The Tetley

So these days the idea of being stuck in a pub with just Tetley on scares me. Happily their old corporate headquarters has been turned into a more arts orientated building now — though still sign posted ‘Brewery’ as you approach. It’s just over the river from the central area of Leeds.
There’s a couple of sculpture pieces outside, which I liked.
The galleries are upstairs, in the old boardrooms and directors offices, which are fine wood panelled rooms — not your traditional gallery space. There’s maybe 9 rooms, of which half have Tetley related art, and the other half more contemporary pieces. The guide is pretty handy, and there’s an attendant around to make sure you don’t stand on the floor based art, which you could easily do if you’re distracted by your mobile figuring out your day lalala.
It didn’t take me that long to go round it. Probably just longer than walking there. It was worth it, but I think perhaps a few more pieces are needed. I didn’t venture into the bar, but it felt homely with large leather chesterfields to relax on, and good music playing on the jukebox, a decent range of food, and a display of A LOT of old Tetley beer bottles.
Will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Grand building, lots of space for the events that go on here.
This place is great for groups and it is very baby friendly for prams and such.
Great atmosphere and mixture of types of tables, including a bar section and a restaturant section that is open to non eaters at busy times for the bar.
Worth the walk to spend an afternoon in this place, especially on a sunny day with its big outdoor area.

It’s like a modern art gallery, with a modern art bar, that served modern art food and drink. For the purposes of this review, I shall not be talking about the art side of the venue.
It looks like it could be a really upper class Wetherspoons with more or an art vibe and some arty/​graphically quite nice touches to the place. It also has some arty/​graphically HORRENDOUS touches to the place too though. The TV screen of quotes and other lit nonsense using bright colours and Helvetica (from the looks of it) was more than a little wank.
On the bar the drink selection was somewhat lacking for my taste (not great ciders) and from an ale point of view we weren’t surprised (but a little disappointed) to find out that all they sold was Tetley’s. So we opted for wine. Very reasonably priced fare that didn’t taste like battery acid. We were happy. But we’d also ordered some pork scratchings.
Matt W put it best when he described said pork scratchings as «shit air» — they were the low calorie, modern art version of pork scratchings, with no taste, no hairs and no pig fat. So we sent them back and got the nuts instead (fair play to the staff who were delightful throughout and very helpful when it came to our distaste for the snacks).
These turned up in a little pot and were a selection of different nuts — from the humble peanut through to cashes and onto … walnut. And they were covered in an oil of some kind. Tasted a lot like soil. Again the modern art version of nuts.
I’d suggest that The Tetley sticks to more generally established version of their bar snacks rather than try to reinvent a wheel that already works — they’re a bar, in an art gallery, and I feel the gallery aspect of the place has perhaps made too much of an impact on the fare being sold here.
Not a terrible place, but hardly the kind of place I’d be running back to any time soon.

Perhaps it is meant to be some sort of ‘statement’ but I found the Tetley to feel unfinished. Not because it had works in progress or exhibits mid construction/​deconstruction because I expect that in a living gallery but because it seemed disorganised and much of what was happening seemed confusing.
I brought my son because there were supposed to be activities during the holidays but there weren’t and the information was patchy.
I felt that space was badly used and that that the entire resource was underused.
The in house café was one of those places that take great pains to tell you that there food is extraordinary just so they can charge you more but it did give me the chance to explain a little about marketing and economics to my son and to remind him to always trust his own beliefs rather than accepting everything you are told.

Its so bizzare but I had absolutely no idea this place was what it was if that makes much sense?
I’m so pleased it’s become a place for art (being such an lover of creativeness!) and when I visited on Saturday it was pretty packed out! There were stalls galore with lots of arty bargains although I didn’t really get much time to look around as it was a lunch visit.
The bar and restaurant area was bustling with families and friends catching up over some good food and drink. The bar area serves a wide selection of drinks and the food menu is really well received and not overly complicated. They have some really good old fashioned classics including pie, toad in the hole, steaks and some lighter salad options.
We were greeted by a really friendly waiter who seemed like he would pretty much do a backflip to please. A few of our friends were an hour late and the waiter was still really helpful and patient. I opted for the fish and chips which were really lovely and not too harsh on the wallet either. I also helped to sink three bottles of merlot and my bill still only came to £23 which wasn’t half bad.
The only downside I’d say is on this particular visit it was like a crèche, not that I mind kids but there were babies and kids almost on every table and some were not particularly cooing jumbles of joy!
They also take bookings where some places in Leeds would refuse on a busy Saturday afternoon.

The Tetley building has long been iconic in Leeds and I was very pleased to see
It had become an arts centre. The building itself is beautifully preserved, there is a
Lovely old staircase and old fashioned lift (sadly not in use) and galleries over a central well. BUT — ain’t there always a but — at the time of my visit 6÷2÷14 there was nothing to see. The archive was closed, the resource centre consisted of a few (very few) old books and the board room was closed. I persuaded a staff member to open it so I could see the beautiful table and old
Directors’ portraits. There is a long, long way to go before it is curated and organised. The restaurant and bar were well worth the visit with fresh imaginative meals plus old favourites like fish and chips. They need to get better information on the websites eg what areas are shut etc. also signage leading to the centre and the entrance were sparse. If you do get into the Board Room look out of the windows and see the old Salem Church, a magnificent
building where Leeds United FC was first formed. I will go again, maybe in six months or so, when it will be better organised.

