Mio Modo

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a while now.
I scored a voucher giving us discounted food and as Mio Modo is just around the corner from my place of work, I thought a nice midweek dinner could be an option. I have to say, a quick google and reading reviews on here didn’t promise great things but hey, you can’t mess up pizza that badly.
Our slightly bizarre dining experience began when booking the table. The phone was answered by a man doing an excellent line in ‘Italian waiter’. I explained I’d like to book a table for 2 that evening, he asked if it was for ‘two lovely ladies like myself’. Alarmed by attempts at prophecy, I indicated the table was in fact for lovely me and my lovely boyfriend. ‘Ahaha, I’m just kidding, just a little joke’ said excellent line in Italian waiter man.
Back in the day I worked for a number of years in a family run Italian restaurant. Walking through the doors of Mio Modo was a bit of a trip down memory lane. The attractive girl on reception, lots of tiling, chrome and look, there’s the manager hovering over the bookings. It reminded me of some places we visited in Italy. It’s a bit glitzy and as others have mentioned, it’s loud. All those hard surfaces send the noise bouncing across the room, but it’s not an unpleasant dining space. There is even a piano, on which a guest decided to treat us to Chopsticks midway through the evening.
The manager (hello what a lovely lady… hahaha, just my little joke) showed us to our table. A number of diners were sat and perhaps it’s the state of mind I was in, but they all seemed to be wondering like us what on earth was going on and not feeling super sure about it all.
Now we come to the main problem with Mio Modo, and a bit of a geekery restaurant rant from me. The wait team is inexperienced, and poorly managed. From an ex wait staff point of view I was dying to get up, jump behind the bar and get some organisation going. An example: after being left with our menus, we managed to grab the attention of our friendly and chatty waitress, She took our drinks order. As the restaurant is open plan I was able to watch her walk over to the bar, put the order down, talk to the bartender, he walked off and then she started restocking the bar. Our drinks remained unmade. After watching this for a few minutes I was ready to go and prepare them myself but my boyfriend said it wasn’t the done thing. When the drinks arrived, the beer was warm (and I’d bet that’s down to poor prep and poor stock rotation in the fridge). My glass of house red was perfectly pleasant.
We both ordered pizza. Mine was a winner — thin crust, a combination of cheese and aubergine. Boyfriend didn’t fare so well with a diablo pizza that could have done with just a tad longer in the oven. It was OK but there are other places to go to get just quite good pizza in Leeds. The menu also features a la carte Italian standards, but to be honest when the front of house is that disorganised I tend if I can to stick to things that can’t be messed up too badly.
I should stress the staff were friendly and well meaning, but were just poorly trained and poorly managed. They seemed to be working sections but not actually maintaining responsibility for the table through the service. This led to delays at each stage, and us having to wave to catch someone’s attention. We eventually took the bill to the cashier ourselves, having failed to catch anyone’s attention. However when the prices are set at the top of the board, to my mind you need to really nail the service, especially when you’re in a place that’s decorated to indicate glitz. We paid £18 in all for our one drink and pizza each with the voucher but would have been nearing £30 without. That’s one pizza, and a drink each.
There was something likeable about the place — enough that for one brief moment sorting out that front of house seemed like an attractive career option. The moment passed, but I do hope someone else does manage to sort it out!

