La Grillade - Wellington Street, Leeds

You cannot beat classic French for a good meal and La Grillade is about as classic French as you can get. This bijou establishment has been on the Leeds food scene for many years and is a bit of a legend.

As the name suggests it’s a grill, if you like your meat you’ll be happy and we were very happy. It was my 30th at the weekend so the Lady took us out for a treat so we went all out. I ordered a bottle of their cheapest champagne and all things considered it was pretty good.

To start I went for the Rillettes, I love Pork Rilettes so I really had to have this one in all honesty. Rich and creamy with pork fat it was served in Quenelles, how retro is that, with some hot toast it was near to perfect but could have been a bit more peppery.

The Lady ordered Escargot, she literally eats everything so I was not surprised. I tried one and I can safely say I still hate them, I really don’t see the attraction.

She did say they could have been more garlicky. For mains we went for the daddy of all steaks Château Briand, served rare with Frites. It was spot on and there is nothing more to say on the matter.

I think you can tell from my blog I’m a man of simple tastes and pleasures so it won’t be too much of a surprise when I tell you I had the Crème Brulee for dessert. It was a delight I’m not going to say any more on the matter.

The Lady had Tarte aux Pommes, which was delicious and the portion was just the right size considering it’s richness.  To heighten the sheer class of the evening Alan Bennett was eating at the table over the way from us, he is pretty much in the premiership of top old Yorkshire men so it was a classy affair.

All in all La Grillade is delightfully decadent and deliciously retro and surprisingly good value as our meal was £112 including service charge which I was more than happy to pay, the service was excellent as well with actual French people at the helm.

Of course the company was excellent as always and my spirits were high because of the occasion but I definitely think this is a place to try if you haven’t been before.