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Restaurant Review: The Wrens Hotel, New Briggate, Leeds
AROUND the city, there’s something of a pandemic of old school pubs undergoing gastropub makeovers.
Somehow The Wrens Hotel didn’t seem like an obvious candidate, not really somewhere which blips on the socialising radar save for a hardcore of regular drinkers.
Which is curious given that the place rests on the corner of one of Leeds’s busiest junctions – between New Briggate and Merrion Street – and just across the way is Leeds Grand Theatre with a captive audience of people who love a meal and a show.
Little Oliver must confess to never venturing inside before, namely because The Wrens wasn’t known for food. And while we can’t vouch for what it used to look like, staff reassured us the place had undergone a drastic change over the last five months.
What they’ve done is produce one of those neutral (perhaps too neutral) revivals with lots of pale green walls, strategically placed black and white photography showing Leeds landmarks and the odd flash of contemporary light fitting here and there.
The result is something which is clearly intended to appeal to a broad market, but it seems to have a leaning more towards your more sophisticated visitor these days.
The three main rooms have been neatly decorated in three separate styles. The front bar has a hint of the diner about, with monochrome decor and tall stools and benches in front of every window. In the side lounge a fire flickers and punters relax on softer furnishings. Meanwhile, out back, is a much more cosy restaurant area which will comfortably accommodate 16 diners.
The menu is much more of a statement of intent. The dishes speak for themselves: oven-roasted pheasant, braised fondant potato, buttered spinach, artichoke puree, chestnuts and red wine jus at £13.95; pan-seared sea bass, parsley mashed potatoes, shrimps, nut brown butter and lemon oil at £12.50 or perhaps the braised belly of outdoor reared pork, whole grain mustard mash, braised red cabbage, apple and sage puree with pork juices at £13.50.
That gives you some idea of the level they’re striving for now. But although that’s perhaps nudging towards the pricey end of the spectrum (even for a gastropub), there are quite a few cheaper but no less alluring options.
For example, we had the pan-seared breast of locally shot wood pigeon, braised green puy lentils with crispy pancetta and fig jam. Not cheap at £6.25, but an absolutely wonderful little bundle of flavours with a centrepiece of perfectly cooked meat. That was just a starter size though, if you want something more filling you don’t have to spend much more, in fact you can get one of six great dishes for just six pounds.
And they really are great. We tried the hand-raised steak, ale and mushroom pie, served with creamed mash and red wine jus. It was almost perfect – a hearty slice packed with tender beef and just a nice amount of potato. The only downside was the lack of jus, which made it quite a dry dish overall.
We finished off with a reasonable apple sponge for about a fiver, which was a bit of a disappointment compared to our other courses.
The food, in the main, was great. The only grumble was that it wasn’t as hot as we would have liked it, this was despite the food coming very quickly to our table.
But what’s important here is that they’ve clearly set out to raise their game and appear to have largely achieved this.
Service was fast and friendly, sometimes a bit overfriendly (as snotty as it sounds, you don’t have to address customers as ‘sir’ but when you’re pushing 40 it irks to be repeatedly referred to as “fella” or “mate”)
The final bill was £18.80 but for that we got the equivalent of three courses and a soft drink, which is pretty good, particularly given the level of cuisine they’re now serving up.
Aside from one or two negatives, the new Wrens Hotel has made great strides towards creating a worthy gastropub targeting a ready-made clientele on its doorstep – you can just see the punters from The Grand piling in here before and after shows. I’m not sure what the old-school punters will make of it though.
Rating 4/5
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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