AD Banyan Horsforth Review

On Thursday I was invited out to review Banyan‘s new restaurant in Horsforth. Never one to turn down a free meal (although there is no such thing as a free lunch-I was invited so that I could write this review!) I asked Robyn to come and help me out. Louise had been invited too so we asked the lovely PR if we could be sat together, and she was kind enough to oblige. (This post will be very photo heavy because the place was gorgeous and it was hard to cut them down from the number Robyn took for me, to be honest!) I am a big fan of Banyan Horsforth now.

We were seated in a booth at the back, near the bar-a great table for people watching. Gemma, our waitress, quickly came over and explained the plan for the night. She left us to decide what drinks we fancied-I went for the Banyan Colada which sounded similar to a Pina Colada (but with added lime, kiwi and some other fruits) it was so good, I’d definitely recommend it. Gemma then left us to look at the menu (and when she came back for our food order and could see we were still taking pictures, asked if we wanted to be left to finish our photos first-lovely of her to be so understanding of our blogging needs!)

We ordered the selection of breads to eat whilst choosing our main courses. I’m not a big bread fan but these were lovely, nice and warm, crusty bread, with butter and a vinaigrette for dipping. I think this would’ve been too much for one person but shared between three it was a perfect size. So far so good, Banyan Horsforth!

I’m a big fan of steak but like most bloggers I live a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget-so I just HAD to have the fillet steak as my main course. Louise chose the salmon and Robyn had the Banyan Burger. All three meals were gorgeous (don’t you just love dining with friends who say ‘here, try this’ by the way?) and well worth the wait. I did think our main course took a while to get to us-but lets be fair, I asked for a well done steak which always takes ages to cook, the place was heaving, and it was their second practice night before the big opening. I definitely can’t criticise the wait time at all, it wasn’t unreasonably long and I probably only noticed because the food smelt so good.

Pudding was the most difficult thing to choose, in my opinion. I wanted about 5 different dishes! Luckily Robyn chose the Passionfruit Cheesecake, which I was tempted by, and Louise and I decided to split the Honeycomb Brownie and the Salted Caramel Torte. As with the main course, we all ended up having a bit of each anyway, and the only disappointment was that I couldn’t finish off my portion! That’s usually the sign of a good meal, though-when the portions mean you can’t quite finish them.

I had a great night at Banyan Horsforth, both with great company (thanks for coming, Robyn and Louise!) and gorgeous food, in a great atmosphere. I’ll definitely be heading back.

Have you tried any of the Banyan restaurants? (The Leeds city centre one does a fab brunch!)