I hadn’t been to The New Conservatory in Leeds before and I am now kicking myself as to why not. I took along Grace to try out their new menu and it was absolutely glorious. Spoiler alert or what?Sorry.
We were given a quick run down of the menu for the night, which was mini versions of the core menu on taster plates, I actually wish they actually had these on the main menu as I would literally have them every time I went! Except, maybe a full plate for the belly pork starter – I could have eaten that for dayyyyyssss.
If you’ve not been before either it’s pretty easy to find, just on Albion Place in the centre. You go down some concrete steps and descend into an early 1900’s stately home. Well, not quite , but the central bar made of intricately carved mahogany and bookcases covering the walls in the ‘library’ kinda make it feel that way- it’s just all a bit Cluedo.
I’m going to put it out there and say the starters were my favourite course of the day, and it was the Halloumi followed by the Belly Pork that did it, in the Library,  with a candlestick. (Couldn’t resist!)


Lets rewind for a second though, Tempura Halloumi is fabulous. On a tiny bed of Courgetti (giving all the blogger food stereotypes in one!) and some sweet chilli dip, I loved it.


The belly pork was the ultimate winner, it melted in the mouth and just had the most amazing flavour, combined with the pea purée it was the best thing I ate that night and probably all week.


I feel like the crab cake got a poor deal as it was very lovely and if it hadn’t been flanked by two amazing dishes it would have got more love! It was nice but if you go the pork should be the first on the list to try in my opinion.
Grace and I got chatting and our lovely server came back so quickly with our mains we hadn’t recapped on our days never mind much else! Speed does impress me , when it comes to food delivery anyway, especially when it’s super yummy food so I was happy. We had goats cheese and red pepper risotto first, and I’m not a massive risotto fan so I don’t think I can comment much but the flavours weren’t strong and it was more red pepper than goats cheese I thought.


Our other mains were more my cup of tea. The pan fried cod was really nice, it was really chunky so was filling and melt in the mouth. Plus I love a bit of tenderstem broccoli so I would say it was my favourite of three. The rack of lamb was lovely and mine was easy to cut off the bone, Graces’ was a little harder to get around thanks to the bone and more of a challenge but if that doesn’t put you off then the meat was again melt in the mouth and cooked just right, the bubble and squeak was also a great touch.

I was a bit worried when I saw the fillet steak skewer featured blue cheese sauce as I’m not a big fan, and luckily it came on the side and was more of a thick butter than pouring sauce. It meant I did sweep the gloriously soft pieces of fillet steak across the top to add a slight flavour to them, and it was utterly delicious.
At this point we were stuffed, my non alcoholic strawberry cocktail had only served to make me even fuller and we were given a little reprieve from food for a bit and got to appreciate the live musician who did a fab acoustic version of hotline bling that I rather liked. They have an open mic night every Thursday so if you like some live music whilst you drink and eat make sure you go on a Thursday!


Once our dinner had settled we got into dessert. Home made passion fruit cheesecake was lovely and refreshing after the meal, the amaretto and chocolate mousse was nice but I’m not a big fan of mousses and I couldn’t taste loads of amaretto which was a good thing as I don’t really like it haha.


The star was the Salted Caramel Sundae, it was glorious, and it came topped with a physalis which is one of my fave unusual fruits! Winner. The ice cream used in The New Conservatory is locally produced and supplied by Northern Bloc, and I want to try the Eton Mess when I next go as that uses their roasted strawberry flavour which sounds delicious.

And returning I will be, it’s reasonably priced at around the £5.25-£6.25 mark for starters, mains from £10 to £20(for lobster drooool) and £5-£5.50 for desserts, it’s very reasonable for the standard of food you get.bon fact the only downside is the dark lighting which makes taking photos of food a little bit difficult- always something to consider I feel! But seriously though, let me know if you stop by and what you try if you do so I can try some thing different when I go back!