When Michael O’Hare announced The Man Behind the Curtain would close at the end of December 2023, he declared a new era for the Vicar Lane restaurant. In response to the combination of Covid, Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis irrevocably changing the industry, O’Hare would be ditching his tasting menu. ‘The modern diner…we’re not looking for that anymore,’ he said. Instead, with the same team and the same site, the restaurant would morph into an à la carte surf shack with a focus on prime fish and seafood. There would be pizza breads, grilled fish, and the choice to dip your toes in or go all out. The key was flexibility and accessibility.
Descending from the street into the basement space, smoke billows up the stairs, a grinning team member at the front desk a reassurance this is part of the intended effect rather than, say, a kitchen fire. Actually, the dramatic effect of the smoke machine is upstaged by a space stripped back to its concrete essentials. Gone is the lounge area, to make way for extra tables and a set of DJ decks. Walls are mostly blank concrete save for the occasional monochrome surfboard, and tube-like lights fall from the ceiling and spool onto the floor. The effect is of the black bottom of the ocean, devoid of colour and populated by alien luminescent creatures. Another style of lighting is attached to a helmet which, on closer inspection is worn by a life-sized dummy, dressed in black, kneeling on the floor with its hands chained behind its back and head bowed. It’s not the only one in the room.
Guests booking a table are likely to have a handle on O’Hare’s macabre aesthetic and penchant to shock his diners. As a video reel of people trampling on a teddy bear is projected on one wall, the cavernous space reaches half full on a weekend lunch visit, mainly repeat customers from The Man Behind the Curtain and a peppering of fans of O’Hare’s star turn in Great British Menu. Everyone appears to take the setting in their stride, even when staff pause service to march round with the smoke machine with the panache of a catwalk model.
In some ways all of that makes more sense than the new à la carte which is really just tasting menu dishes priced up individually. There’s no format to follow, no vegetables, or side dishes of carbohydrate. The haywire list - opening with plankton vichyssoise for £8 and caviar donburi for £39 - makes one wistful for the one-price, no-choice formula. Which, incidentally, is back for £165 (Psycho Sandbar’s ‘highest dining expression’), or available in a chef’s selection of five (£75) or seven (£110) courses. Anyone determinedly ordering from the à la carte is likely to leave hungry or confused.
The idea of accessibility appears to have been left by the wayside when encouragement to order oysters and cocktails verges on persistent. And if you can read the small print on a picture book wine list, you’ll find the opening gambit is a bottle of Krug for £3,350. There’s a handful of bottles for under £100 but if choosing by the glass, you’d be forgiven for thinking the pour is 100ml rather than 125ml. The list doesn’t confirm either way. Nor does it include soft drinks, water or mention service charge. The impression is you’re not supposed to care.
All these quirks are almost forgotten with the first spoonful of the plankton vichyssoise - a happy reminder of the level at which O’Hare cooks, unbound by a particular cuisine but frequently leaning on South-East Asian flavours. The high note continues with a scallop warmed in foie gras fat and Gordal olive juice, and alongside the reverberating heat of a chili crab dish, there’s a welcome surprise of a silky textured, slightly sticky steamed bun to mop up the sauce. But there’s also an unremarkable nugget of pig’s cheek, and a slightly over-steamed John Dory filet in a pool of Singaporean laksa that errs on the sweet side. ‘Lemon Top’ for dessert was the biggest misstep - Amalfi lemon shaved ice with next to no flavour, steadily diluting a perfectly ok lemon curd ice cream and milk sorbet underneath.
While the menu at Man Behind the Curtain was burnished to such a high shine (scoring Exceptional for deliciousness in the Guide), our early look at Psycho Sandbar found too many opportunities for things to go wrong. Our verdict? There’s plenty of work yet to do if Michael O’Hare and his team want to continue operating at a destination dining price point.
WHERE 68 - 78 Vicar Lane Lower Ground Floor, Leeds LS1 7JH
WHEN Opened 2024
OPEN Wednesday - Saturday dinner, Friday - Saturday lunch
FOLLOW psychosandbar_
BOOK psychosandbar.com
The Good Food Guide allows three to six months before anonymously inspecting a new restaurant. Look out for a full review coming soon.
