as a fun, communal meal. Plus, if you pick your friends right to compliment your likes and dislikes, nothing is left uneaten! The platter arrives on a massive plank of wood and attracted stares from every corner of the tiny cafe, prompting orders for "what they've got" from nearby tables.

The best sausage roll I have ever tried! And now for the platter...

It makes me hungry just looking at it! We stuffed ourselves with a variety of cheese, salami, home-made bread, balsamic vinegar, capers, olives, salad, sundried tomatoes, pork belly and thick-cut ham. Each time you go to Mannion's the platter changes slightly, depending on what they have in the Deli, and you are guaranteed to be satisfied. The platter is just £14, and we shared it between three people and we were still (unfortunately) too full to try some of their tempting cakes. 

However, if you still have room, you must try one of their giant meringues. Served with not only clotted cream but double cream too, alongside fresh berries and almonds, it is a giant of a pudding and simply delicious. Yummy!

Jessica - Jessica In Your Ear