2011 Michelin Stars Now Out

Very disappointed to see that the Star Inn at Harome has lost its star. When we went last summer it was fault free; all aspects of the food and service were really good. All the other Yorkshire stars were retained. The Black Horse at Oldstead, which we rated very highly, is still on the rising star list; perhaps it will get there next year.

We were also surprised to see that another of our favourites, J Baker's Bistro Moderne in York, has been deleted from the Bib Gourmand list. No idea why, though I hope it might have more to do with pricing than quality.

Still no star for anywhere in Leeds. I suppose only Anthony's might have been in the running. His Piazza at the Corn Exchange still has its Bib Gourmand though. We've been there many times, and though the service can be variable, as many other blogs have noted, it's such a unique space, and the food usually lives up to it. I took this photograph there on a Nokia N95 camera phone. I think it's one of the two best photographs I have ever taken.

Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

I have eaten here several times. The food has always been on the good side of acceptable and the service among the very best to be found in Leeds. It was for this latter reason that my work colleagues and I chose it for our Christmas Lunch. Service didn't disappoint. The food was universally well received. Here's what I had:

Hot Smoked Salmon with piccalilli

Roast Turkey

Apple and Almond Crumble

The Salmon was delightful, I really enjoyed the pickled vegetables and the fish was perfectly cooked. The Turkey meat was nice and moist with a good flavour, but some of the vegetables tasted as if they had been roasted in rather tired oil. 

The crumble though was irritating. Apple crumble with custard can be sublime. The merging of the fruit and the topping in a caramelised gloop is a great joy. Crumble in restaurants with aspirations to quality can be very different. It is quite clear that this was constructed in the kitchen by placing stewed apples in the bowl, then placing pre-toasted crumble mix on top, then placing a wholly inadequate tiny blob of ice cream on top. Nothing about this dish came together as a crumble should. I had exactly the same construction of crumble at the Box Tree once (though smaller, and in a ring), and it has a Michelin star.  Restaurants must be aware that this is not what people want in a crumble. I think they do it for their convenience, but I am afraid that this is one dish that is ruined by the restaurant kitchen's method. The school canteen does it better. Incidentally, it wasn't sweet enough either. No-one else had the crumble. The other menu choices looked OK, especially the Creme Brulee, which was in a similar shallow dish, with acres of brittle caramel on top.

The coffee was unfortunately no better. The bar contained a gleaming espresso machine, that smelt as though it would produce something memorable, but unfortunately those of us on the £25.50 Christmas Lunch menu could only have filter coffee from one of those flask dispensers you find at conferences. It was stale and not warm enough. An espresso, or similar,  to end the meal would have been the touch of quality the chain aims for.

Coffee was accompanied by the world's tiniest mince pie, seen here next to a colleague's little finger, included for scale. It was quite nice because it was 90% pastry, and I don't like mincemeat.

Pizza Express, near the Corn Exchange, Leeds

It was a team lunch outing with my colleagues from work. The pizza pictured is my Etna Romano. It looked much nicer in real life, and was delicious. Everyone knows the Pizza Express product range. It is always an enjoyable meal, I like it a lot, I expect to return often.

But I always leave with one mild dissatisfaction. The restaurant is called Pizza Express, but service is so slow. Eight of us got there at 12 noon. We had booked in advance. We each had a Main course and a coffee. We left at 1.45pm. It wasn't particularly busy. Why weren't we out after about an hour?