Review: Tribeca City Cafe, Park Square, Leeds

If the high-profile food scares of recent times have taught us anything, it's that provenance matters. Yet all too often it seems the importance of food miles is lost in convenience food culture.
Tribeca, Park Square East, Leeds.  Pictures: Jonathan GawthorpeTribeca, Park Square East, Leeds.  Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe
Tribeca, Park Square East, Leeds. Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Not so here and because of this fact, it makes Tribeca stand from the crowd.

Tribeca is so-named after the prime shopping and dining area of Lower Manhattan, New York, and is a cheery basement eatery that nails provenance.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A blackboard displayed below the counter top lists all its locally-based suppliers of ingredients that make up its breakfast and lunch time menu - from Graze Leeds which provides artisan breads and Ramsdens that provide the seafood, to RK Harris’ fresh produce and Cryer & Stott’s cheese and pork pies.

The list goes on, including a mention of Neil J Arms, who supplies Tribeca’s artwork, and so in a way, this represents the taste credentials of Leeds’ artisan food scene on the line.

Happily it delivers on flavour.

There are around two dozen sandwich options to plump for - hot, cold and grilled, with prices typically £4-5. Among them are seven ‘signature sandwiches’. I ordered from this list although my first choice of the Whitby crab, lemon creme fraiche and rocket was unavailable because of the interruption of the bank holiday to fish deliveries.

Instead I opted for the steak with mustard mayonnaise and rocket and was asked how I wanted my steak cooking.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The staff were warm and friendly and I didn’t have long to wait before the sandwich was served. Eating in, I sat on a wicker bench at a wooden table. This is a small venue and there are only a handful of tables and a deep, comfy-looking brown leather sofa, with the onus here on ‘food on the go’ to takeaway - it also offers a pre-order service.

Easy-listening music was playing in the background - almost as if the staff were letting out a collective sigh of relief at the end of the lunch time rush.

The sandwich itself was delicious, the meat cooked as asked for, with the meat and bread both very tasty. It was washed down with a latte and again, the coffee came from a local supplier, Seasons For Coffee of Keighley.

The bill came to £9.50, more than most would want to spend on a work day lunch, but the price was justified by the flavour and quality, besides the retail price wars mean we are paying vastly less than what our food is worth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Besides sandwiches, Tribeca serves cakes, pastries, salads and soups, while the breakfast menu comprises of porridge, granola, eggs, smoked salmon and toast - as well as a full English breakfast.

Easily missed but well worth a visit. Tribeca is hard to fault.

Rating: 4/5.

Related topics: