CrowdedHouse, Leeds: ‘I indulged in the new autumn menu at the Yorkshire restaurant and it felt like a warm hug’
As I escaped the crowds of Trinity in Leeds and sought comfort at CrowdedHouse the experience there felt like a warm hug.
I was invited to try the new autumn menu at CrowdedHouse in Trinity Leeds with a guest last week on behalf of The Yorkshire Post and it was cosy in more ways than one.
With Light Night taking over the city, the traffic was atrocious and navigating through the crowds at Trinity Centre to get to the restaurant was interesting to say the least.
But the busy atmosphere made the experience more festive and cosy than I had anticipated - which is exactly what I needed that evening.
Around this time of year I’m always looking forward to the snug season of autumn, so after escaping the crowds of Trinity, I walked into CrowdedHouse with a sense of relief.
We were greeted by the assistant general manager, Antonio Perrini, who was very welcoming and friendly.
The first thing I noticed was the nature and forest-themed decor and how private and cosy the seating booths were.
To me, ambience is absolutely essential for the overall dining experience, so I could tell they really made an effort with this.
We were offered three courses of our choice from the A La Carte menu; for starters I chose the fennel seed focaccia, mushroom parfait and sage butter and my guest chose the coal-baked celeriac, rarebit, waldorf salad and walnut cream.
Due to a cooked cream intolerance, I wasn’t able to try the latter.
The focaccia was delicious; it had so much flavour in the bread and crust and the sage butter went perfectly with it.
I ate nearly every slice and I thought I’d be too full by the time the mains arrived, but I was still hungry.
The flavours coming out of the focaccia were perfumy and similar to the taste of licorice from the fennel seeds, while the sage butter had a herby, fragrant tang. It was definitely my favourite course.
For the mains, I chose the dry aged smashed patty burger, house pickles, beef fat brioche bun with rosti chips. It was the first burger I’ve had without cheese.
Anyone who knows me will know that there is no way I would have a burger without cheese but I chose to mix it up this time.
It turned out it tasted just as delicious without the cheese. With the burger sauce, pickles and the sponginess of the brioche bun, it was one of the best burgers I’ve tasted and perfectly cooked.
I also chose a large glass of the Provence Rose Ch. La Tour De L’Eveque French wine which perfectly complemented my meal - I savoured it throughout the three courses while I had a catch up with my guest of honour.
I’ll be honest, I was underwhelmed with my choice of dessert which was the giant damsen Jammy Dodger. My main thought when picking this out was intrigue - how large could they make a Jammy Dodger?
The middle layer was ice cream and while its appearance was identical to a regular Jammy Dodger, I wasn’t too keen on the flavour as it didn’t jump out at me.
However, my guest chose the Guinness sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and Earl Grey ice cream - now that was the best dessert I’ve had in a long time.
Even though I had two previous courses and some of my own dessert, I still had room to indulge in the sticky toffee pudding and I never expected the flavours of beer and tea to go so well in a pudding, but I was very wrong. They both enriched the taste of the dessert.
It was an impeccable finale to the evening. We finished the night with an atmospheric view of the rooftop bar.
At the end, I got to meet the chef, Simon Jewitt, who was very accommodating and I tip my hat to him and his extraordinary efforts to source localised Yorkshire produce. It really made a difference to the quality of the foo