Forde — Restaurant in Leeds

For a place on the Michelin guide, I expect that things would be at a certain level of delivery, when I went however, perhaps they threw all the hard work in the bin and went 'lets see how bad we can cook without anyone noticing'

I ordered with my partner; Bread, Soy Salmon, Crispy Pork Belly, Pork Cheeks and Prawn Toast. So lets go item by item.

The bread was stale; and I do not think it was a sour dough loaf or if it was, the crumb of the bread felt more like a £1.50 loaf from Morrisons down the road rather than a £5.50 board.

Crispy Pork Belly was akin to my Nan's roast dinner in the fact that it was not crisp, the fat was still white and unrendered and that it was not seasoned. When my Nan cooked this (God bless her soul) she was an 80 yo woman doing a roast at home, she was not in a trained kitchen charging £15.5 a dish. Given the abundance of TikTok guides of how to get crispy skin, it's like if they had buried their head in the sand to avoid these and gone, the 60s were better than anything.

Pork cheeks; similar problem, under seasoned and the braising liquid was bland. The pumpkin puree which possibly the best thing served, all night.

Prawn toast had what I to belief a Red Dragon sweet chilli sauce on the bottom for a quick flash back to 2010s Jamie Oliver Home Cooking and then the prawn part of the toast was not emulsified properly so you ended up with unevenly chopped pieces of prawn and fish on the bread which just came to pieces. May as well had been prawn balls with some more toasted stale bread on the side.

Finally; the Soy salmon. This took skill. How you can burn something and keep it raw in other spots; impressive. Beyond comprehension. Beyond this, the skin look like my cat had decided it wanted a snack prior to hitting the pan. Whilst the salmon was lovely, why show me the skin if you cannot clearly get the cuisson correct? Just remove it and serve, do not hide it under 'seaweed'.

Honestly, I would avoid. It is not worth the travel out for disappointing food that is underwhelming at best. Truly incomprehensible how this is on the Michelin Guide from...

Went for an evening meal, unfortunately was a little disappointed. Service was very good, no issues at all there, friendly, polite and attentive - top marks. Unfortunately for us the food took a long time to come and didn't really 'wow' us in any way. I appreciate that tastes and likes are subjective so here's my take on it. Ordered octopus, steak, sourdough toastie, charcuterie board and something else. We were pre-informed that 'food will come out as it's ready'. At the time there were 4 people in the restaurant. It took 20 minutes for the toastie to come out, which was burnt on the underside, then the octopus came out. I was a little surprised that as they are sharing plates, there were 3 pieces of octopus. The steak was cut into 5. Would even numbers be better if sharing? Unfortunately the steak (£19.99) was cold (not sure if it was meant to be, as were the cherry tomatoes that came with it) and didn't appear to be a great cut with various pieces of gristle in it. The charcuterie board seemed to take forever to come, which is odd seen as it was 3 different types of meat put on the plate. To give a mental image - and not wanting to cause any offence to the staff who did it, the same effect could have been achieved by taking your favourite supermarket continental meats packet, opening it and turning the packet upside down on the wooden board. Not sure why that took so long? I would have thought that was the easiest and quickest item to get out of the kitchen. Considering how busy it was when we arrived and for the first 15-20 minutes before others started arriving, we were surprised at how long the food items took to come out. Maybe it was a one off due to new staff or a similar legitimate excuse but we weren't impressed with the whole experience. That said, again the person serving was very good, shame the food let it down. It should also be noted that as the customer, I didn't complain or raise concern while I was there and give Forde the opportunity to answer/resolve issues but in my mind, whoever is cooking the food should know if...

Absolutely great addition to the Town Street. Matt and his team are friendly and chatty, the place is beautifully fitted out and the food is beautiful (we've had breakfast, tapas and Sunday lunch). Also we have taken our 6 month old baby 2 out of 3 times and he has been looked after so so well. The first time we visited we were asked to review the changing facilities (free nappies, wipes etc) and given a little chair for him to sit at the stools with us. We were made to feel really welcome. Each time we've visited we've been warmly welcomed, quickly served and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. Good music at the right volume and nice lighting.

Food and drink-wise - the breakfasts are lovely and the menu is different from the other offerings around Horsforth which makes a nice change (see whipped marmite butter with the egg and toast) and the coffee is spot on. It's also a great place for a quick drink (good beers, lovely wine and cocktails) and small plate/tapas thing if you don't want to go out for a full meal. We also had Sunday lunch there this week and the food was absolutely beautiful (we frequent Ox Club and it is easily on par/better). We had perfectly cooked beef and really nice chicken (with 2 different gravies which was a treat) and some gorgeous wine.

We can't fault the place and don't review often but felt the guys deserved 5 stars for all their efforts and how well the place has turned out. We fell lucky to have such a nice place...