Bavette — Restaurant in Leeds

Overpriced and ungenerous with its portions, this place has a serious disconnect between what it is/can offer, versus what they want to be. Silver service crumbing (when they use a white cloth napkin to white down the tables between courses) was at odds with poor etiquette and training. You have to decide whether you’re:

A) going to be a fine dining restaurant, where small portions are acceptable because quality of food and service pay dividends, B) going to be a tasty and elegant but down to earth bistro - in which case service can be more casual and the price point much lower than fine dining but still more expensive than a completely casual dining experience. Portions should then also be fair and the food exceptional for the price. Or C) be a completely casual no frills, hearty portioned, low prices fill-me-up, where staff are conversational and you’re there as much for the feeling of community as you are for the food.

This place is trying to mix and match and unfortunately when that happens you’re raising expectations without following through on delivery. I.e. the soup was brought without putting down a spoon first, wine knowledge was poor, descriptions of food were unsure and far from eloquent, portions were very small for their price, extremely stingy portions of bread/accompaniments were given to steak tartare, soup, and pâté, and wine by the glass options were extremely limited with hefty price points for bottles.

Would this be a problem if they weren’t so expensive or had decent portion sizes? No.

As it is, it’s somewhere that for anyone serious about food I wouldn’t recommend - there are better places to...

Perfect from start to finish - cannot wait to be back!

The whole experience was very thoughtfully done. The menu was super interesting and tasty - every detail thought out. Everything was aesthetically beautiful - from the dishes to the drinks to the interior. As a very visual person, that kind of attention to detail adds a lot to my overall experience.

The owner kindly talked us through the menu, which was very helpful. Some of the French elements (and dish names) were new to us, so getting a feel for each dish beforehand meant we could choose really well (and not miss out on the stars of the show).

My partner and I are big foodies and love to chat through each dish as we go - the flavours, textures, the whole experience - we had plenty to talk about (in the best possible way). There were dishes we hadn’t tried in this way before and it made the meal all the more exciting.

For mains we ordered the fish and the steak, both were fantastic. It was a difficult choice as we were so lured in by the duck, but we decided to keep that in the back pocket for our next visit.

We had A LOT of food and left feeling full and content, but not so heavy that we needed to roll home (which usually happens to us!) - perfectly balanced. I prefer to try lots of bits and still feel good at the end of the meal.

Oh and the wine! The chilled red we had was one of the best I've ever had - yummy cherry, light with a little fizz - very interesting and unique mix of flavours 😍

Service 10/10, if I could give the restaurant more stars, I really would, we will be back for...

This place had been highly recommended by a very discerning foodie friend of mine, as well as several other people, and I would definitely say it lived up to the hype.

The food was beautiful, original without being too pretentious or off the wall and delicious. Special mention to the croquettes and the non alcoholic spritz my friend had, which might be the most delicious drink I've ever tasted.

The atmosphere and decor were great.

It's not cheap, but it's not that much more than plenty of other places in Leeds that are fairly average. At least here, you get what you pay for.

The staff were incredibly friendly - actually personally I found them a touch over-friendly, and would have preferred less conversation making, but that's only my taste.

The only thing I would say that the food came so quickly it leaned towards feeling a little rushed. I didn't time it, but it felt like the starters came barely five minutes after we ordered (like I say, this is a feeling, not a fact), and the mains ten minutes after the starters were cleared. And then they did let us sit for a while before politely asking if we'd like the bill. We were in and out the door in about an hour and a half. We had the first sitting, so I understand that they needed to get us out for the second service, but yes - I felt a little rushed, which was the only thing that took a little off the perfection.

Still, nothing that would be worth giving them less than their...