Craig Rogan at the Collective: I tried the new lunch menu at this Leeds restaurant featured in Michelin Guide

The Collective, on Boar Lane, is unique in its offering. It is part high-end homewares store, part luxury dining experience.

With stylish vases, lamps and tableware on display throughout, customers are equally welcome to splurge on home furnishings as they are on the restaurant’s eight-course tasting menu.

And it’s a clever idea – the classy, minimalist furniture sets the stage well for the cooking.

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Craig uses simple ingredients, elevating them to new heights with exciting flavour combinations and ingenious technique.

We visited just two days in to the new lunch offering and were impressed beyond words.

The menu is long enough to give plenty of choice – but it's explained that the dishes are small, so it's safer to order more than would be typical for a regular lunch.

We started with some toasted sourdough with sea salt butter, before moving on to the restaurant’s ‘snacks’.

Up first were the grilled padron peppers served with a velvety wild garlic mayonnaise. Their delicate char and natural bitterness were offset sublimely by the creamy and moreish dip.

Then there was the blini of raw mackerel – two tiny pancakes balancing small pieces of fish, with sesame shoyu sauce and fragrant bergamot. It was a miniature work of art, the immediate Asian flavours leading the way before an explosive punch of the fresh mackerel at the end of the bite.

On recommendation, four main dishes were delivered to the table, each more vibrant in colour than the last, as well as a crispy black cabbage salad with green chilli on the side.

The first of the main dishes was a fennel and radicchio lettuce salad, studded with pine nuts and tossed in a honey mustard, and it was the most flamboyant. Its sweet and tangy dressing matched the striking appearance well.

Next were the heritage tomatoes, presented atop a buttery slather of smoked cod roe and topped with sea buckthorn. They sang with sweetness and were given depth by the roundedness of the fish.

Complimenting the salads was another punchy dish - crab, with nduja and cucumber, finished at the table with a scotch bonnet cream. The sweetness of the crab meat and the heat from the chilli-infused sauce were balanced beautifully.

But most impressive were the woodland mushrooms, coated in a cheddar cheese sauce with sherry vinegar. Earthy, rich and sharp at once, they were delicious. In this bright and inspired dish, Craig Rogan has taken a humble ingredient and transformed it into something entirely new. It stole the show.

Each of the dishes were skilfully explained by welcoming and knowledgeable servers, who were generous with their time in describing the chef's vision.

Rounding off the lunch were two small desserts. A mint ice cream, with dark chocolate and coffee fudge, and a deconstructed cheesecake, with rhubarb, white chocolate and sour raspberry.

The food bill came to just over £80, which, considering we tried 10 different dishes, did not seem unreasonable at all.

It was thrilling to see first-hand the work of this sharp and creative chef. His place in the Michelin Guide? Absolutely well-deserved.