Hern in Chapel Allerton: The hidden restaurant in Leeds' trendy neighbourhood

It’s a chilly Thursday night in January and Chapel Allerton, two miles north of Leeds city centre, is lit up and jumping.

The area around Stainbeck Lane and Harrogate Road is packed with restaurants and bars and they’re rammed: Black Market, Aagrah, Sukothai, Seven Arts, Pinche Pinche, the Mustard Pot, the Woods, La Princesse, Black Sheep, Casa Mia and on it goes. Post-lockdown, it feels as if everyone is out making up for lost time.

Hern, an unassuming little restaurant on Stainbeck Corner, is there too, but easy to miss, squeezed among the more shouty restaurants of LS7. It all looks a bit basic, bright lights, whitewashed walls, minimal decor and half a dozen wooden tables.

From the outside, there is no clue as to what’s going on inside, no menu, no opening times, nothing to say something interesting is going on here yet every table is taken. It could be a private party, a supper club, or a passing pop-up. Clearly those who know, know.

They know it’s a no-choice menu of four courses (with an optional £10 fish and cheese course), at the set price of £35. No dithering over dishes, no sharing with anyone. It’s my dream scenario. I can carry on chatting with my mates while someone brings me whatever chef wants to cook.

What Rab Adams wants to cook today is chalked up on a blackboard: bread and snacks, a bitter leaf salad, Yorkshire lamb followed by rhubarb and meringue.

Naturally, it’s both seasonal and local. Any chef worth his Maldon sea salt will know his local producers and buy in season and Rab is just such a chef.

His shtick is cooking simply and sustainably, which means making use of everything that comes into the kitchen from butchering a lamb and adding vegetable peelings to his stocks, to using plum stones and fruit skin to make into cordials and ice cream.

So who is Rab Adams? In a nutshell his C.V. reads: physics graduate from Edinburgh, trained at Cordon Bleu, worked at Hedone and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay before heading north to York’s estimable Cochon Aveugle. Launched Roops (named after his dog) a wholesale sourdough bakery in Bramley before opening Hern in 2019.

I was first alerted to him when I heard that Josh Overington of Cochon was guest cheffing one Sunday at Hern. I reckoned an alumnus of Cochon must be doing something good in Chapel A.

And so he is, first with a series of snacks, brought to us by the personable front of house Shaun Hencher, who has already set us up with the wine list, water and propped the blackboard menu up beside us.

He knows about the food too, the mellow, savoury dashi-style broth made with charred onions, celeriac, seaweed and veg peelings; the slice of Roscoff onion tarte tatin, with a sweetness that comes from cooking the onions to near collapse; and the final snack, pieces of crumbed and deep-fried celeriac with a leek mayonnaise.

Who doesn’t like a deep-fried, crispy anything? This is textbook with its crisp coating and soft, forgiving celeriac inside and the charred leeks give a pleasing smokiness to the dipping mayo.

Focaccia, drizzled with olive oil, accompanies a salad of bitter leaves; the assertive purple leaves of the radicchio have been shredded, offset with earthy golden beetroot and then finished with finely grated Ribblesdale cheese. The blackboard claimed a Dijon mustard vinaigrette. If it was there at all, it had been dressed with the lightest of hands.

The fish course was a dainty square of sea bass served with some lightly cooked, vibrant spinach which worked nicely with a wine and butter sauce.

Nick, my dining chum, had raved about the venison he’d had on a previous visit. This time he had to contend with slices from a leg of Yorkshire lamb which was no hardship. It hit all the right notes paired with a velvety celeriac puree, pine nuts and the meat juices. It would have been our top dish had it not been for the finale of rhubarb sorbet.

Forced rhubarb has just come in season, grown in candlelight in the long, low forcing sheds around Wakefield. Chefs love it for its earthy flavour and its delicate pink colour so expect to see it on every menu from now until March. It works beautifully here as a sorbet served with whipped cream infused with bitter orange puree, the bitter notes of rhubarb and orange contrasting with shards of sweet meringue. Top dish.

I know not everyone will be content with a no-choice menu, (Hern serves an à la carte at Saturday lunch) but in these difficult times, it makes perfect sense for a small local restaurant. The kitchen can keep in control of its budget, it can eliminate waste and, like the lovely Hern, it can offer terrific value to customers.

Hern Restaurant, 5 Stainbeck Corner, Leeds LS7 3PG, 0113 262 5809, [email protected], www.hernrestaurant.com. Open: Wednesday to Friday 6-8.30pm, Saturday, 12.30-2.30pm and 6-8.30pm. Price: dinner for two, including a bottle of wine and service, £95.

Welcome 5/5

Food 5/5

Atmosphere 4/5

Prices 5/5