Pinche Pinche, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

Pinche Pinche is probably your best bet for Mexican food in Leeds. I didn't love everything we ate but the good stuff was really very good, and it was all a significant cut above your average Tex-Mex chain fodder. If it was one of my local restaurants I could definitely see myself stopping in from time to time for a few tacos and a beer.

We started with an impressive mountain of guacamole and some pork nachos. Both of these went down a treat, the fresh, bright guacamole being particularly fine, a world away from the luminous processed green paste versions. I want to describe it as zingy, but I hate that word.

Of the good stuff the meaty things were the highlight. The aforementioned nachos were piled with shards of tasty pork (tasty - another rubbish word. Sorry.) and I could have eaten a dozen of the excellent lamb or pork tacos.

The lamb was slow braised to moist shreds with a gentle, fruity chilli heat, the pork the opposite; small pieces in a garlicky adobo marinade, quickly flash-fried until just done. The result was beautifully tender meat, not easy to do with lean cuts of pork.

I was less enamoured with the flautas from the specials board. I can't remember exactly but I'm sure they were supposed to involve pork scratchings, but just seemed like slightly greasy deep-fried guacamole filled tubes. Others liked them though so what do I know.

Getting the negatives out of the way all at once the fish tacos were also a bit dull. Tasteless fish on a bland and not at all spicy as advertised coleslaw.

Finishing off on a positive note a portion of fries were properly fried, and the refried beans were great. All comforting and savoury and mushy in a very satisfying way.

Service was friendly. Very friendly. Exceedingly happy verging on scary. I shan't complain though, that's just my British cynicism at play, which makes me automatically consider American style service to be false, deranged or both. The fact is everyone was lovely, and they brought us the food we ordered in a reasonable amount of time, and cleared up after us. What more do you want?

We paid £20 each for a good spread of food and a couple of drinks apiece. A good quality local restaurant that's well worth a visit. You probably need to book at weekends as it's small and clearly very popular.

7/10

116a Harrogate Road
Chapel Allerton
Leeds
LS7 4NY

http://pinchepinche.com/

Hummingbird Kitchen and Bar, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

Like my meal at Hui Wei the previous week, dinner at Hummingbird didn't quite add up. This time it wasn't the ordering that was at fault, rather what arrived on each plate that resulted in a meal that was disjointed and incoherent. Some of what I ate was really very good, but some things were awful.

After drinks at the bar that included a well kept Kirkstall Brewery pale ale we decided to kick things off with a bottle of Gavi.

Our waiter forgot to fetch the bottle after we'd ordered starters (sorry, small plates) for which he duly apologised with the phrase 'my bad'. You what? Oh you mean you're sorry. Fair enough you've fetched the wine now, are you American? He wasn't.

I thought the world had moved east nowadays and that the Chinese were in charge. Apparently not, American cultural creep is alive and well. My bad? What next, Prom night? Prom night as in end-of-term-disco-succumbed-to-grasping-commercial-avarice. Oh yeah, we've got that now according to the news. Brilliant.

Apologies, rant over, onto the food and I promise not to comment further on the waiting staff's turn of phrase. Not for a few paragraphs anyway. The cod cheeks, my first choice starter (small plate, my bad), were off so I went for the pan seared baby squid, scallop mousse, chorizo croquette, squid ink dressing.

It was the appearance of this, as opposed to the taste, that was a little unnerving. I shan't elaborate, just look at the photo. Bit weird if you ask me. On a positive note the squid itself was tender and the mousse inside very smooth. Returning to a less positive one the chorizo croquette didn't taste much like chorizo.

Some of the other starters deserve a mention, a slow cooked beef hash and a summery pearl barley rissotto with broad beans were both declared a great success.

I've had the crispy chicken with fish combination before and enjoyed it, so was intrigued by the ambitious sounding main of pan roasted hake, prawn paella, chorizo dressing and crispy chicken, at least until our waiter described it as a 'deconstructed paella'. Eh? I'm really not sure about this fad for 'deconstructed' stuff. What does it even mean?

I think I might open a restaurant serving nothing but deconstructed dishes. It will be a cunning ruse designed to persuade people it's all about culinary cleverness, when really it's just 'cos I can't be arsed cooking stuff properly. Deconstructed Shepherd's pie sir? Certainly sir, here's your mince and tatties, best get a shift on we need your table back in two hours.

There's a very good reason a paella is usually served 'constructed'. If it's not then it isn't a paella, it's rice and seafood and meat and some seasonings. Of course, as all this rattled around in my brain I ordered it anyway.

Predictably enough what arrived was three different things on a plate, not interacting with one another in any particularly successful way. The fish was excellent. A large fresh fillet, delicately cooked to just flake and well seasoned. The other stuff was rubbish. The paella had the taste and appearance of overcooked, mushy savoury rice and the chicken drumstick was dry and tasteless. The fourth thing, the chorizo dressing, was definitely on the plate (that would be the orange wet stuff) but didn't taste of anything.

The other mains around our table were better than mine, pork and lamb dishes both being declared very good and not having anything obviously silly on the plate as far as I can tell. I tried a bit of pork belly and it was lovely, with the winning combination of soft moist flesh and proper crackling.

The theme of messing around with a classic to little advantage continued with pudding. Lemon meringue pie brought pastry that was past its best, a nice, tart lemony filling and hardly any meringue. What's the point of lemon meringue pie with hardly any meringue? There were just a few strips of dry, crumbly stuff scattered on the top, none of the unctuous gooey loveliness you'd hope for.

At this point I should say something nice about our waiter for a change. He knew his stuff, being well versed on the range of drinks on offer and suggesting a lovely Pedro Ximenez sherry to have as a dessert wine and digestif. An espresso martini type concoction that one of the others had at this point was also delicious.

