The Man Behind the Curtain

Langoustine

Last night, we went to The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds – here is my  Tripadvisor review. You might get the impression that we liked the place!

“Creativity, wittiness, technical skill – this place has it all!”
5 of 5 stars

Our second visit found a substantially changed menu – which is good as you have no choice, a £65 taster menu or go to McDonalds. That’s a good thing in my book as it saves the effort of choosing and exposes me to food experiences unlike those I might choose.
And what experiences! I’m not going to try to describe all the dishes (I could actually try to describe the dishes, because every course was served on its’ own rather special ‘crockery’, offering an extra dimension to what must be described as a dining experience rather than just a meal) because I could not possibly do justice to them.
Let me instead just give a flavour of the offerings, as if I were ordering a four course menu from what we ate – start with a spoon-sized serving of raw langoustine in a mussel broth dribbled with basil oil, move on to an offering of prawn/scallop/sweetbreads served with a very spicy Ponzu sauce and preceded by an “electric daisy”, for meat take the braised ox cheek with salt ‘n vinegar crispy rice etc, and finish with a single bit of tiramisu stiing in it’s edible cup and exploding in your mouth to give a spectacular end to your feast.
Of course, in the real work dof Michael O’Hare, you get 8 other equally creative and impressive dishes. We were there for 3.5 hours and enjoyed every minute.
The gold high heels have gone, and the very friendly and communicative staff appreciate that, presenting cutlery in boxes has also gone (I thought this was rather cute if a touch OTT) and chef made an appearance to explain his ‘electric daisy’ creation to us.