The Owl Leeds - a review and thoughts on fine dining
We attended The Owl Summer preview - it was a mixed bag
I’m an unashamed foodie and living within striking distance of Leeds means we have lots of great dining choices.
The other evening we took up the all-in 6 course food and wine pairing at £90 per person plus 10% service charge at the recently relocated The Owl. The ongoing price is £67 + £40 for wine pairing. There are other menu options including a 2 person grazing plate at a very reasonable £35.
By any measure this meal is an indulgence I justify on two measures: first I won’t be taking a holiday this year, second I only go to restaurants 4-6 times a year. Yes, I’m white and I have funds but I love great food.
Anyhoo…The Owl is an offshoot of Liz Cottam’s Home restaurant, her upmarket spot that we’ve patronised the last few years. The Owl offers a pared back top of the line menu - if that makes sense - at its new spot on Mustard Wharf.
The interior is sparse and I’m pretty sure they rescued light fittings from the ‘old’ Home spot to pimp out an unashamed industrial look. Seating is excellent and comfortable as is social spacing in this high ceiling place. Food? Read on.
The pre-starter/snacks were awesome with a plump Lindisfarne oyster decorated with sesame and seaweed as top of the show. Then came the beautifully cooked lamb, fennel, caraway and cucumber.
The cured skrei cod was a dud. We have no idea what happened but the texture left us thinking we were consuming wet sandpaper. It’s advertised as having caviar but it’s not. It’s red lump roe. This needs a rethink.
The venison course was sublime. A beautifully cooked slab of venison sandwiched quite literally exploded with flavour but…was let down by an accompaniment of wonderful braised venison, drowned in potato cream that made the plate overly rich, despite the Cotes du Rhone wine accompaniment. Hint: Potato cream is an American invention. Serve proper English mash. Oh - and maybe steam the cauli a few more minutes longer to match the tenderness of the meat.
A Tunworh cheese and rye cake serving was like Christmas on a plate - fabulous for us northern but then they let us down by offering a total sugar overload.
Because, next came an odd menu ice creamy thingy followed by chocolate and hazelnut fudge aka brownie (bullshit), salted caramel mousse and milk ice cream (not sorbet as advertised)plus thankfully sharp blackcurrants. It was far too rich given how the rest of the courses had added a rich sense of eating well. The wait staff agreed.
The included wine pairings were excellent - hats off to the sommelier.
Overall? I’ll give The Owl 7/10. The service was disjointed with some courses taking too much time to come out though the staff demonstrated a good understanding of what they deliver.
The thing that got us was the overall lack of balance. In crucial spots it felt like they’d lost the plot and at the end, we had to leave the sugar heart attacks on a plate aka chocolate brownie such as I’ve never seen before. In that sense, The Owl provided an sometimes uncomfortable rollercoaster of an experience.
But…we are patrons of Liz Cottam’s flagship Home restaurant so naturally we make comparisons and on this outing The Owl comes a very poor second.
Having said that this was a Wednesday in a new part of the regenerating Leeds canal area at a new resto that’s clearly trying to find it’s feet. As we left the house we felt overly full. To that extent they’ve got something right though I’m not sure everyone would agree with that assessment.