Shears Yard
Leeds, West Yorkshire
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‘We keep coming back’; ‘Good portions, fresh ingredients, tasted great.’ Reporters are still enthusiastic about this long-serving brasserie, which offers the best food option in an area better known for its clubs and cocktails. The Calls was once the ugly, messy industrial hub of Leeds, thanks to its position at the confluence of the Leeds/Liverpool canal and the river Aire. Then, in the 1990s, came a massive regeneration of the old mills and warehouses, including this 18th-century former sail-maker's workshop which provides an attractive backdrop of exposed brick, polished concrete floors and a vaulted ceiling (complete with countless filament light bulbs). An inviting modern carte (with four choices per course) could deliver breaded plaice fillet with mild curry sauce, followed by lamb rump served simply with grilled lettuce, wild garlic and a potato croquette. There is ambition in a delightful ajo blanco, which sees both raw and cooked new season's asparagus added to the bread and almond soup, before the whole lot is finished with crushed smoked almonds and a glug of wild-garlic oil. A flourless chocolate sponge is as rich and chocolatey as you could want, served with the smoothest white chocolate and rum crémeux and a rum-and-raisin purée. For something more delicate, there's a posset that brings together flavours of coconut and cardamom with a jammy topping of poached Yorkshire rhubarb decorated with shards of black sesame and coconut brittle. Prices throughout are reasonable, including a good-value, six-course tasting menu at £55, while wines begin at £29 for a Macedonian Smederevka.
