A fair few years ago, before Covid, I was invited, with a bunch of other Leeds bloggers, to an evening at The Light, Leeds. We had a cocktail at one restaurant, a starter at a second, a main course at a third and a dessert at a fourth. It was a really good way to showcase some of what The Light had to offer. (At the time, anyway, as some of the places have sadly since closed). That was also my first visit to Estabulo.
In August, for my brother in law’s birthday, the five of us (me, J, his sister, his brother in law and his brother) booked a table for Estabulo’s rodizio, their all you can eat meat experience.
It’s worth noting that there are now two Estabulo restaurants in Leeds. The one in The Light was there first, and does rodizio. There’s another, near Leeds Arena, which has a more standard grill menu, offering burgers, steak and chicken. