This week prompted a long awaited return visit to Dough Bistro in West Park to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. I think we first went there about 5 years ago after my father-in-law saw it featured in the Observer. Back then it was a fairly new venture, about half the size it is now with a limited menu, but I remember we did enjoy our visit. Since living on the south side of Leeds we’ve not made the ten mile trip back – with so many other places posing an easier taxi ride home – but after the recent buzz about it on Twitter we made the effort to see what’s changed.
So, with a babysitter in situ we set off armed with a grand plan of bus routes to enable us to enjoy our treasured bottle of ‘bring your own’ malbec with our dinner. The journey took us about an hour and ten minutes but we had a nice chat on the bus and spotted loads of old university haunts along the way. I must admit it felt a little bit like an adventure.
The bistro was a welcoming sight on a wintery night, lit up with fairy lights and atmospheric with customers already enjoying their food. We had a cosy, candlelit table by the window and settled in to make the tough decision between the 2, 4 or 7 course set menu. Having read the recent LeedsGrub review we decided the 7 courses might be a little overfacing (as the portions seemed quite large) and opted for the 4 instead.
I had the goats cheese tart to start with, which had a moreish blackberry coulis to cut through the richness. This was followed by a berry & champagne sorbet, which was tasty but a tiny bit sweet for my liking. For main course I had the nettle honey marinaded turkey served on a bean cassoulet, which was a delicious balance of sweet and intenseley savoury flavours. Finally I managed to squeeze in a bit of pistachio creme brulee with tarragon biscuits, which tasted divine but sadly was a bit under bruleed leaving a little too much loose sugar on top.
Tom had the confit of Yorkshire lamb to start, which was rich and tender and his favourite bit of the whole meal. For main he had the Short-Horn beef which was cooked rare as he asked and served with lovely wild boar pate and crispy onions. For dessert he enjoyed the sticky toffee bread & butter pudding which was suprisingly really light and came with a proper custard (but slightly overwhelmingly ice cream as well..)
The service throughout was impeccable and friendly and to finish off our evening we were offered a liqueur ‘on the house’ as it was our anniversary. This was a really gernerous gesture, and I don’t think there are that many places in Leeds where you would get such a personal touch. We also received 10% off our bill for being Twitter followers, which I think is a very savvy thing to do. It’s great to see small businesses using social media as for me, being able to tweet questions about the menu and such like in advance is a definite bonus.
‘Dough champions Yorkshire produce, using the finest of the region’s ingredients to create inspirational English cuisine with Leeds flair and Yorkshire passion.’
Having seen this statement on their website before our visit I had thought it was a lot to live up to, but actually I think it sums it up pretty well. It feels like they are aiming for the stars, and coming so close to getting there. We very much enjoyed the atmosphere, the service and the food and our only real complaint was that there was too much of it!
Our compliments to the chef and thanks for making us feel so welcome.
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