Jaldi Jaldi

Translating to Quickly Quickly! This is a new fast food innovation from the curry kings at Mumtaz. I visited the branch at the Leeds Uni Union.

Its a simple concept, Mumtaz cook their famous curries at a central location and then deliver them daily to the Jaldi Jaldi stores. There is a good range of dishes, both (halal) meat and vegetable, some mild and some hotter.

For £3.95 you get to choose any dish with rice, which is then reheated in one of the microwaves stacked behind the counter. (I particularly liked the way veggie dishes had their own ovens, keeping the meat and veg completely separate). You get a fair sized portion, its not huge but enough for lunch and its a comparable price with other take always. As you would expect with Mumtaz the food was of a good quality and beautifully spiced.

The stall also sells a range of Mumtaz own brand drinks and products to take home.
It seems that there are plans to open several Jaldi Jaldi outlets. I have already seen branches appear in Headingly and Chapel A. It's an interesting innovation and a tasty and potentially quite healthy alternative lunch option.

Jaldi Jaldi

*Tasty, quality curries
*Good choice of dishes
*Something different for a (quick) lunch

Leeds University Union
Lifton Place
Leeds
LS2 9JT

Calls Landing

Calls Landing is a tiny little bar by the river on the Calls. Like a lot of the venues on that stretch, Calls Landing has left the beams and bricks of the former warehouse it lives in exposed. The furniture is 70's inspired tan leather and there are funky prints on the walls.

The old warehouse windows look out over the water and let in a good amount of light, but by night the bar is cosy and candle lit. For warmer days there is also the option to sit outside on the decking area looking over the river. The atmosphere is effortlessly cool, but with not the slightest hit of pretension.

The menu has recently relaunched with the simple theme of stew and oysters. We found 3 choices of stew today on the chalk board, a Moroccan chickpea one, a spiced pork and almond option, and a classic Irish beef. Gev had the Moroccan stew, and I had the pork. I'm ashamed to say I wasn't brave enough to try an oyster.

As the stews were ready prepared, they were served to us immediately after ordering. The huge dishes came with a couple of chunks of bread and a cheese and salad garnish. The speed of service means that would be a good option for a time limited lunch break as you know your not going to be hanging around for your food.The stews were hearty and filling, mine had plenty of chunks of pork in it and the flavours were good. We thought they were excellent value at just £5.50 each. If you want a lighter option/ filling snack you can for £3 get a chunk of bread with a ladle full of stew to top it. A good value, warming meal, perfect for a cold winters day!

Calls Landing
*Small cosy bar
*Simple menu done well
*Lovely waterside location

36-38 The Calls,
LS2 7EW
0113 242 5299

Website

Ha Ha Bar and Grill

I popped in here today for a bit of lunch today with a friend after shopping. We decided on Ha Ha because we thought it would be a cheap chain bar type of place. We were wrong, well not completely- it is a chain bar, but it aint cheap.

The lunch menu starts as advertised at £6 but goes up to £7.50. On the main menu most of the dishes are the wrong side of a tenner. I chose the nachos (£7.95) and Em had the chicken burger (£7.50) from the lunch menu which came with chips.

The food was really tasty. Rather than being the usual out a packet corn type tortilla chips, these nachos were cooked pieces of tortilla wrap and then covered in the usual cheese/salsa etc. We thought this was a nice tasty alternative. Em said her burger was very good.The staff were friendly and helpful and the food came out quick.

Ha ha is a trendy type bar, and it is decorated as such, with all the usual clean lines and dark wood. What is nice about Ha Ha is the choice of environment, as in the summer there is a large seating area out on Millennium square, and there is also an area in the covered courtyard of the Electric Press.
In summary, Ha Ha is a pleasant enough venue, but it does feel a bit soulless and bland. As for the food, it was very nice, but the menu was quite unoriginal and I feel you could probably get something similar for much less cost elsewhere (such as the Slug and Lettuce, who are owned by the same people).

Ha Ha Bar and Grill
*Trendy chain bar
*Tasty food
*Expensive

Electric Press

Leeds
LS2 3AD

0113 244 8835

Website

A Nation of Shopkeepers

Most people will know this place as the old Courtyard bar. It was taken over and given a complete facelift a few months ago and reopened, with not only a new name, but a new direction, ethos and target clientèle.

The interior is now arty and retro chic. There is art on the walls and in the windows, funny noises playing in the toilets and carefully arranged 'clutter' on the shelves behind the bar.

The beer selection has been improved and the prices increased, not beyond the realms of reasonable, but high enough to deter the scruffs. The crowd is young and trendy and I got the feeling that maybe my haircut and fashion sense was not nearly ironic enough for me to be in there.

We were greeted at the bar by.... well actually we weren't. We stood there for ages before being met with a miserable grunt from the bar tender. We got our drinks and sat down on the comfortable 70's style sofas to pick our food.

The menu has a range of sandwiches, traditional comfort foods and burgers. The prices are all quite reasonable with sandwiches starting at about £3.50 and burgers going up to about £8. We made our choices and then we waited.

