Lounge Bar & Grill

So, under new management — and armed with a Groupon deal — I ventured in quite open minded! Not that I didn’t already think that the food was decent here, but I’ve only ever sampled the pre-​theatre menu and it’s difficult to go wrong with such a tried & tested restricted menu.
The food was really good, but unfortunately the presentation let it down from being the full 5 star review!
I enjoyed the creamy garlic mushrooms (always a favourite starter of mine) but the portion was massive, so much so that it was actually served up on a dinner plate — I’d have suggested a smaller potion on a side plate, maybe with a few coloured leaves like that on the chicken pâté. which leads me onto my dining partners food, which was possibly twice as much pâté as really necessary for a starter, but half as much bread as you’d need (really liked the presentation on this however)!
The Sunday dinner is actually served up on a platter between the diners, so for the 2 of us we had slices of roast turkey, pork loin & sliced beef on a platter with chipolatas, sprouts, stuffing balls, massive (and very tasty) Yorkshire puddings smothered in Gravy.
It looked amazing, as I’m sure you’ll see from the photo — however it was difficult for those gravy lovers like myself, so would have preferred a gravy boat on the side of the platter instead. Food wise, the main was gorgeous. I enjoyed the turkey, whilst my partner lapped up the beef (stating it was perfectly juicy) and the pork loin.

I was actually here for a private party but, as we were still using the public bar I feel able to comment.
The good thing, for me, was that it wasn’t overly busy for a Saturday night so there was very little waiting at the bar. Add to that that the bar staff seemed to know what they were doing and worked efficiently whilst remaining pleasant and welcoming.
I loved the feel of the place (well the bar area) as it seemed quite laid back and spacious although the conservatory area was a little lacking in atmosphere and comfort. There was some disquiet amongst our party as the hand pumps at the bar were off.
The snacks that were served were a little uninspiring and over priced (this was the catering for the party).
The major let down for the whole place has to be the toilets. I don’t know what the ladies facilities were like as I didn’t have the opportunity to inspect them but the gents were in quite a state.

popped in her for «Sunday lunch» at around 4pm.
wow wow wow.
forget the meat, go for the nut roast! (bit more like a nut wellington) utterly gorgeous.
in fact the whole meal was.
Definitely will be going back.

We went to the Lounge this week for Sunday lunch as part of a Livingsocial deal we needed to use prior to it expiring this week! (we buy these things and nearly forget to use them until the very last minute!!!)
It did us well to celebrate the Mr’s run in Leeds Half Marathon.
I’d booked in advance for 2.30pm and we arrived a little after but were sat down immediately.
At the same time we were being sat down we were being asked to order drinks which I thought a bit pushy!
I’d say sat down but we struggled to get the over sized chairs out from under the table– not a good start!
It was quite busy for lunch and there were nice smells coming from everywhere.
The menu features a good selection of starters/​mains/​desserts that would appeal to everyone with starter prices ranging from £4.50-£5.95 & mains £7.95-£9.95.
Our voucher covered 2 courses and not really being ‘dessert’ people we both opted for a starter and main.
A waiter came to take drinks orders and when we said they’d already been taken he looked flustered and said ‘I’ll take your food order then’.
The drinks arrived and we had a short wait for our starters which gave us chance to have a peek at what this place looks like in daylight!
My Mr gets 20% off food & drink usually here so we do go in occasionally for drinks and the décor and furnishings are definitely more suitable for evening.
I don’t fancy eating my dinner while sat on a sofa which some of the tables are set up with!
The starters came–
Me = Halloumi and chorizo salad
Mr = Calamari
Mine was bland. The halloumi was nice enough. The salad was ribbons of carrot of 3 colours, rocket and chorizo with big bits of gristle in it which made it rubbery and hard to chew. No seasoning and a very weird dressing meant I left most of it.
The calamari was OK, not a huge portion and not very hot but was OK nonetheless.
The plates were cleared away in a timely manner and the main courses arrived.
I’d opted for the Pork & Mr the Beef.
Both meals looked the same, rather devoid in variety of colour and not very exciting.
My Pork was nice & tender but my baby carrots were hard (not al dente-​actually hard), the broccoli was cold, the roast potatoes were OK as was the gravy. The Yorkie pud was very doughy and the meal didn’t feature any stuffing or crackling– surely a requisite with pork!!!
My Mr’s beef was very dry and not too pleasant, the rest of the meal was like mine.
The portions were a good size but the majority of the dinner was the baby carrots!
We didn’t get a check back to see if everything was OK either!
We finished our meals and flagged a waiter down for the bill– they didn’t offer any dessert or coffee so either they wanted us out, were too busy to care or realised we weren’t blown away by our experience so thought the better of offering.
We just paid and left.
On the whole it was OK, nothing special and not a place we’ll be rushing back to or recommending with any great passion to anyone asking for a good Sunday Lunch venue.
I’d advise them to pick up on the points I’ve made to make some improved effort or stick to just being a bar!

