La Fiesta Leeds — Restaurant in Leeds

We had to try La fiesta Leeds after hearing it does an all you can eat tapas menu right in the heart of Leeds city centre.

We did a walk in and luckily it wasn’t too busy so got a table straight away, the restaurant operates an all you can eat salad bar with various salads, dips, cold pastas, deli meats and breads which was a good way to start off the meal - there’s quite a variety which was great.

The ordering experience for the tapas dishes was quite straight forward, 5 items every 15 minutes and I did see that quite a lot reviews complaining about that and I was skeptical at first but it does eventually add up and we were stuffed by the end and I personally eat quite a lot.

The dishes, in order of what we ordered

Patatas bravas with aioli - really good, like any good Patatas bravas so had no complaints on that, was probably our favourite tapas of the meal.

Beef stew - not bad, stew was very savoury but beef was slightly dry

Croquettes - not enough meat filling, was mostly potato

Chorizo - decent chorizos nothing bad nothing great

Calamari - great

Seafood paella - rice was slightly too dry for my liking but they had a mussel and prawn in the portion so was generous.

Chicken wings - terrible, was incredibly dry

Aubergine moussaka - decent, quite nice and very cheesy

Cajun chicken dish - chicken was really dry, couldn’t taste the Cajun flavouring so was poor.

Potato omelette - was so so

Kofta - quite nice, was well seasoned and had a good smoky taste to it

Fish goujon - initially we sent this for a refire as the fish meat tasted really slimy and soft but after coming again we realised it was just the quality of the fish, must have been pollock, tilapia or basa. However the dish itself was pretty good.

Meatballs - slightly dry and bland.

Creamy mushroom dish - soso

Creamy chicken dish - chicken was sooo dry

Falafel - falafel inside was really dry too

After the main meal and tapas you can then end your meal with churros and chocolate which is a nice touch, but wish there was more variation in desserts.

All in all our experience was slightly mediocre, the salad bar was decent but for the tapas only a few of the dishes were tasty, most of the chicken dishes were incredibly dry as they were overcooked or the quality of the meat which ruined the experience.

Probably wouldn’t visit again due to the price and the quality of dishes as it needs some improvement. ...

All You Can Eat? More like All You Can Endure.

I’ll start with the positives: the salad bar and churros station were decent.

However,

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to chew on a leather shoe for twenty minutes straight, this place has you covered. The meat was so dry I thought I might need to call for a glass of water and a dentist just to get through it. By the time I’d managed to choke down half a plate, the 20-minute wait between orders was nearly up – so I suppose the slow service and the food’s chew-resistance balanced each other out.

Between two of us, we ordered 17 plates (tiny portions, by the way), but given how awful everything was, we probably ate about five in total. It got to the point where I ordered a few more dishes out of sheer optimism, then sat there actively dreading their arrival. An all-you-can-eat should be exciting – here, it felt more like a cruel endurance test.

Meanwhile, across the road at Wetherspoons, people were living their best lives with £5 meals that I found myself genuinely envious of. Imagine paying nearly £90 for the privilege of leaving hungry and wistfully longing for pub grub.

As if the food wasn’t bad enough, I also managed to accidentally order a dish I didn’t want. Once it landed, I double-checked the tablet and realised my mistake – fair enough. But when I mentioned it to staff, I got a lecture about how I should have told them before they made it. (Yes, if only I’d had psychic powers to know I’d clicked the wrong button before the future caught up with me!) No courtesy – just the plate whisked away while I sat there feeling like I’d been scolded at school.

And the final insult? Even the little imperial mint at the end – the one pathetic chance at redemption – arrived half open and soggy. I couldn’t even get a fresh mint to wash away the taste of disappointment.

Five-star reviews? Honestly, unless they’re from people who’ve lost their sense of taste entirely, I don’t know how. This was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Avoid, unless you’re keen to pay £90 to chew air and regret your...

We went to La Fiesta very excited to try the new “all you can eat” tapas concept after seeing so many Instagram posts raving about it. Unfortunately, the reality was a huge letdown.

The first disappointment is the so-called “all you can eat.” Guests are limited to four items at first, then forced to wait 20 minutes before being allowed to order again but only two dishes at a time. That alone feels misleading.

Still, we thought maybe the quality would make up for it. Sadly, the food itself was awful. Flavours were completely unbalanced some dishes drowned in garlic, others bland and tasteless. Nothing tasted fresh, and much of the meat was overcooked and tough. After the first round of food we honestly didn’t even care about the 20-minute wait anymore; it was bad enough that we didn’t want more.

The “salad bar” was another letdown: very little choice, and hardly any labels. a big problem for anyone with dietary restrictions or allergies.

We tried to end on a sweet note with the churros, but they were so stale marinating under a heat lamp they were inedible. The “chocolate fountain” was thin and watery, more like chocolate milk than anything you’d want to dip a churro into.

At that point we asked for the bill, just 20 minutes after sitting down. Staff clearly noticed but made no effort to check in or offer a remedy. We paid the full price for four dishes and left beyond disappointed.

Edit In response to the owner reply. To clarify, the 20-minute wait between orders is never advertised so it is still misleading. That said, this was not my main complaint. The issue was the food. What we did receive was bland, overcooked, and frankly not worth waiting for. The “comprehensive salad bar” you mention was minimal at best, with no labels or allergen information. This is why we left. I didn’t raise concerns on the night because, like many people, I’m not one for confrontation, but I left a review in the hope that feedback might be taken on board. Accusing a customer of having “an agenda” instead of acknowledging genuine criticism is disappointing and...