A little bit of Argentina

River Plate

Food - Restaurant/Cafes
in/near Leeds, Yorkshire,
England Yorkshire

View Map

Review added: 04/11/2009 11:10
By: hellbell (£12.50 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"After hearing wonderful reviews about this place from friends and work colleagues I decided to book a table for me and my boyfriend for one of our compulsory monthly date nights (keeping the magic alive). I booked on a Wednesday afternoon for a table on the Friday evening at 7:30pm and was slightly concerned that they might not be able to fit us in, luckily this was not a problem and the reservation was made. I would however recommend booking earlier than this if you want to request a table on the river front or on the balcony as these tables do get booked up very quickly.

My better half and I both love good food, he is a big meat lover, steaks being a firm favourite and me a big fish lover so we had very high expectations with this place being an Argentina steak house. I spent a few minutes of valuable work time on Friday looking at the menus on the restaurants website and between tasting my meal in my head and picking my bottle of wine for later I noticed an offer on their website for happy hour on cocktails. With this in mind we decided to ditch our usual pre-dinner drinks and head straight for the restaurant to enjoy some exotic cocktails before dinner.

The restaurants location is perfect just a few minutes from the train station and main shopping area of Leeds but yet feels slightly out of it in a nice non hustle bustle type of way. A minute walk over the river takes you to a lovely plaza of classy bars which is a lovely start or end to the evening. The restaurant itself is up some stairs and when you enter the restaurant it feels very classy in an unpretentious and casual way, lots of twinkling lights and candles. The bar was to our left and after a hard day at work a lovely cocktail, a sit down and some pleasant conversation with my BF was all I wanted, the cocktail menu was quite impressive with some heavy manly cocktails that my boyfriend wasn't embarrassed to hold to some lovely delicate champagne cocktail a firm favourite of mine. We mentioned the offer on the website to the barman who didn't seem to know what we was talking about, after a quick conversation with the manageress she came over and explained the offer was no longer on and the website hadn't been updated but she was happy to give us our first round on the bogof deal. I was happy with this as by the time we made our way to the little cubby hole (my nickname for the lovely intimate seating area) we got chatting and sipping and before we knew it our table was ready. Would definitely recommend going early for a pre-dinner drink as the little seating area is lovely and very intimate with a couple of sofas and a gorgeous fish tank. On the other side of the room in another little cubby hole was some more seats and a pool table. If you are looking for a romantic night then please don't let the sound of the pool table put you off, this is tucked away and I think adds a nice touch for after dinner drinks.

We was seated at our table but I quickly noticed this was next to a large table made up for a lot of people and politely asked if we could be moved if it was a large party, they looked at the plan and gave us a choice of three table (the only free tables for the night) it was still fairly close to the large party but if they are full then they are full and was happy we had the choice to move even if not very far. The Kitchen is all open plan which I quite like and you can see and smell all the food being cooked. We shared the Empanadas for a starter which where lovely, ordered 2 lovely bottles of red wine, sword fish for my main which was delicious and of course a Steak for my boyfriend which was cooked exactly as he asked and lived up to his expectations, I think we shared a dessert as well but can not remember what we had. One of our pet hates when eating out is feeling rushed after our meal we enjoy a nice break followed by coffee and Port on occasions, this occasion was no different so we mentioned this to our waitress who turned out to be the manageress and she informed us that we was the last sitting so there was no rush at all, we even invited a friend who was in town to join us which wasn't a problem as they have the bar areas as well. When he arrived he ordered his beer (I know nothing about beer but apparently they have a brilliant selection of unusual beers) they didn't have any of the one he ordered left so she brought over her recommendation and gave it to him free of charge which was impressive. We left several hours after arriving feeling very full and very satisfied and with a bill of around £120 for everything was also quite impressed. We ended our night on the river front in a couple of nice bars before feeling lucky and ending up at the new Arla Casino.

So to some up a great restaurant perfect for couples and groups with good taste, excellent service and wonderful food. Book early to reserve river and balcony seats which are very pretty and if time allows arrive in advance to enjoy some pre-dinner drinks.
For directions head to the bottom of Call Lane, turn left and look for the big Silver ball, opposite this you will find a little bit of Argentina in a West Yorkshire City."

Comments