Strada

Chain restaurant… To go or not to go?! Cliché right? Let me tell you the story of mine. After my hesitation to enter this restaurant I must say that I made the right choice. It was quite late night when I entered. To my surprise I was welcomed by really friendly member of staff. After I was seated didn’t take long to find and choose tasty sounding dish. I had garlic pizza with rosemary and I must day fantastic lobster risotto. I was offered special of the day which was sea bream. I am sure that the fish would be nice but the risotto absolutely satisfied my taste buts and appetite. The pizza bread was quite tasty but to my opinion was lacking garlic and also some crisp. Sadly I missed out jazz band which was playing that night. Well only by my fault.
Overall great experience tasty food and really friendly staff.

A Sunday afternoon holiday hunting was always going to be hungry work. So I suggested to the boyfriend that we get some lunch while we were out and about (and I’d fortunately come across a voucher for 2 courses for £12 for Strada before we left)
We walked in and were told to sit where we like — until the manager came over and insisted we sit at one of four tables near the door. It felt a little cramped after a while, there were so many people shoved into this one corner. We weren’t given any menus until a good five minutes after we’d sat down and were then told there was no fish of the day or mussels. However, the manager was talking directly to my boyfriend when he said that we’d have extra prawns etc… if we ordered the seafood risotto or pasta. I only caught the end of this and thought there were no prawns either, so we had to clarify this with the nice waiter who came and took our drink order.
After we’d got our drinks, our order was taken. We opted for the rosemary and garlic pizza bread to start — which was a basket of utter deliciousness. The boyfriend went for seafood risotto — which he said had more chilli than he thought it would’ve, still didn’t stop him clearing his plate though! I went for the seafood linguine, which was beautiful and had the chilli kick to it too. It went down very well.
Stomachs full, we decided not to go for dessert and just asked for the bill. It came to just over £20 with the voucher, but they are sneaky and add on an optional service charge — which of course you’d feel bad for declining. So our Sunday afternoon lunch came to just shy of £23. Not bad at all.

If I had to summarise Strada in just one sentence then I would have to say that it is an upmarket version of the other well known chain, Bella Italia…
Now I think it is perhaps unfair to compare different restaurants as each individual restaurant caters for different people as well as for different occasions, however, having been to both on several occasions I think that everything about Strada is much better than Bella Italia, including service, cleanliness, quality and choice of food and value for money — but more on VFM later.
Today I ordered a 10oz rare rib eye steak and was very pleasantly surprised at the quality and size of the steak as it seemed much larger than 10oz. It was very tender and cooked just right, fantastic for all carnivores like myself!
My children ordered pizza — plain tomato and mozzarella pizza. I have tried to bring them up to be more adventurous when it comes to food but am clearly failing miserably!
Anyway, I only ever go to these restaurant chains if I get a money off voucher and on this occasion I used £10 worth of Tesco vouchers which translates to £40 off at the till! Great value for money (and I even received another 40% off voucher to use if I dine again within the next two weeks), but without the voucher I would rather spend my money at a place like Salvo’s in Headingley or Casa Mia in Chapel Allerton.

My friend and I had been planning to meet up for weeks. as we’re both quite broke I set about looking for a voucher we could use on a Friday night. I’m an omnivore but Kerry is a vegetarian so a wide choice of veggie dishes was important. A quick check of the menu convinced me that there would be enough choice to please us both.
As we were planning to eat early, I didn’t book; the only other time I’ve been to Strada, it was very quiet. that was a Saturday lunchtime, not a Friday night! The manager warned us of a 30 minute wait but in reality it was less than half of that.
We had a drink at the bar, I decided to lash out and had a Glenfiddich. the barman check how much ice I wanted, which was great because too much ice murders a good malt.
Our voucher was a 2 for 1 main course offer, so we decided to share some bread (Cesto di Pane Misto) to start. The basket of different breads came with a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, really nice and very filling. Kerry, it transpired didn’t eat goats cheese, which was a bit of a shame as there were some very yummy sounding dishes which involved it. In the end, Kerry had one of the specials, a Gorgonzola gnocchi, and I had a scallop risotto (Riso o Cappesante). Both were excellent, thoughI would have like more scallops, however I would always like more scallops.
Kerry decided to skip the dessert but when I saw that they did an affogato, I thought «Bugger the diet!»; the ice cream had a layer of nougat on top, the espresso came in a separate cup and was poured over the ice ream at the table.
All in all we had a lovely meal with enough service to keep us happy but not so much that we felt overwhelmed.
Planning to take my daughter for lunch next week