We finished up quite quickly after pudding, the lights had been dimmed and the volume cranked up, presumably the bar takes precedence late on weekend nights. Including service we paid £40 each in total, not bad given that it included some pricey drinks.

I think the problem with Hummingbird is that they're trying to be all things to all people. It's a friendly suburban restaurant attempting to combine attempts at fine dining with being a noisy late night bar. It doesn't quite work for me. Someone in the kitchen can cook meat and fish really well, but whoever is in charge of the menu is getting a bit carried away with themselves. Simplify things a bit and they'd be on to a winner. Mind you they're probably on to a winner anyway. The place was heaving so what do I know.

6/10

Stainbeck Corner
Harrogate Road
Chapel Allerton
Leeds
LS7 3PG

http://hummingbirdkitchen.co.uk/

The Mustard Pot, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

A Sunday roast in the pub. Something I used to do regularly that's become a once in a blue moon occasion. A quick scan at my blog archive and I'm fairly confident that Sunday just gone was the first time this year I've eaten a roast dinner, in a pub, on a Sunday. I'm not entirely sure why this is such a rare occurrence nowadays, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's because the Sunday roasts at most pubs are a bit rubbish and I can cook better myself. Not always the case though, and having heard good things about the food at The Mustard Pot I was rather looking forward to it.

Five of us for dinner, and everyone wanted a roast. The lamb was already finished, leaving a choice of beef, chicken or nut roast. Three beef and two chicken were ordered, and arrived promptly.

Appalling photo notwithstanding (sorry) it wasn't the most exciting looking plate of food. The beef looked good, but the yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes appeared limp and pasty. First impressions were correct. A good thick slice of flavoursome pink beef had some lovely caramelised, marmitey bits around the edges and was doused in a thin but rich gravy. Although it was good, a more generous hand with the gravy would have been better. The Yorkshire pudding was a desultory affair, small, under-risen and tasteless and the roast potatoes were no better. They couldn't have spent more than five minutes in a roasting tin and were completely lacking in any crunchy, roasty deliciousness.

Vegetables were brought out separately in dishes for everyone to share, and were also a mixed bag. Creamed leeks were lovely. Silky, sweet, unctuous and a great foil for the beef. The other platter of mixed (probably steamed) veg was fine but plain steamed veg is never going to be the interesting bit.

A one word summary of this meal would be: inconsistent. I could have eaten whole plates full of the beef and creamed leeks, they really were good. On the other hand, a roast dinner with poor Yorkshire puddings and worse roast potatoes is severely lacking.

We didn't partake but there were some great sounding desserts available (summer pudding with clotted cream for one). Despite the inconsistencies on this visit I'm sure you could eat really well here, I'd certainly give the food another try. It's a nice pub for a drink too, there's a large beer garden and usually at least a couple of decent ales on.


6/10

20 Stainbeck Lane
Chapel Allerton
Leeds
LS7 3QY

http://www.themustardpot.com

The Sunshine Bakery, Leeds

So far I've eaten four different things from the Sunshine Bakery, and every one of them has been excellent.

 

Their black pudding sausage rolls are officially my second favourite sausage rolls ever (just pipped at the post by the porcine glory that is the Ginger Pig sausage roll). The pastry is lardy yet crisp and light, the sausage filling is porky, generous and well seasoned, with added iron-y depth from the black pudding.  Very good indeed, and good value for the quality at £2 a pop. Lardy in this context is a compliment by the way, in case anyone was wondering.

 

Cupcakes. First a confession. Cupcakes aren't really my favourite thing. It's not that I don't enjoy eating them, they're just a bit showy and American for my tastes. The focus is often on how they look and how much icing can be shoehorned on top of the cake, which itself is sometimes little more than an afterthought. I like to think of them as over-iced buns.

This was a damn fine cupcake though. Peanut butter flavour, with a whipped icing that was salty but barely sweet at all. The cake beneath was dense, moist and very chocolatey. Pretty as you'd expect from a cupcake, but backed up by really delicious and interesting flavours. £1.50 each.

 

Sandwiches are available too, today I opted for a pastrami and salad sandwich on basil, olive oil and cheese bread. The photo doesn't do this sandwich justice at all. It was huge. An absolute beast, almost like an American deli sarnie in proportions.  The bread was very tasty, sort of like a slightly denser focaccia. The filling comprised pastrami, pickle slices, tomato, cucumber, salad leaves and some sort of dressing (maybe a flavoured mayo?). Again, excellent value at £3, sandwiches half the size with poor ingredients go for this price.

 

And finally, a stem ginger brownie. Couldn't fault this. Classic crisp exterior, fudgy centre, a generous spread of ginger chunks, and a good strong chocolate flavour with just a hint of bitterness. I've no idea what chocolate (or cocoa) they're using, but it's good quality stuff. £1.50 for a large slice. 

The Sunshine Bakery is actually in Chapel Allerton, but I haven't been there yet as I bought all these things from The Source in Leeds Market. For more about The Source read my post about it here, and check out their website here. 

The Sunshine Bakery seem to be a fairly regular fixture at The Source now, so you should be able get your mitts on their goodies in town or Chapel Allerton. For market dates check the website here.  I would imagine a wider range of goods is available in Chapel Allerton, and they also run a supper club some evenings. If the baked goods are anything to go by, this could be an outstanding dining option. I'm hoping to check it out sometime soon.

9/10

The Sunshine Bakery

182 Harrogate Road

Chapel Allerton

Leeds

LS7 4NZ

http://www.sunshinebakeryleeds.co.uk/