Cucina — Restaurant in Leeds

April 2021:

Vastly improved service led by a really good Portuguese chap, food, especially the nachos, from the new Spanish chef really good. Glad we gave them another go.

June 2019:

I've dined at Cucina in the past, their Sunday lunch was a great option at one point until it seemed to change from one week to the next, this unpredictability caused me to go elsewhere. More recently my wife had a disappointing afternoon tea.

However Leeds List recently included them on a list of the 10 best breakfasts in Leeds so I vowed to give it a whirl. Oddly local Facebook groups containing 30k members never recommended them whenever anyone asked for a decent breakfast but I thought I'd risk it as it seemed like quite a thing for them to be regarded in the top 10 by a supposedly independent blog.

We arrived shortly after their 10am opening time and were told by a fairly abrupt lady (who seems to have been mentioned here previously) that we could sit anywhere and needed to order at the bar. Minutes later I placed an order for a couple of coffees and two of their "full Yorkshire breakfasts", one minus beans and black pudding, the other standard. I said we'd happily take extra mushroom in lieu of the beans and black pudding if possible.

After a short wait the breakfasts arrived, both without beans and black pudding and with equal amounts of mushroom (two chewy flat mushrooms). I raised the problem of the missing items at the bar and was told they had no black pudding and that my beans would be out soon. Now I paid for black pudding so was disgruntled but so be it, issues happen and clearly communication between kitchen and front of house was a problem. Given numerous shops selling black pudding are minutes away this shouldn't really be an issue to be fair.

We cracked on and made a start only for the pepper pot to decide to completely empty itself over the entirety of my wife's breakfast. Another visit to the bar and, after being given short shrift by the clearly overworked / stressed lady, we were promised a replacement. The member of staff who was clearly late arrived at this point and took control of some of the stuff going on.

I still had no beans.

Time went on, other customers were seen disappointedly returning plates to the bar, I finished my "OK" breakfast, then a bit later a replacement breakfast for my wife arrived (I'd offered her mine earlier, I'm not a monster)... this one came with what were presumably my missing beans! At this point I had no cutlery or desire to eat a ramekin of beans.

We received a couple of complimentary coffees at this point which were appreciated as we'd finished our others some time ago.

I personally felt that the components of the £6.95 breakfast were of a low quality. Sausage had clearly been pre-cooked and warmed up once split in half. Other components were tepid on arrival and while "OK" far from top 10 in Leeds standard. A few little tomatoes with stalks in and griddle toast doesn't magically lift a basic, well presented, breakfast into something great.

The music inside was way too loud for a Sunday morning and it was just a generally disappointing experience all round. A massive shame as we'd hoped to rediscover a local gem. It's potentially above Wetherspoons levels if done right but not by much and certainly not by the extra being charged.

I now completely understand why they aren't recommended by the masses, I'd initially thought the locals just wanted cheaper options but they clearly know they can get the same, or better, in slightly less fancy surroundings for considerably better value.

A huge shame, hopefully your experience will be better, as it clearly was for the Leeds List people, but for me that's a line drawn under this local option.

Disclaimer: the staff implied that today was "one of those days" so my review may not be indicitive of their normal standards, it is, however, an honest review of our experience today,...

My parents paid for a meal for our family as a celebration of their 60th Wedding anniversary on Saturday there was 21 of us and had been booked a few months in advance.

I was extremely disappointed that their day was spoiled by the poor food we were all served, most of the steaks were fatty and of poor quality, the pasta dishes were tasteless and cold, I had a Cucina pizza and it was half burnt. The man (manager) that was dealing with us was rude and dismissive, he spent more time fussing over the unused cutlery and removing the items not required.

My daughter said to him he had brought the wrong food for my granddaughter and he argued with her saying she had ordered a pizza not pasta. We were due to arrive at 5pm and after the first 15 minutes he said we had only until 7pm as he had another booking and would we be finished by then which when my mother booked she was told there wasn’t a time restriction, at one point he even sent some other people over to our table for them to sit and order their food.

The food service was reminiscent of a cheap cafe with the servers walking around with a tray of food or drinks shouting what they had to give out, it was a very disappointing experience and even though my elderly parents didn’t complain I do not feel they should have been expected to pay...

Five of us visited on a Thursday evening for my Dad's birthday, the decor of the restaurant was nice and modern, the staff, particularly our waiter was very friendly and professional. My Dad can be a difficult customer and the waiter handled his requests with professionalism and courtesy.

Unfortunately the food was not up to the same standard that the price implied. Most starters were £6+ and most mains were £15+, the quality of the food did not reflect the price. For five people (4 starters, 5 mains, 1 dessert, 4 coffees, two diet cokes and a pint and a half of Peroni) it came to £140.

My partner ordered a lamb shank which was tough and fatty, the waiter also informed us that they had run out of sirloin steaks (after taking our order for them - informing us after we had finished our starter), which was surprising considering that it was a Thursday night and sirloin was on the specials menu. The rest of the food was good, but again, did not reflect the price paid.

All in all, the food was pretty average and very expensive which was disappointing as the rest of the visit was good.

If this restaurant wants to excel, I'd suggest reviewing the menu prices. There is several restaurants opening in the area which arguably have better food at...