Sous Le Nez, Leeds: 'I ate at the pioneering restaurant which serves good food with a whiff of nostalgia'

I was also about to flunk my A-Levels (spoiler alert – it worked out alright in the end). But whilst I was your typical angst-ridden teen and the rest of the world was worrying about turmoil in the Middle East (what was it Mark Twain said, “history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes”), two men – restaurateur Robert Chamberlain and executive chef Andrew Carter – were about to open a new restaurant in Leeds city centre.

Best restaurants in Yorkshire 2026: The 20 best restaurants in Yorkshire according to our food reviewers

Thirty-five years ago, Leeds was on the up. Its football team was flying high in the old first division (they would be crowned champions a little over 12 months later), and the city was emerging from its post-industrial slumber, remodelling itself as an economic hub that would later see it dubbed the country’s biggest financial centre outside London.

It was against this backdrop that Sous Le Nez, a French-style bistro, was born. This basement restaurant, under the Victorian red brick building that once housed Leeds and County Liberal Club, quickly found its feet.

A pioneer of the early-bird menu, it became the eating place of choice for the city’s growing business community who, as well enjoying good food and a wine list to match, no doubt found its nooks and crannies ripe for deal making.

And it wasn’t just movers and shakers in the business world who beat a path to its door, the restaurant and wine bar attracted visiting celebrities such as Alan Bennett, Sir Stephen Fry and Timothy West.

It’s one thing, though, to be flavour of the month, it’s an altogether different challenge to still be going more than three decades later.

The last time I was here was shortly before Covid, since when the hospitality sector has taken a battering, with high-end restaurants hit particularly hard.

In Leeds alone, the likes of Home, The Owl and Michael O’Hare’s ill-fated Psycho Sandbar have closed within the last couple of years.

Which makes Sous Le Nez’s longevity all the more impressive.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this (aside from the fact that it’s blumin hard to start a new restaurant these days no matter who’s behind the stove), is the fact that it’s stuck to what it does well, rather than chasing new trends.

French cookery may have fallen out of favour as tastes have changed, but it’s still seen as the gold standard. Whenever chefs talk about being “classically trained” it’s French techniques they’re referring to.

But it’s more than that. If you’re anything like me it taps into childhood memories, when going out for a fancy meal meant getting dressed up and invariably heading to a French restaurant with your parents.

So much of the joy of food is wrapped up in nostalgia, and Sous Le Nez has this in spades.

The minute you step into this cavernous, subterranean space it feels welcoming, with the wooden wine racks, twinkling glass cabinets and Veuve Clicquot buckets adding an air of old-school authenticity – if you stumbled across a place like this in a side street off Rue des Abbesses in Paris, you would be raving about it to your friends.

The menu is, as you would expect, unapologetically French, and from a liberal choice of starters we plumped for the cider braised pig cheeks with gnocchi and crispy bacon.

The pig cheeks were on the generous side (not that I’m complaining), with the dish brought together by an unctuous, lip-lickingly good cider sauce.

The decadent crab soufflé with thermidor sauce and Comté was equally sure-footed, with the crab flavour coming through rather than drowning in a sea of cheese.

If this carried a Gallic stamp then so, too, did the chicken “two ways” (pan roasted breast and leg bonbons) which came with fondant potato and a tarragon and mushroom cream sauce.

I don’t normally go for chicken when I’m out, as there are usually more interesting options, but this had me at “leg bonbons”.

Aside from the breast, which was a tad dry, this hit all the right notes of comfort food French-style, once again enhanced by an excellent sauce.

Alongside this we had one of the specials, a venison haunch steak with honey mustard grilled Hispi cabbage, brown butter mash and a redcurrant jus. Call me old-fashioned, but I do like a specials board.

It’s not only a sign of a confident kitchen, but often where you find some of the best dishes, as was the case here with the perfectly cooked venison the star of the show.

We finished off with a blood orange panna cotta and poached Yorkshire rhubarb, which was as refreshing as it sounds and helped cut through the savoury richness that came before.

The aforementioned wine list came in one of those leather-bound volumes that were de rigueur back in the day.

And while yes, it has some bottles whose price tags would make your eyes water, it also has plenty of affordable options for those who want something more quaffable.

The service was efficient and friendly enough and the final bill for two, including a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses of crémant, came to £132.30.

Despite its popularity with businesspeople, it’s not just the suits who come here.

On a busy Friday evening we saw groups of friends, couples out on dates and even a hen do. In other words, it attracts a mixed crowd and is all the better for it.

Sous Le Nez might not be breaking gastronomic boundaries, but it knows who its audience is and what they want – good food in a convivial atmosphere with a gentle whiff of nostalgia.

Welcome 4/5

Food 4/5

Atmosphere 5/5

Prices 4/5

Sous Le Nez, Quebec House, Quebec Street, Leeds. LS1 2HA. souslenez.com