And waited

And after half an hour my fish finger sandwich arrived, served with a small side portion of the signature fries. My meal was really tasty, the chips were lovely and there was a decent amount of food considering the price. Unfortunately some of the toasted sandwiches that my friends had were quite burnt.When our plates were cleared we were not asked 'how was your meal?' I suspect as the server knew what we might say.

I had a meal here just a week after the relaunch, and decided not to write a review as the food hadn't met my expectations then, but I wanted to give the place a fair chance to settle in.

Sadly I get the feeling that there is an air of complacency about things, the surroundings are spot on, the menu and ingredients used are good, but this all means nothing without enthusiastic staff striving to keep standards high. They need to pick up their game and give people a reason to go back and keep the place alive once all the scenesters have moved on to something new.

A nation of shopkeepers

*Trendy place to be seen
*Innovative, arty, interesting space
*Hit and miss on the food front

27 - 37 Cookridge Street,
Leeds,
LS2 3AG
Website

Read my review of the opening night on Culture Vulture

Bakery 164

Bakery 164 is a little sandwich shop situated on the Woodhouse Lane opposite the University. You would think it was like any other sandwich shop except for the fact that all of the bread here is baked freshly on the premises every day.

The sandwich choices are all ready made and waiting for you when you get to the shop making it very quick to grab something on a lunch break. There was a good variety of traditional and more alternative fillings, although as the sandwiches were pre made, you couldn't have any choice about the contents e.g. if you didn't like salad you would have to pick it out yourself. Prices were about on par with other sandwich shops (each item is priced depending on bread/ filling).

I'm also one who likes a bit of sauce/ relish/ pickle/ mayo on their sandwich, and even when I did make a choice including mayonnaise, there wasn't enough in it to stop the filling being dry (As Peter Kay once said... 'Has tha nowt moist???').

There was also a tempting selection of home made cakes, served in generous wedges. I chose a rocky road, which was rich and buttery.The sandwich itself was pretty tasty, and the fillings were generous, this one contained marinaded chicken, salad and bacon. The bread was particularly good, with the sandwich only being let down by a slight lack of mayo, but I suppose that is my personal preference.

Bakery 164
*Freshly made bread
*Wide selection of fillings
*Ready made for quick service

164 Woodhouse Lane
Leeds LS2 9HB
0113 245 8641
Website

Sam's Chop House

Sam's is one of a small chain of three Victorian themed restaurants. From the outside the building looks huge, but actually half of the interior is taken up by the bar area, meaning that the dining room is really quite modest. The décor is a modern take on Victoriana, with chandeliers, heavy curtains, and a large mirror and fireplace, it makes it feel smart and traditional.

The menu is priced towards the higher end of the market but as we went early we were able to take advantage of the express menu at £13.95 for 3 courses. The higher prices of the main menu are justified by the restaurant's claims that much of the food is sourced locally and home made. (This really shouldn't be something special or different, but sadly it is!).

The food is all traditional British. Its nice to see a this type of restaurant sticking by its guns and not panicking by throwing in a Caesar salad and a Thai green curry for trendy mass appeal.

For starters we both had the crispy corned beef hash cake (with home made corned beef) topped with a poached egg and a huge (bordering on excessive) blob of HP sauce. This was delicious and the poached egg was perfectly runny. The portion size was decent, but not too filling, although Liam could have eaten it twice (because it really was that yummy).

For my main course I had a roasted vegetable tart topped with salad and a huge slice of deep fried goats cheese. Any dish containing deep fried cheese is going to be a winner in my books, but I must say it is nice to see a restaurant bothering to be a bit creative with the often neglected vegetarian dishes.

Liam chose the burger, which was actually 2 mini burgers topped with chunky chips. Being a man Liam though this was silly and said he would have preferred one big burger. Being a girl I though this was sweet, and also gets around the problem of huge burgers disintegrating as you try to eat them. Liam chose to pay the £2 supplement for bacon and cheese on his burgers which he didn't think was worth it as the additional toppings were less than generous.

For dessert we both had sticky toffee pudding, which was a simple classic and complimented by the home made ice cream.

The service was pretty good, and the food came out quickly. It was obvious that the waiting staff had been trained to old fashioned standards which I liked (I much prefer 'sir' and 'madam' to 'babes' and 'hun').

The food was comforting and sparked nostalgia, whilst remaining quite modern and interesting. Sam's have proved that hearty and traditional does not have to mean dull and stodgy.

Sams Chop House
*Delicious traditional food
*Good value express menu
*Smart, comfortable surroundings

8 South Parade
Leeds
LS1 5QX

0113 204 2490
Website

The REAL McCoy

My grandma used to tell me that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, however it still is really annoying when it happens. I have recently been made aware of a blog post ripping off one of my own. It has now been taken down but the blog concerned contains a multitude of lovely food photos. If you write a food blog take a look and check none of your own stuff is there... the style of photos look too mismatched to all be from one person.

www.joyofood.wordpress.com