I'm always wary of cafes that obviously seek to portray themselves as 'New York' style, as if this…read morecity represents a benchmark of quality that all cities should aspire too. I think it's got something with having been to a fair few underwhelming cafes in New York... if people are going to imitate another city's style, I'd rather it was Rome or Paris or somewhere with a little more style. Personal grievances aside, this New York style cafe is pretty good, although I suspect I might like it even more if they dispensed with the cityscape and laminate flooring. Bagels with a variety of fillings start at around £3 - the cheese and jalepeno is a great way to get your tastebuds working at the start of the day - and they also sell a range of interesting smoothies and good, strong coffees. The artfully placed books on New York might make you gag a bit (or that might be just me) but if you can get past this it's one of the better cafe venues in Chapel Allerton.

All the meat! The…read morefood scene has drastically improved in Leeds since I moved to London. When I was a student, we had a choice between a chicken kebab from Lucky's or a pizza from Gangsters, (where the chicken tasted like tuna). Nowadays students in Headingley are spoilt for choice for awesome food, the best of which comes from Red's True Barbecue. After being disappointed at the prospect of an Oak BBQ burger or tandoori regret from Tariq's, I lumped off to Red's for a healthy portion of sticky fingers and meat sweats! I feasted on succulent baby back ribs with a pair of chicken wings that terrified me at the thought of how big chickens can actually get, both choices were excellent. I also ordered some burnt ends, some of which were disappointingly tepid in temperature but tasty nevertheless, and a brownie milkshake that was decidedly average. It tasted ok, sure, but at £5 it needs to blow my mind like an Oreo shake from Byron, and sadly it didn't come even close to stacking up. The service was very friendly and attentive, and the food was good. I look forward to visiting the one that opens in London very soon.

Who one earth would put a burger between two burgers ?? This…read moreplace really messes with your head !! Nothing is quite what you would expect ! It's fantastic !!

Excellant steak and burger restuarant . Lively and popular with both families and those on a night…read moreout . Service was excellant and quick .

Thoroughly awesome food! That's the first thing. Utterly beautiful interior. That's the second. And…read morethen it gets worse. The shiraz I had was totally flat and light, whilst sitting in their 'heavy' section of wine... so a little disappointed. And then service was a combination of great and rubbish - in the right proportion I guess (generally great) - I ordered the two course lunch, my friend ordered off the standard menu, just one course .... EVERYTHING came at once. The young ladies who served us seemed completely none fussed, and I'm not sure I even heard the word sorry. Again though, the food was AMAZING.

I wish I'd enjoyed this place more than I did. I was fully prepared to adore it, being a fan of…read moreArts Cafe and indie biz, but there was just something missing. The building itself has been decked out rather beautifully, with simple romantic lighting inside and interesting features. It's sort of separated into two areas: a bar style area of seating and then a restaurant area that's sectioned by the bar area. When I went we were seated in the bar type area with our backs to the restaurant bit. Given the bare walls noise travels easily, which meant we could easily hear the noise of a few parties present at the time -- we had a few tables of patrons that were on the rowdy side, including one lady next to us who seemed to know everyone and wasn't afraid to squeal over people's tables to show it. Not Shears Yard's fault, but not enjoyable! The food is, undeniably, good quality and presented beautifully. You can tell that the chefs take pride in their work and use top notch ingredients, but each dish just seemed to miss the mark for me. I'm no connoisseur, so I'm fully willing to admit that it could be my lack of refined tastes, but it just seemed like more fuss than substance somehow. I had the pressed ham hock starter, which was like a super posh version of corned beef (I think) and the duo of lamb for the main. Both certainly exploded with flavour and complexity, but it's possible that I chose the wrong restaurant for the mood I was in -- I was starving so perhaps didn't get to appreciate the intricacies. I inhaled the first course and couldn't finish the second as the flavours seemed to get a bit too rich half way through. Basically, I love the concept, I think the food is of amazing quality, and I perhaps need to come back in the right mood to give it another try. To be updated!

A wonderful experience if you're looking for some fabulous Italian cuisine! The staff are beyond…read morehelpful and tentative, making sure you have everything you need! It's def got an old feeling about the place, a swag 40's American smooth feel! Loved it! The food was absolutely incredible! Everything was delicious and my mojito was assembled before my very eyes! As I said, a wonderful experience! Would highly recommend!

In the classier end of Leeds city centre lies Bibi's, an extravagant Italian eatery which allows…read moreyou to step out of Leeds and into 1950's New York for an evening. This is due to the elegant Broadway-styled interior which gives the place an definite air of over-the-top decadence. This might be a problem if the food didn't match the surroundings, but thankfully it does. For starters, I had a 'small' portion (it was still huge) of flawless spaghetti bolognese, followed by a gorgeous chicken breast in mozzarella and parma ham, and topped it off with a fairly indulgent warm chocolate fudge cake. Each course was top-notch, as was the service (most of the waiters are Italian, and most of the waitresses are mighty fine), and my party ended a fine evening by each ordering a ridiculously large cocktail, which are like Bibi's in a nutshell: huge, tasty and glitzy. Of course, on the price spectrum, Bibi's is towards the expensive end, but, for the food, service and twentieth century Italian-American experience you are given, it's more than worth it.

I like my pool, but not enough to go to a pool 'lounge' for an intense best of 21 frames. I'm more…read moreof a killer pool man, to be fair - a bit more sociable, isn't it? But I'm not here to consider a sociological investigation, it's the Elbow Room. I've only ever been on a weekend, when the room is transformed from it's laidback American themed pool lounge to a buzzing venue and club, proferring up live bands and DJs. Drinks aren't cheap and neither is entry, but once in a while - if there's a decent band on or an official aftershow with a band from the Academy doing a DJ set, it's well worth a trip.

The Elbow Room is definitely the most stylish place to pretend to be a pool shark in Leeds - loads…read moreof top of the range tables and fresh equipment that put the grotty tables and cues you find in most pubs to shame. However, you pay for it - it's probably only worth going regularly if you're really good or really rich, as it is top end it terms of pricing. There are a few little deals through the week to draw you in, however - free pool all day on Mondays (drink slowly and it's all worth it) and free pool for women on Thursdays. Aside from pool, they do some fairly good nights at the weekend, based around a good choice in music and a very relaxed vibe - Saturdays are the pick, and well worth checking out if you fancy a change of scenery.

Celebrated 2 friends birthdays here at the same time so we had a MASSIVE table for 15 people! You…read morecan't book but we were seated really quickly and they were really good about it. We had a drink while we were waiting (loved the old-fashioned caramel cocktail!), the bar staff were super friendly and joke-y which was nice. Like I said, we got seated much sooner than we expected in the upstairs bit (the atmosphere in the lower level looked better but they couldn't fit us in). The menu is cool! Loads of variations on the originals and I'd heard a lot about the fries... I had a chicken burger with marmite fries. Yep, you read that right, marmite fries! Other people had bacon bacon fries which is basically a basket of fries with bacon bits and bacon-mayo which was also great (only could only manage a few though!). Burger's looked great (I don't eat beef but I was told they were great!), mine was good, not spectacular really, but I'd recommend it for burger lovers! Really nice surprise and a lovely evening!

High praise for high quality…read more Amazingly good Chicken Burger, in a briche bun (best kind). Happy to adapt it to avoid my allergies. Happy to add alcohol to a milkshake for childish adult drinks, Happy to let us sit and catch up witrh each other well after we had finished eating. Awesome posters around the restaruant. Generally a whole load of thumbs up for this place.