Restaurant review: Vice & Virtue, Leeds

The cocktail bar, Vice, has been open for a while, the restaurant on a further floor, Virtue, a couple of months.
PIC: Tony JohnsonPIC: Tony Johnson
PIC: Tony Johnson

’ve never been in a gentleman’s club, but I watch documentaries on Channel 4 so I get the gist.

The restaurant is less scary, to the point of being bland, but when the food’s this good you don’t notice what’s on the walls. Chef/owner Luke Downing has had any number of gongs thrown at him down the years. His French eaterie in West Park, Dough, won Best Suburban Restaurant (I was underwhelmed). What he’s created here is another thing altogether. There are three fixed priced menus: five courses for £35, seven for £45 and 10 for £55, each with a drinks package which is more than simply a wine flight. We don’t indulge, preferring a peerless white Rioja on account of it’s a school night – but if you’re pushing the boat out, go for it, the pairings are spectacular.

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Downing calmly sends out exquisite food from his open kitchen. There are just the two of them, it’s a busy night, and each course arrives exactly on time and without fanfare, apart from a brief description of what’s on your plate from the well-versed waitress. “Crevette” is a single item dotted with intense smoked oyster mayo, black caviar and a sliver of paper-thin pickled cucumber, kick-starting our juices. Fillet beef carpaccio arrives under a glass dome swirling with whisky smoke. I don’t generally approve of such theatre but here it’s effective – it really does imbue the meat, confit tomato and Jerusalem artichoke with earthy woodiness. Next up, beautifully tender partridge breast with a belting Oloroso reduction, crushed pistachio and a tangle of hair-fine spring onion.

Downing then cleverly sends out another fish course – this time, beetroot and juniper-cured monkfish with a fabulous deep pink tint round the edges, some tiny, sharply pickled courgette and a wasabi blob that jolts us out of our swoon. Up next, my dish of the night which is so much more than its simple description: mallard breast, croquet, mustard, vegetables. The duck is perfectly pink, the baby carrots sweet as a nut and it’s all sat on a mustardy puree whooshed across a dramatic black plate.

There’s unwavering confidence in the cooking here. Downing displays all the tropes of modern dining and throws local and seasonal into the mix too, and despite the sophistication of the dishes, there’s no pretension, just fabulous flavours and textures and a sprinkling of fairy dust. If it’s a fine dining night you’re after without the five-month wait for a table at The Man Behind The Curtain, get booking.

FACTFILE

VICE & VIRTUE

Address: Briggate, Leeds

Rating *****