I’ve been to the Lounge a few times, mainly for food. I have to say the décor always gets me in this place. It’s very grand with lovely purples, deep colours and soft velvets I find it all very welcoming. I especially like the big chairs which always make me feel like a kid in a giants chair.
So it has a mixture of things going on in this place which include a main bar which is exceptionally sized, a restaurant upstairs for a more formal experience and a balcony upstairs which is great for basking in the summer. Being a smoker. yes yes yar yar yar I know. but it’s good that you can actually smoke outside on the lovely terrace instead of being shoved out onto the street.
As I was saying I would tend to go for food here and have always enjoyed a spot of Sunday lunch, it was actually one of my ‘top 3′ spots for Sunday Lunch in Leeds at one point… I say that because the last visit (which was a couple of weeks ago) was pretty tragic. I would have let this go but based on the fact that the previous visit was tragic I’m sticking to my guns.
So the food is still quite good and reasonably priced, generally serving a small menu of English Grub for those that require a decent warming meal from time to time. I’d say the quality hasn’t got much poorer. However I must must rant about the service here. It actually appals me!
We arrived after booking a table for a group of 4 and when I announced to a member of staff we had arrived we were left standing around for at least 10 minutes. I’m not massively impatient so I shook it off and waited patiently. When I asked a member of the bar staff if I could get a drink he asked me if I had booked a table. I then noticed that the person I’d originally spoken to was floating round aimlessly and wasn’t really sure what she was doing. So after announcing again our arrival we waited… and waited. and there it is. our whole experience was that of waiting.
We were seated near a fire exit on a really low down table which was broken and it took 30 minutes before someone asked if we wanted drinks. Need I say more, I managed to drink nearly two bottles of wine in that very long and painful sitting. With a 40 minute wait for the bill.
Yes I’m still alive to tell the tale. I’m not quite dead from the waiting, although I’m pretty sure I actually did start to feel the grey hairs grow on my becoming very impatient head.

My wife and I went here on the Groupon deal (Sunday Lunch 2 courses for £14).
The décor really sets this venu apart. The plush seating is tasteful and comfortable (a rare combination) and there is enough space at a two-​person table to feel like you have space to spread out (so many places make you feel cramped). The vibe was open, clean and spacious.
The service was satisfactory. The staff smiled and were friendly and attentive. When we had finished our main course it took them almost ten minutes to clear away our plates despite not being very busy — a small gripe but enough to knock the service down from ‘excellent’ to ‘good’.
The food was a bit of a let-​down. Bear in mind that we did order from the set Sunday Lunch menu. The meat and gravy (I had chicken, wife had beef) were really quite excellent and saved the meal somewhat. The Yorkshire Puddings were burt to a crisp and very near inedible. The vegetables were overcooked. When it came to dessert I had an Eton Mess which was served in a glass and seemed to consist of a crushed meringue piece with a dollop of half-​whipped cream and some tinned strawberries all topped with a what tasted like a faux-​strawberry sause (the kind you get in ice-​cream vans).
Overall the Lounge Bar & Grill was a bit of a disappointment.

Really roomy bar, plenty of room to sit down and chat.
There’s a good selection of beers and although I’ve only tried the burger, I can tell you that it’s good!
The iphone pub quiz is also extremely good fun for a night out!

Nice staff, great food nice environment, quick service. What more can you ask for?

