River Plate

Its almost two years to the day since I reviewed River Plate the last time. This weekend sees the restaurant's 5th anniversary. As it was 'Birthday Week' for Liam and I, we thought a steak dinner on a Wednesday was perfectly justified!

I really like the interior of this restaurant, its a mix of bare brick and scrubbed wooden tables with a few candles twinkling away on the tables. The interior of the old mill building is not disguised, making a feature of the old industrial strength pillars and beams. The pipes from the extractor fans running from the open fronted kitchen even run through the dining room but some how they manage to not look out of place.

The open kitchen also means that the tempting smell of charred meat permeates the room.

For starters Liam had the mussels which were a generous size and came in a rich cream sauce, tasty but not overpowered by garlic like some of these dishes can be.

I had the ribs which were so tender that they couldn't be picked up by the bone as the meat just came straight away and I was left with a clean bone in my hand! These were smothered in BBQ sauce. Just perfect.

I ordered a rib eye steak cooked medium rare on the advice of the waitress. (any less cooking than this doesn't give the fat a chance to melt). Liam had the full rack of ribs that were just the same as mine but in a caveman sized portion.

The steak was very thick and as a result was still rare right in the middle meaning that there were some fatty sinews still present in the cut. Disappointing but not disastrous as it was only in one small part of the steak that I just cut away and left. The fries, peppercorn sauce and sweet potato mash that we had as sides were all spot on (and probably a bit excessive given the size of the main courses).

We skipped pudding as we were stuffed.

The service was really friendly and attentive and the food arrived fairly quickly.

This place was busy even though it was early on a Wednesday night, which I think is testament to the fact that this is a quality steak house with a great atmosphere. It wasn't cheap - steak never is, but the bill was comparable to other similar places- £65 for the both of us, with drinks too.

*UPDATE: My friend Gev attended the restaurants 5th Birthday party last night, where she got to take a sneaky peak at the new menu, apparently there are some amazing new dishes on their way- keep an eye on the restaurant's website for details.*

River Plate
*Amazing ribs
*Averagely priced for steak
*Good service

36-38 The Calls
Leeds,
West Yorkshire
LS2 7EW

0113 391 2792