Food Review River Plate, Leeds Review
We sample riverside dining with an Argentinian twist
Food Review: River Plate, Leeds Review
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As they might say on Masterchef, restaurant locations don’t come much better than this. Salsa music is sashaying out from the speakers, delicious barbecuey aromas are in the air, ripples are sliding across the river outside. And yes, this is Leeds, not Latin America.
Formerly the site of the high-quality Calls Grill restaurant, this lovely open space – all bare brick, wooden floors, large wine glasses – is these days home to the Argentinean-themed steakhouse River Plate, who offer a tempting lunchtime express menu with main dishes at £6.95 each. What’s it like to take time out from your working day and call in to treat yourself to a proper sit-down lunch by the riverside, we wondered one day while sitting inside our stuffy office. I called in to find out.
Taking a quick scan down the dishes on offer when we visit, the signs are good, as it’s a menu packed with tried-and-tested classics that should make ideal lunchtime fare: mussels with garlic and white wine; gourmet burger with aioli and salsa; melon with king prawns; chilli and lime chicken salad, that kind of thing. Any one of those, washed down with a cold beer or a glass of wine, sounds good to us.
After an appetiser of bread and olives, I opt for the burger, which comes nicely presented on a wooden board. It’s a big, hefty, charred piece of meat – a proper burger – piping hot and with a nice kick of spice in the mix, sitting inside a lightly toasted bun, cheese melting down the meaty chargrilled edges. You can have your burger with salad or fries and it also comes with a selection of sauces. I go for the fries, which are just as they should be, crisp on the outside and fluffy within.
And if you fancy a drink to wash down this hearty lunch, you have a list of predominantly Argentinian, Chilean and Spanish wines; good choices for a food menu specialising in red meat. Malbec is of course on there, a grape that’s well known as a great pairing for beef, but you also have a fruity Merlot at £4.15 a glass that’s a good bet for lunchtime drinking, as is a Sauvignon Blanc at the same price, especially if you’re eating one of the chicken or seafood dishes.
As well as being tasty, that burger is one hell of a feed, especially for a lunchtime. But in the name of research I plough on to sample a couple of desserts, which come in at £4.95 each. A sticky toffee pudding is again well made, super-moist and difficult to leave alone despite the ever-decreasing stomach space; a chocolate brownie is dark, indulgent, gooey.
That’s me done for, clearly not being used to this kind of feed on a weekday lunchtime. But I guess that’s partly the beauty of it: although it seems like a real treat to head out for lunch like this, you’re not going to need much for your evening meal when you get home.
Posted on Wednesday 10th August 2011
River Plate
36-38 The Calls, Leeds, LS2 7EW
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