Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

We have been here before, but it's at least a couple of years ago, and in the mean time we have been to the mothership, Le Manor aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire, one of the most delightful places you could ever wish to have lunch. You can see our review of that here. We can report that the Leeds branch is producing excellent lunches from its fixed price menu. Here's what we had:

Menu

Haricot Bean Soup

Celeriac Salad

Haddock

Minute Steak

We enjoyed it all. I tried everything because Mary rarely finishes a whole dish. The soup was perfectly seasoned and retained the identity of the beans. The celeriac was beautifully dressed and the poached egg's runny yolk coated everything to give it more body. I've had this dish here before and it's still great. The haddock was a good as you would expect from the photograph, with succulent mussels, lovely saffron sauce and smooth puree'd mash. I have never had a minute steak before, but I liked it's thinness, and the garlic butter. The fries were really good too.

Leaving aside the £2 supplement on the steak, a two-course meal from this menu is £9.95. We have recently eaten two sunday lunch meals at two different branches of a well-known national chain of carvery restaurants where the main course alone costs £9.49 and, though you get as much veg etc. as you can eat, the meat quantity is small, the quality, surroundings and service are poor and you have to queue for ages. Why are people going there when they could have a lunch as nice as this at Brasserie Blanc?