I received an SOS phone call from a dear friend who had been let down by a female companion for the evening and his parents were visiting Leeds as tourists for a few days. I obligingly fulfilled the request as a replacement model (as I need a few credits in the bank with him!).
My friend James was adamant on going to an Italian restaurant, so I suggested Mio Modo as I had heard positive feedback. I had not been there before as dining out for Italian cuisine isn’t that inspiring generally.
I imagined it would be full every night so I suggested that we book a table a couple of weeks in advance. When we arrived the maître d’ did not even check our reservation and lead us to a table in the central part of the restaurant that had only 5 other tables occupied. We handed menu’s and given French baguette and butter! Immediately I realised that is was not authentic (although it is run by Italians) we waited for over 15 minutes to order drinks and another 5 to order food, the drinks did not arrive until just before the food. The menu is very extensive but not laid out in a logical order and, in my opinion, overpriced. However, it was not until we received the food until I was most disappointed, my friend had chicken livers which did not look delicate but more like having been scraped from the frying pan onto the plate ans this was served with more French bread! I had fried squid that was overcooked and the batter was not seasoned. For main courses my friend and I had pizza that was stonebaked but the toppings were sparse and mine being seafood looked grey and dull instead of fresh and colourful, his was just (supermarket style) salami and cheese, these both cost £9.50 — Having worked in a chain Italian restaurant, I know how cheap pizza is to produce. I had to go and ask for chilli oil too. My friend’s Mother had chicken breast served with vegetables: broccoli and cauliflower etc. When we finished we asked for the bill immediately after we had finished the Waitress said that she will bring the card machine over straight away, after 15 minutes I grabbed her colleague to take the payment. My friend’s Father paid and he insisted on paying the 10% service charge! Obviously, I was on my best behaviour otherwise I would of walked out many hours before (probably the moment we received the French bread with butter!) but I did have to confess I felt totally responsible and therefore embarrassed. I was convinced that the experience must of had a negative first impression on Leeds as a city for James’ parents which is such a shame as Leeds is so wonderful and has plenty of great restaurants — there is no room for imitations like Mio Modo even if their décor is unique!

Clinical. That would be the one word if only one word was a word I had to describe Mia Modo. Clinical. It’s clean cut and sparkling white almost to the point of being uncomfortable. From the floor tiles to the ceiling everything is stark white. The bright white of the clinical is broken up with dark wooden bar surfaces and dining tables, and does a small effort to break the discomfort and harshness Mia Modo has when it isn’t full.
It makes a nice break from the other lounge leather and suede bars in the area, and it’s a very nice and posh place to consume a glass of plonk. That is, that said if you like your plonk pricey, although for central Leeds I’ve seen a large glass of wine plenty dearer than £5.
For a city centre location it’s a classy joint, although calling it a classy joint maybe doesn’t do much for it’s image as one, but I don’t care. It’s a good place to meet people after work to go for a quiet one with a good atmosphere, and it feels less dental surgery when there are more people to break up the blank canvas.

I’m not saying that I work for tyrants but occasionally I’m allowed to be unchained and let out of the broom cupboard for a morsel of bread and cold oats. Even better when the boss is away, I can actually venture out of the office into the big wide world. So it’s great to have an Italian such as Mio Modo, on my door step.
Just a short walk from the train station and not far from the busy business area of Wellington Street, it sits with a beautiful crisp clean interior and shiny white floors. I mention the shiny white floors because it still amazes me what bad boy product they use to get such a finish. Seriously, I need some of it in my life! John Travolta would be proud to throw some shapes on it.
Floors aside, the food is good old Italian staples. That’s not a bad thing. Indeed, in my world it’s a good thing if done well and they certainly achieve that.
Nice seafood, classic bruschetta, simple pastas and tasty pizzas, it’s all here and hoorah to that. If you really want to chow down on some meat then they have plenty to go at as well and it’s cooked on their authentic charcoal grill, just how you like it.
Add a decent wine list and some exhibition photography to the mix and you’ll find a welcome choice for a Mediterranean feast.

Having read some positive reviews online, I decided to try it out with my boyfirend and his parents, when they last came to visit.
Marketed as a restaurant, bar and gallery, the walls of Mio Modo are covered in a diverse range of artwork for sale, which seemed to divide opinion amongst my party, but definitey set up some conversation around the dinner table (ranging from interesting and diverse, to hideous).
A large well-​seated bar area greets you on the right as you come in, complete with freestyling pianist playing a few well-​known jazzy numbers. The bar is well-​stocked, but I think that the lighting was perhaps a bit bright for an evening drink.
The restaurant was very busy when I was there, and I do think that this affected the speed of the service, but the staff were very polite and apologetic.
The menu is large, yet not overwhelming. They serve a range of pizza, pasta and meat and fish dishes. I opted for the seabass which was cooked to perfection. I had no complaints at all, other than the fact that vegetable accompaniments had to be ordered as sides. Mio Modo is by no means cheap, but not cripplingly expensive, if you go for the pizza or pasta option. Though well cooked, I did feel the meat dishes and fish dishes do verge on a being bit steep, especially next to the other options. I think they’d do well to add vegeatbles to those, and perhaps dim the lighting a little.
It was a good choice for the boyfriend and his parents, and as an independent restaurant, the staff really seemed to care about their restaurant and service. I liked!