Saturday 30 April 2011

Fazenda, Leeds - 28 April 2011


Pre dinner Cocktails @ Sky Lounge
There have been lots of good things recently.  Two four day weekends, a royal wedding, lots of sunshine.  For me though, my favourite thing recently has been my visit to Fazenda in Leeds.

Fazenda calls itself a unique concept in dining.  It is, ostensibly, an all you can eat steak restaurant for the truly lazy – you don’t even have to move from your seat to get food.

No more - too full amigo
But that is a complete failure to appreciate the brilliance of this restaurant.  The premise is that, for a set amount per head (£24.95 Sun-Thurs and £26.95 Fri and Sat), you can eat as much as you want from a salad bar and meats that are brought around by waiters from the kitchen.  You are given a red and green token which means that, when set to green, the waiters offer you the grilled meats and when red, they give you a break.  In the evening there are 15 cuts of meat which are marinated and grilled to perfection including rump steak, rib eye, iberico pork, spiced sausage, chicken thighs, chicken heart and salmon.  Eating this way gives you the opportunity to try things you wouldn’t normally pick on a menu (chicken hearts – like little gamey escargot).  Everything is really fresh and well cooked – there wasn’t anything disappointing.

The salad bar is also brilliant – a huge range of salads, pickles, black beans, rice, bread, smoked salmon, cheeses and so on.  I actually have a vegetarian friend who went on a Saturday night and was happy to pay the price for the salad bar alone.  

I would give a word of warning about the volume of food – don’t eat the day you are going (and the day before that if you can manage).  Our whole party was pretty much defeated by the quantity available.

I also managed a dessert (although I’m not sure how) and must recommend, if you can, that you try the sorbet.  Really tasty icy goodness.