My last visit to Lounge was pretty fantastic. Although it was some time ago, I went along for the Sunday Roast and live jazz, and it did not disappoint!
For starters, their décor still is some of the swankiest I’ve seen in Leeds. The toilets require special mention, for being so lovely, and I’ve dubbed some of the chairs ‘King Chairs’ as they make one feel like royalty with their lordly design. Added to that they’re super comfy, so it’s an all out win for the chairs.
Secondly, the roast was one of the best I’ve had in Leeds. The potatoes were excellent, the portion was perfect — not so huge you can’t move, but not miserly either — and the meat and gravy were incredibly juicy and tasty. It’s presented in a fine dining manner, but has all the comfort and ease of a proper home-​cooked dinner, whilst tasting top class. The perfect combination!
The music was fantastic as well, Tessa S has a wonderful voice and with such a relaxed atmosphere it feels personal without being in the slightest bit awkward — basically you can eat and listen, or even get up and dance along if you wish, as others did whilst I was present!
If you take all this into account, as well as their excellent selection of drinks and fab service, you’re on to a winning Sunday. And not in a Charlie Sheen kind of way. An actual win.
I’ve heard great things about their iPhone quiz too, so I’ll have to make an appearance for that soon too…

Ok, so I’m new to this Unilocal thing, and whilst I try and get to grips with it all (as I send random people random messages that I hope are linked to the reviews I intend them to be — sorry!) I have been told my ‘next review awaits’ and it should be of Lounge Bar and Grill.
Now, I am also aware that it may appear that I will not 100% unbiased in this review, as I have a residency in this venue, and appear (almost) every Sunday singing some Jazz for those people who are eating and drinking. But I shall try and be balanced.
My knowledge of Lounge is now of at least 5 years, having first visited when I was at Uni. Back then we used to LOVE to come — there was a lot of veggie dishes on the menu, and the place felt both relaxed and slightly more ‘special’ than a grab-​a-​quick-​dinner place.
But then — and I’m not really sure what happened here. — we went as a large group in 2007 after my graduation, and the service was terrible. I mean, awful. The food didn’t all arrive together, the waitress was rude; the whole experience left me extremely disappointed and the place never featured in my mind again as a destination for any occasion.
Until last Summer, when, for whatever reason, I thought of it when I was wanting dinner with a friend and Jamie’s (STILL not made it there!) had a queue out the door.
As I say, no idea why I suddenly remembered of this venue, but we went. And I’m so glad we did! We sat out on the upstairs terrace whilst the sun set, and enjoyed a beautifully-​cooked meal, great service, and some lovely wine. This wine, in fact, was the reason I became a little forward and brazenly stated I was a singer and that they should have live music!
So, nearly 40 weeks later, and I still sing on a Sunday afternoon, 2pm — 6pm. :) and occasionally attract some dancers too!
But, more than intending this to be shameless self-​promotion, here are some things about Lounge.
They’ve an upstairs restaurant, massive outdoor area (a real sun-​trap!) as well as the extensive downstairs bar. The staff are friendly and generally well-​trained, and the food is good quality and cooked very well. Although initially there wasn’t a great deal of vegetarian choice (It is a Grill, after all) the chefs have always catered for me well, and I like to think they’re slowly but surely adding more meat-​free dishes to the menu. I’ve even known them to create a vegan dish for a customer (but you’d have to book ahead, and give them warning!)
They also have monthly wine and beer evenings where they match 5 of the chosen tipple with 5 dishes for £30/£25 (wine/​beer) which sound great, and a weekly iphone pub quiz and a sunday-​Thursday happy hour!
So, whilst I have never been on a busy weekend evening, where I understand the vibe changes a little, I have sampled other times apart from my Sundays, and would gladly recommend it to people (and have).
I think it’s always a good sign when the staff spend their ‘free’ time in their place of work, and I wouldn’t keep a regular gig in a place I wasn’t proud to be associated with, so please bare that in mind when I say you will definitely see me there in the sunshine, cocktail-​in-​hand, this summer. :)

After over ten years of living in Leeds I’d never been to the Lounge before yesterday, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the fact that we were on date night, maybe it was the relief at having escaped from a bad Nash’s experience, who knows, but I really liked it. Actually, I do know what it was. It was because the barman asked me what I wanted and when I said ‘something dark, like Bohemia’, he gave me a bottle of Brooklyn lager and it was deeeelish. I like a knowledgeable barman, and I like sitting outside in a city centre pub after work with a Hot Steve.
Love it.

