I wrote a while ago about my pick of Leeds Best Bar Snacks, but after visiting Town Hall Tavern I think they might have been blown out of the water completely.I've been trying to visit Town Hall Tavern for a while but things seemed to conspire against it. A Christmas party booked in, a coach trip had just turned up, not being open on a Sunday. It became a bit of a running joke between me and the missus that we could never get a table at this run of the mill Gastropub, until last night.
The menu features all the usual high end pub grub staples, but it's the pick and mix section which I want to talk about as it's such a great idea. £2ish tasty morsel that can be ordered on their own, as a starter, or as Tapas or bar snacks. We had a crispy hens egg, a pork cheek scotch egg and some crispy pigs ears.
The crispy hens egg is a simple yet satisfying beast. A soft boiled hens egg coated in breadcrumbs, deep fried until hot and crispy with a warm but runny yolk. It even came with a few super crunchy slithers of bacon, which is a nice touch. Pretty damn good but not a patch on the pigs cheek scotch egg which was a bundle of slow cooked, moist pork cheek wrapped around a soft boiled Quail's egg. Hot and crispy on the outside too - Probably the best scotch egg I've ever eaten.
The crispy pig's ears weren't quite what I expected as they were coated in breadcrumbs rather than being a normal pork scratching type affair. Good, but a bit odd.
I washed these down with a few pints of Timothy Taylor Ram Tam, which tastes like a slightly darker, sweeter, more caramel laced Landlord, which is essentially what it is. Town Hall Tavern is a Timmy Taylor's pub so they had Landlord, Best, and Ram Tam on when I popped in as well as a small choice of bottles (Flying Dog Pale Ale was the most interesting I spotted but personally, I'd stick to the cask).
We also had mains: Colette's scampi was awesome but my flat Iron steak was a bit bland. The Ram Tam chocolate brownie though, with Salted caramel ice cream and malt milk sorbet no less, was really very good, and a no effort match with my pint of Ram Tam. Much to Colette's annoyance as it was her dessert...
Good food, excellent bar snacks, and a handful of well kept, tasty beer.
I'll be back.
Those scotch eggs really are immense aren't they?
ReplyDeleteYup. It was the flavour of the pork that struck me. So much cleaner than other dishes I've had where the pork takes on too much of the flavour of the stock it's cooked in. I get the impression these were cooked in a really light stock, and very, very slowly.
ReplyDeleteReally very accomplished cooking for a bar snack!
Great photos, I'm sat here with my mouth watering!! I love the Town Hall Tavern, the food as improved considerably. Best pub food in Leeds city centre by far in my book.
ReplyDeleteIts marinated in a secret salt mix and then slowly braised in cider for around 12 hours :)
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