Unmissable for a light supper!
Where to start? Well, I was treating a wonderful friend of mine to a Birthday celebration of surprises. As the main event was tickets to a comedy show and bottle of Laurent Perrier whilst there, I had to scale back on the cost of eating beforehand (+ dining wasn’t supposed to be the highlight). I had wanted to try Strada but it didn’t seem to be right for past occasions. However, it was perfect for this event and the voucher was excellent timing.
I arrived for the 1800 reservation at 1750 to handover a cake from Patisserie Valerie (the first surprise) to the Staff asking if they wouldn’t mind delivering it along with the candle lit when taking dessert orders. I briefed them and they enthusiastically agreed.
I had made the reservation online to gurantee us an early dining slot as we had to leave by 1930 to get to the Comedy Show at Highlight Club (the second surprise). The table reserved was not in the window so I asked to take the only available window table and that was no problem. My friend arrived, I briefed him on the voucher option of which we both choose from. The wine I ordered was off so the Italian Waiter obligingly changed it at once (the wine list is extensive and there are plently of specialist Italian wine that are definately not in supermarkets!). The food was exceptional (I had Risotto Verdure and my friend Panzerotti Porchini Pasta) and we both enjoyed it. I asked for extra condiments and the cheese from the side rocket salad to come seperately for my friend to have (I do not eat dairy as you may know by now!). The Staff in general were so enthusiastic, I informed them that I wasn’t a mystery dinner and held a conversation with them. The cake came exactly as prompted and they even sung happy birthday with me! They supplied plates and folks without being asked. We had 2 digestifs and coffee.
The bill was brought promt but was worng in that they had not considered the voucher which I had presented when seated. However, they amended the bill immediately.
The cost was £35.96 (this included x4 alcoholic drinks) including a standard 10% service. Without the voucher the total was £45. We tipped a further 10% as I deemed the experience exceptional.
We took the half eaten cake in a bag along to the comedy show.
I will definately be going to Strada in Leeds again soon and perhaps make a whole evening of dining there (with starters and a bottle of wine next time!) as it really deserves to be disregarded as a chain restaurant!

For a little piece of Italy that isn’t just Spaghetti alla Carbonara or Bolognaise!
Authentic Italian dishes from a chain restaurant? Really? Yes siree.
I didn’t have high hopes for Strada when deciding to go out for Italian one night, I just presumed it would be similar to a run of the mill Bella Italia, boy was I wrong!
The vast a luscious menu left me finding it hard to look for something I didn’t want. Strada obviously find it imperative to create dishes that embody authentic Italian tastes and this certainly came through. I opted for the Pollo alla Milanese that was absolutely divine, succulent chicken with a really fresh taste to it. I also helped share a pizza (which are handspun by the way, pretty fun to watch whilst your waiting for your food, no?) which quite possible had the most amazing dough to it.
This place is Italian through and through, they boast a perfect selection of Italian wines and desserts, the Panettone al Forno is a winner! Our waitress was very attentive and helped recommend dishes, she engaged in a delightful conversation about the restaurant but she wasn’t too chatty, that can be annoying!
Overall I had a very commendable evening, the food was satisfying to the extent that maybe I wanted a little more pizza put in a box to take home. The décor is very authentic and with that wine list you are sure to have a good night!

Bit disappointed by Strada, I have to say. My favourite pizza from El Faro (best pizza takeaway in LS4, FACT) is the Parma Feast, so I ordered the supposedly fancier Strada version, only to be presented with a ‘Bufala’ instead. When I said I’d ordered the ‘Parma’, the waitress simply took it back to the kitchen, stuck some parma ham on top and brought it out. Well done love. Really worth the extra £2, that. I think in future I’ll either a) stay home and get an El Faros (under £6 if I get olives on too), or b) go to Pizza Express.