We ate in the restaurant upstairs and the menu had been recently re-​done when I went towards the end of last year, and we all thought it was really good. Really nice surroundings, great service. Not rushed, plenty of room, faultless.
It looks like a tudor house outside but is cosy yet cool inside. But is a big place.
In the bar downstairs they have DJ’s who know their onions and played some cracking tunes. I don’t like going to faceless bars playing the same crap at ridiculously loud volumes. A good balance between somewhere to go for a drink and something to eat.

Sit in front of the huge open fire and enjoy the atmosphere whilst sipping on a cocktail. I visited here for a drink after hearing how nice it was and I was seriously impressed.
It’s the perfect setting to go on a sophisticated chat and drink. Calming, comforting and definitely welcoming.
Lots of older, mature couples seems to come here, probably due to the relaxed, tranquil atmosphere.

I have only ever been to The Lounge Bar in the evenings, and I must say I was pretty impressed. The décor is a perfect mix of sophistication and homeyness and there is a fire which is always bound to make people feel comfortable. The first time I went it wasn’t too busy and the bar man was really nice. We were planning on going to the The Grand Theatre just round the corner but had half an hour to spare so decided to have a cocktail (or 2) before we went in. I am not a massive cocktail drinker but I definitely wouldn’t say no on occasion. I had a mango spice which was absolutely delicious whilst flicking through the menu. The food seemed very reasonably priced and some of the options were not what you would expect to see in a pub/​lounge. The steamed mussels over cider caught my eye and I tampered with the idea of coming back one day to give them a try. We got to the theatre feeling very nice and warm, and had to try not to fall asleep during the performance. Maybe we should have saved the boozing for after wards???

While a clientele almost entirely composed of office workers and mature couples is normally enough to send me running to the nearest dive bar, thankfully reaching for a pint of ale, the Lounge Bar manages to pull off that upmarket traditional pub vibe without being nauseatingly middle class. The building is beautiful, and the mock-​Tudor look is carried on inside with some intelligent design stopping it from being too ‘olde worldy’ and twee — think exposed stone, dark wood and open fires rather than low beams and cramped spaces. While this is not the sort of place I’d drop into for a few pints with my mates, the impressive selection of wines and cocktails — try the Peppercorn Blackberry for something different but tasty — make it great date territory and a good venue for anyone who prefers a few relaxing cocktails over 10 pints in a heaving bar. The food is restaurant quality and fantastic value for money, with bar meals starting from £5 and a more heavyweight supper menu featuring dishes like Ox Cheek and Stout Casserole and Savoury Lancashire Cheese Pudding. Get a seat on the upstairs terrace on a mild evening and you’ll feel a million miles away from Leeds city centre… if you can manage to tune out the racket from the street, anyway.

Appalling food but quickly sorted with a sorry and a refund!
My wife had the fishcakes which were quite nice but don’t order a burger!

I have to say this is almost the best venue in Leeds. I always meet ex collegues here for lunch and a glass of wine (under 10GBP). The service is always through and occasionally on weekends is slow but the staff are concious of this and always thank-​you for waiting! I mainly go on week days at lunchtime but recently I went there on a lovely sunny Saturday and sat a beautiful table with beautiful surroundings (palm trees and yukka trees!) sipping a cocktail and catching some rays — it was bliss! The menu is excellent and very well priced, most of the time I choose a started of Pork Terrine with homeade chutney or I have Mushroom risotto (best I have ever tasted!) with pine nuts and fresh parmesan cheese. The only downside is that they do not have ale on tap — just lager which I know will limit there customer base. I always take my guests to Leeds there and they always wish they could take the place back home!

Well presented city centre bar. A vast selection of different drinks to choose from and not too pricey for the city. The bar staff always seem quite cheerfull and happy to serve you. Is always a good place to chill with mates during the day, and party at night. Also a big heated outdoor area, thats great in winter!!!

Lovely what I would call posh looking inside but still carrying on the cosyiness! Been there when they had bbq’s outside with dj’s on, worth a look. Quality food and drinks with lots of choice on rum. Bit expensive than other bars but reckon you get what you are paying for by the service and look of the place.