If I could only visit one restaurant for the rest of the year this would be it!
It was Mr E’s birthday so I said I’d treat him to a lovely meal in Leeds. ( Unfortunately it’s taken a while to publish this as there were some scheduling issues so sorry!) After hearing about Roast + Conch at the PS Pre Party and seeing the amazing menu I knew I had to take (read drag!) him there.
Its one of two restaurants owned by Hotel Chcolat so he had feared that everything we ate would be smothered in chocolate,which was certainly not the case.
Luckily it was amazing as I’d heard and so he was a happy boy!
The restaurant sits above the Hotel Chocolat shop and has window booths and tables on the centre facing the open kitchen.
Our waiter Peter was amazing and explained all about the restaurant, and talked to us about the cocoa nibs, what variety they were that month and how to taste them. Alongside the cocoa nibs to try we were given a small drinking soup made with. Root vegetables and topped with cocoa nibs infused in chilli oil.
I won’t go into all the delicious details but I will show you the dishes we chose.
We shared starters, and the gnocchi was really unusual , it’s Mr.E’s fave food to eat but these were so different as the goats cheese gave them a lighter texture and a lot of flavour. I chose the Yorkshire pudding and the red wine cocoa gravy was amazing, it looked like I was pouring chocolate sauce on my beef!
For main I had to have my favourite type of steak Ribeye and Mr E had the Pork.
I’d been told to try the White Potato Mash as it’s the only savoury dish made blatantly with chocolate, as in the potato is mashed with white chocolate it is amazing and I might be sneaking a milky bar into the next mash potato I make! Mr E went for the sweet potato ribbons as a side and these were crisped to perfection.
After talking through my steak preferences with Peter (I like it medium, but if I have it when it’s still red and bleeding I get terrible stomach cramps so a browned medium is what I need!) the chef had cooked it to perfection. In not exaggerating when I say it’s the best steak I have ever eaten, it just melted as I ate it! It came with the most amazing dauphinoise potatoes which I devoured and again the sauce was divine.
After a meat and carb overload we were contemplating not having a dessert but had asked to see the menu just incase it could change our minds.
Along with the menu came this lovely plate of chocolates with a birthday message for Mr E. Peter talked is through what conch the plain chocolate was as well as the individual chocs which were of course to a Hotel Chocolat’s usual standards. So much so that we went and purchased some in the shop below afterwards.
It gave us the taste for something sweet sand our resolve caved and we ordered a dessert each and agreed to go halves on them.
Luke’s chosen dessert was so light and airy and was perfect to go after a heavy meal. The meringue peak was based on mount Piton which overlooks the St Lucia Hotel Chocolat estate.
I had to go for more chocolate ( when in Rome and all that!) the cocoa infused ice cream was excellent with it too.
I also had this amazing cocktail called Pretty Pink, it’s muddled raspberries, cocoa gin, rose and prosecco. It tasted amazing and very floral. I loved the little flowers on the top!
It’s safe to say Mr E had a fab birthday and we both want to go back! I’ve heard the afternoon tea is amazing so think that’s one to try next!