A lot to love
From the moment you walk in, it’s obvious that Bavette is a brilliant new French-inspired restaurant and a rising star in Leeds’s culinary scene, says Chris Bond. Pictures by James Hardisty.
SOMETIMES you walk into a restaurant and you know straight away you’re going to eat well. Bavette is one of those places. We had barely sat down at our table when the heady aromas of hot cheese and freshly baked bread made a full frontal assault on my nostrils to which I happily surrendered. I was confident it would be a good evening and I wasn’t wrong.
Bavette is a new neighbourhood bistro in Horsforth. Technically Horsforth is a town, though it’s also classed as a suburb of Leeds
(it’s about five miles from the city centre).
Either way, it’s a vibrant place and a popular place to live. So much so that in 2017 the Sunday Times named it one of the top 10 most desirable postcodes in the UK.
Fast forward seven years and it’s arguably Leeds’s most exciting gastronomic destination with the likes of The Three Swords (Indian street food in a pub) and Forde, owned by local lad Matt Healy (he of MasterChef fame), leading the way.
Now Bavette, which opened earlier this year, has added another string to its culinary bow.
The restaurant is run by Sandy and Clément whose dream was to open the kind of restaurant they would want to go to. So they did. And they’ve done a mightily impressive job.
Sandy hails from Leeds and is in the kitchen while French-born Clément, looking every inch the gallic host in his salmon-coloured chinos and matching striped shirt, is front of house.
It’s clear that a lot of care and attention has gone into this.
Everything from the elegant wall lamps and stylish, yet comfortable, tables and chairs, has been put together with us, the customers, in mind. Even the forest green walls work, offering a contrast to the bright, open plan kitchen at the back.
The service, too, is warm and friendly and the enthusiastic young staff are happy to talk you through the dishes.
Unsurprisingly, given the restaurant’s name and the owners’ backgrounds, there’s more than just a nod to French cuisine here. But then French cooking is to food what Shakespeare is to literature – inescapable. It’s the benchmark against which other culinary styles are measured and we have our cousins across the Channel to thank for innumerable classic dishes.
Yet as with all things, tastes and trends change and French cookery – all those rich creamy sauces – has fallen out of favour in recent years in our desire to embrace hitherto unexplored flavours and ingredients from around the world.
But just as you might get tired of listening to your favourite record and go off in search of new music (before coming back to it and remembering what all the fuss was about), so it is with food. Only here Bavette offers modern riffs rather than sticking religiously to an old playbook.
The menu is short (unlike the impressive wine list) and I for one welcome its brevity.
The phrase “less is more” springs to mind and in my experience a concise menu is usually a sign of a confident kitchen and the food, centred around classically inspired dishes with a focus on seasonality, is stonkingly good.
We weren’t planning on having any “snacks” but the sight and smell of a small plate of Comte cheese croquettes arriving at the table next to ours (not to mention the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ emanating from the two diners) proved too hard to resist. And I’m glad I let temptation get the better of me. Crispy coating, unctuous, stringy cheese and a perfect bechamel, combined to make some of the best croquettes I’ve ever had. Give me a bowl of these, a bottle of fizz and lead me to a darkened room – just don’t tell my cardiologist.
If they set a high bar, they were more than matched by the starters matched. The pork rillettes, which came with a cucumber and rhubarb pickle and sourdough toast, were a masterclass in balancing textures and flavours,
while the picked crab mayonnaise with house brioche, endive and lemon was everything I hoped it would be and more. The brioche, the aromas of which hit me the minute I walked through the door, was sensational. Bread can sometimes be an afterthought in restaurants, but here it’s thrown into the spotlight and allowed to strut its stuff.
There was no let-up in quality with the mains. The Cornish monkfish which came with a vin jaune sauce, buttered leeks, cucumber and fondant potato was precision cooking at its best. Given the name above the door you would expect the bavette steak with fries to be good, and boy it was.
By the time we reached the desserts I was feeling a little giddy, like a child who’s just discovered a favourite new toy shop, and truth be told I was too full for a pud. But I’m a sucker for a crème brûlée and the fact it came with Yorkshire rhubarb was the clincher. Like everything else we ate, it was delicious.
At the risk of sounding sentimental, this is the kind of food that makes you think everything will be alright in the end. It’s also food created with passion and skill and the expressed aim of making you happy.
The bill for two, including a bottle of wine but not service, came in at £131. This isn’t within everyone’s budget but I can’t quibble at the cost for a dining experience this good.
There is no magic recipe to creating a great restaurant, but Bavette comes as close to a blueprint as I’ve seen in a long time.
The owners describe it as a “love letter to our favourite places” and if every neighbourhood had a restaurant like this I reckon the world would be a better place.
Bavette, 4-6 Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds. LS18 4RJ. Tel: 0113 258 2900. Website: Bavette Bistro.