What a great space. A fancy looking restaurant, a great spacious bar, an interesting assortment of art exhibits and even artist-​led family activities.
If I lived in Leeds I could see this place as being a regular Saturday afternoon papers and pint and pie kinda place. The bar was especially chilled and my friends said the baby changing room was the biggest they’ve ever seen.
My toad in the hole was decent but needed a side so ended up costing quite a bit and my cousin’s doorstep sandwich was too much bread/​not enough filling.
The desserts were very good.
Definitely check it out. Especially the free art stuff if you’ve got kids.

Had a stroll around here yesterday.
The tetley is now a ‘centre for art and contemporary learning’ housed in what was the headquarters of the tetley brewery. As well as housing art exhibitions it has kept lots of the original art deco surrounds of the building.
There are lots of large open spaces for you to indulge your artistic side, including a resource space with books, articles and activities for adults and children. There are drop in sessions on saturday afternoons for families, which do not need to be booked.
If art is not your thing then the bar and kitchen is worth a visit on its own. A fabulous, huge chilled space with a variety of seating from leather chesterfields and high backed chairs to big communal tables. Really impressed with the servuce and the menu. Prices are good, a large white wine and a pint of carlsberg was just over £8.00.
I am hoping the huge green space in front will be landscaped for the summer.

A group of 7 of us ate here last night and it was lovely!
With it being the first Monday in January it was very quiet (we were the only group in there at 7!) but that meant we had the lovely room to ourselves!
The Tetley is the old brewery over the road from Crown Point shopping centre, brought back from desolation and now a swanky art gallery, tea room and restaurant. When you go in there’s a fabulous old fashioned lift (with the slidey metal zig zaggy outer doors– I hope you know what I mean!) and the décor is lovely! It’s modern, with hipster writing on the wall teamed with (new) old Chesterfield sofas and chairs to sink into, and the restaurant is modestly decorated with old bottles, simple furniture and (as it’s a pet peeve of mine!) enough lighting to be able to see the menu and food!
There was only one veggie option on the mains menu, Homity pie (cheese, leek and potato pie) which I ordered, and the others went for the beef and ale stew, roast chicken, bacon chops and toad in hole. Sides included proper chips (served in a little bucket– cute as!), mash, cauliflower cheese and cabbage with maple and bacon (went down well with the carnivores!)
Everyone massively enjoyed the fresh, perfectly cooked and wonderfully presented food. The Homity pie was yum, the only downside is that it had blue cheese in it, which I’m really not a fan of, so I wished it had specified that on the menu (normally it’s just cheddar in a Homity pie!). I still ate it though, and the chips were awesome!
Then came pudding! I had a chocolate pot, which was a smooth chocolate mousse (served in a little jar!) with crushed ginger biscuits and a dollop of ice cream–
Delicious! The home made apple pie, rhubarb crumble and sticky toffee pudding also got rave reviews, such as «If I only eat this for the rest of my life I’ll be happy” — pretty good, no? The homemade custard with real vanilla was a treat to!
All in all a cracking little place — and for around £10 a main and £3 for sides it’s reasonably priced for such immense quality!
Pros:
Delicious food! And reasonable prices for essentially a city centre place
Nice atmosphere
Décor was lovely
Good range of beers
Staff were very friendly
Cons
Only one veggie option– and with added blue cheese, any more than the sprinkling and I wouldn’t have been able to eat it
Parking is £1 per hour 24 hours a day, luckily a very kind woman donated us her ticket, but still worth bearing in mind if you’re driving!

I was sooooo looking forward to the opening of this Prime historic cornerstone of Leeds City centre.
The iconic building has been brought to life with art space and The Tetley kitchen.
A lot of the original features have been preserved in the building and its lovely to get a venue at the Hunslet end of town with such grandeur!
So, in to the Tetley kitchen we ventured for lunch!
I hope that they sort out the little ‘flaws’ such as too many staff but no-​one doing much, not being able to have a tab unless you’re eating in the restaurant and the confusion over which is the ‘correct’ entrance!
Anyway, they have a good selection of drinks both alcoholic & non-​alcoholic so we purchased and had a look at the menu which has slight variations depending on if you sit in the ‘bar area’ or the restaurant. As there wasn’t much available space in the bar we went for the quieter option and got a table in the restaurant.
The setting is a mix of old & new. Quite simple and works well.
The menu offers a good mix of dishes.
My dining companion ordered mushrooms on toast followed by fish & chips and I ordered Homity pie (for something a bit different)
The mushrooms on toast went down well, the portion was a bit small though.
A mixture of mushrooms in a creamy sauce on sourdough toast– it didn’t hang around long!
The mains took a little while to come out and when they did we both had a little disappointment.
The peas on the fish and chips were stone cold! the fish & chips were lovely but this took the shine off really.
The Homity pie I was expecting to be with a ‘pie’ crust and it wasn’t! It was basically mash potato, leeks which were on the bitter side and a nice undertone of cheese. I’d asked for a side of chips so it was a spud overload!
I would go again, possibly not order the same food, and be tempted to just sit in the bar.
I can see the potential and what they’re tryig to achieve but it needs a bit more ‘polish’.