Steak Restaurant’s Leeds
It was that time of year again, yes our Wedding Anniversary so on the recommendation of Leo Law Eats we found ourselves at the Ox Club located in The Headrow House in central Leeds. Must admit have been meaning to visit the Ox Club for quite a while now but circumstances have always conspired to keep me away. Firstly they suffered from a fire that closed them down just as I was planning to visit and more recently we have had the global pandemic to deal with. So was really looking forward to doing this Ox Club Review.
It has always had great reputation as a steak house but if anything it has recently lost its title as the hottest steak house in Leeds to more recent (and out of town Chophaus – in Oakwood). There will be more on the Chophaus at a later date I am sure, but back to the Ox Club and our meal
As you can see (hopefully) from the menu the night of our visit wasn’t just any old night at the Ox Club it was one of their special Chop Night’s where they have a guest providing the meat for the menu and for our visit the meat was from Hannans Meat in Northern Ireland and by goodness it was pretty amazing to boot!
Before moving onto the food it is worth pausing to just give a brief call out to the staff working that night. Although the food is spectacularly important at any restaurant what really sets an evening out in a restaurant apart is the people working there and how they interact with the customers. It would be very easy in a high end steak restaurant, especially one with a reputation for being a cool (sorry) place to be, especially since it is located in one of the most popular bars in Leeds (Headrow House) for the staff to be a little too full of themselves. Everyone we came into contact with on our visit was really genuine and a pleasure to deal with it really was a massively important part of the night. Anyway back to the food what did we have?
Starters at Ox Club
Always a danger when dining out on a large piece of cow to overdo it on the starters and be wiped out before the end of the mains. Luckily (I think!) we saw a couple of tables tucking into their mains so we had a good idea as to what was in store. Taking that into account we went light in the starters with Mrs K picking the Olives (very nice they were too) whilst I couldn’t resist and plummed for the Pastrami short-rib with celeriac, aged comte and pickles. I will be quite frank that the photo does not do it justice it was genuinely delicious. I couldn’t fault it in any way my only issue was the amount I had to share with Mrs K!
Main Course at Ox Club
In fairness we could quite easily have had any of the amazing main courses that were on offer that night (probably could have given the lamb a swerve if pushed!) but eventually we went for the 1kg Cote de Boeuf haven seen one land at a table nearby. We had it served with the cauliflower and Jersey Royals with seaweed and my god what a tour de force it really was. Cooked to perfection and just too much to finish off (I still feel guilty about this) although there was no way that the bone wasn’t going to get a going over using the knife precision usually demonstrated by a consultant surgeon
Hopefully the picture in this instance does do the meal the justice it deserves because it was the nicest piece of steak I have ever had, a world class effort. Although we couldn’t finish off the mountain of meat we couldn’t resist a pudding (puddings go in a different vault in your stomach to the ones mains go in) and we ended up sharing the cheesecake, which was also delicious.
Conclusion
Overall an amazing night out, great food, great staff and ambience in the restaurant. It is not presented like a “standard” steak house and there isn’t a leather chair to be seen anywhere but I think this helps make it stand out rather than tick the stereotypic box it is friendly and welcoming and isn’t that just what we need in these still strange and weird times.
As you can see from the menu it was never going to be a cheap night out, it helped that Leo Law Eats and his dining companion (Mr C) kindly bought us a bottle of wine. We also had a couple of pints of lager and a gin and tonic which rounded the bill up to £153 (with service) great value and sometimes it I worth every penny.
A rock solid 9/10 (and can’t think why I docked it a point tbh it was truly a great meal!)