Anthony's Restaurant

When I phoned up to book a table at Anthony's Restaurant, I found myself in a rather long process. You have to phone up a central booking line for the series of restaurants they have across Leeds, at which point I was told by the girl who answered that their booking system was down, so she would have to take down my details and phone me back to confirm.

She did, and the booking was made, but on arrival on the night it seemed like we need not have bothered. After ordering our food in the reception lounge, we were lead down to the restaurant to find we were the only ones there. Indeed, we had the place to ourselves for an hour before two other couples arrived.

The restaurant itself was cleanly decorated, which was not personally to my taste - the white walls felt a bit too clinical. We had decided to go for the eight course taster menu - a menu that does not have set items but is composed of dishes made up by the chef as they go.

Naturally, each course was fairly small - essential when you have that many courses to get through! This was served with a small loaf of home made bread that was delicious - we ended up eating our way through an entire loaf each. The dishes themselves were exceptional, and extremely well laid out. The only criticism I can make is that after six or seven courses of rich sauces, my tastebuds began to find them rather sickly.

The staff were attentive and knowledgeable, talking us through what we were eating on each course.

Overall, it was an excellent experience, and we both left extremely full. But the lack of atmosphere and the few other people in the restaurant being twice our age left something to be desired, especially for the price.