A brief recap on The Swine lore: some time in the very early 2010s, husband and wife Stuart and Jo Myers take over The Greedy Pig sandwich shop on North Street, just about in the city centre (in nose to tail terms, it’s a nostril) and start to pull its socks up. Over the years their reputation grows and emboldens them to step out of their comfort zone and demonstrate Stuart’s ability and breadth of food knowledge through street food events and supper clubs, and eventually The Greedy Pig becomes The Swine That Dines: well-loved, critically acclaimed, very small. ‘Only 16 covers’ small. By their own admission, the building wasn’t suited to being a restaurant - Stu worked wonders with a flat top grill and an oven, and Jo’s natural front-of-house charisma easily filled the room on the other side of the partition wall, but there was always a sense of ‘imagine what they could do in a typical restaurant setting’
So last year they launched a crowdfunder to raise £25,000 for a bigger venue, a target they reached in less than 48 hours. By the time the campaign finished they’d raised over £42,000 from 486 people. That’s enough to fill The Swine That Dines 30 times over. The biggest feelgood story to hit Leeds since they filmed Bank of Dave in The Duck & Drake.
With that money they’ve taken over a former hairdressers on Otley Road, just opposite the Arndale Centre, and converted it into a proper restaurant with a 40-odd cover dining room with stone floors, low beams, and idiosyncratic brickwork features, with a full view from the pass of the brand new kitchen, no longer hidden behind a partition wall. In that kitchen is Stuart, who’s taken on an executive chef role and brand new head chef Kirsty Cheetham, former head chef of popular South Milton pub Queen o’ t’ owd Thatch (now closed). Soon they’ll be joined by Angus Evans from recent GFG inductees Eat Your Greens.
Despite the organisational shake-up, the menu is recognisably and resolutely Swine-y: produce-led, locally sourced and seasonal, classic British and European technique, with occasional dalliances into the Mediterranean and beyond. When meat is used, the whole animal will often show up across several dishes, such as with the smoked slices of duck breast served with celeriac remoulade as a small plate, and its legs slow cooked into a ragu served as a main with grilled polenta.
Small plates range from £9-11, mains are mostly in the mid-twenties, and puddings – comforting indulgences baked in-house by Jo – come in at £8. On weekdays they offer a slightly parsed version of the menu as a very good value set lunch at two courses for £20, or £24 for three.
A great terrazzo slab of terrine brought rough chunks of pork meat and fat – likely including some trim from the pork belly main – suspended in a tender, fennel-spiked mixture of pork and veal, with a sweet homemade pear ketchup and cornichons to battle the richness of it all.
It’d take more than a bit of ketchup and miniature gherkins to stand up to the richness of the main though, a fist-sized tangle of shredded braised ‘mince’, on a wedge of beef dripping toast, with braising juices soaking through the bread and pooling on the plate, around a dollop of bright horseradish creme. Proper grown-up food. The sort of dish that sends Americans into a meltdown when they stumble across it online.
Any startled interloper that happens to wander into the Swine Bistro might be soothed by an unlikely but sensational salad of chicory leaves, pear, walnut, and ranch dressing. A bit of an eyebrow raiser at first, but then you do the working out and realise that yes, of course it works, and why didn’t anybody do it sooner?
A quivering slice of custard tart with poached rhubarb confirmed that this is still the Swine that we all know and love. In typical humble fashion Jo explained that they’re still in the ‘teething issues’ stage (this was one of the first lunch services after opening properly the previous week), but if there were any, they weren’t visible to me or anybody else in the already half-full dining room.
Those 486 Crowdfunder supporters – and many more punters still – won’t be disappointed with their investment.
WHEN Opened April 2025
WHERE 77A Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds LS6 3PS
FOLLOW @theswinebistro
BOOK theswinethatdines.co.uk
The Good Food Guide allows three to six months before anonymously inspecting a new restaurant. Look out for a full review coming soon.
