Stew & Oyster on a Sunday

We did promise we'd revisit Stew & Oyster this weekend, to give it a real go after the opening.  We made the long walk (approximately half a mile) down the road and popped in on Sunday afternoon on our return from the Wirral.  

It was nicely busy, with most tables full of people relaxing with a drink and the papers.  The building itself is lovely - at the front there are high ceilings and huge windows which let in tons of light.  It occupies the old HSBC building and makes the most of the space.  It feels light and airy and altogether good for taking it easy and whiling away the hours.  As well as the tables downstairs, there's more room upstairs with comfy sofas and good people watching specs. 

This time we had a proper chance to check out what is on offer drinks-wise.  Apparently it had been a busy few days as they were out of one of the five white wines on offer, but I was able to try the pinot grigio rose (nice and easy drinking) while Joe made his way through some of the beers on offer.  These included Stew & Oyster's own brewed ale, another ale from the Burley brewery, and a pint of Vedett.  Anyone keeping their eye on twitter yesterday might have seen that the Vedett stirred up a bit of a debate - it's a bit on the pricey side!  The warning that should (and wasn't) given is that a pint of Vedett in Stew & Oyster costs a slightly inflated £4.95.  No worries if you really fancy a Vedett, but perhaps their beer prices should be a little clearer - it was more expensive than my wine, which was a first. This coupled with the fact that a very small plate of pistachios costs £2.00, and I was in a bit of a grumble for a while - it feels a little mean compared to what you get elsewhere in the local area.  Roundhay might be affluent, but it doesn't mean that people don't value their cash.  I only point these things out as constructive criticism as I like the place and want it to be a success.

Anyway, these were my only real negatives - it's a great space, the rest of the drinks are nice, and the food that we did see looked fantastic.  I spotted the pork pie plate, the Sunday stew topped with an enormous Yorkshire pudding and the ploughman's platter complete with pork terrine, pork pie and cheese, as well as some tasty looking oysters.  I'll have to get some more drinks in Joe before he will join me with the oysters unfortunately!

The oyster menu

The stews on offer - I haven't spotted the blackboard yet but it will be there somewhere

The £2.00 pistachios

Vedett - which is probably off the drinking list now!

Me trying the Burley ale - not quite my tastes!

In case you haven't seen it so far...the outside

Friday at Johnny Fontanes

On Friday evening we went to the soft launch of Johnny Fontanes, a new American-style diner in the Great George Street area of the city.  The official opening date hasn't been set yet as, rather sensibly, they want to iron out all the glitches before opening to the masses.

We were invited to try some of the food and drinks on offer.  The food is freshly made every morning and sticks to the American classics of burgers, pulled pork, chicken, wings and fries.  The drinks menu has a good range of American beers and bourbons and offers ciders, milkshakes and fresh lemonade.

The premise is a bit a-la-Nandos.  You order food and drinks at the bar and are given an electronic alert, which flashes when the food is ready.  You then collect it from the order point near the kitchen.  As long as this is explained clearly by the waiting staff on arrival, this should work in theory.

Given they are still in the trial stage, I expect things will change before the opening, but I hope they keep doing the burgers as they did last night because both Joe's and mine were very good.  I had the classic cheese burger with fries, which came in a tasty bun and the burger was obviously home made (in a good way), served with some salad.  Joe had the bacon double cheese with spiced fries, which as you would expect was similar to mine, but man-sized!  Being honest, the fries could do with a little work but that's one of the creases that will be ironed out before opening.  I also had a little preview of the chicken burger, courtesy of Rebecca (@reallygoodfood) and hope that when they open, they put the same salad in the chicken burger as in the beef. 

The drinks were a definite plus point - both beers were tasty and unusual.  I also love the branding which is hyper-50s style.  They are obviously very keen to make sure everything is running as well as possible on opening, and took on board the little issues that we raised.  Once open properly, we probably will give them another go and hope everyone else does the same.

bacon double cheese with spiced fries

That good branding

And our beers

Sunday - 10k Runs and Rib Eye!

If you read this you will know that I manged to rope Jo into doing a 10k run with me. We entered the Hoylake 10k which is in my home town and was  all for these guys so a very good cause....Nick Bro also joined us (much to his despair as he had a cold or something - boo hoo!). After the run at 11am, the plan was to watch the Liverpool game - it was great to see Family Hosny but the match was terrible with a 4 - 0 Spurs win..pah!!

The day started with porridge which Jo (being Scottish) is an expert at making

A pre run shot. As you can see Jo was overjoyed to be involved

I can speak for us all (including Nick Bro) that we enjoyed the run. The weather was pretty good and the wind wasn't too bad considering the seaside location. The official times are not on the website but I think I finished in around 42.40 mins and Jo in around 53 mins which is a great 1st 10k time, with Nick close behind - I don't think I have ever seen anyone so sweaty as him and he borrowed by headphones - YUCK!!!!

We got back to Leeds with a the rib eye from yesterday with us (thanks Mum), so Jo did a perfectly cooked steak with oven baked chips - just what we needed after the days exercise.

Oven baked chips

Steak

Perfect for us - rare!!!

All the good stuff

A well deserved beer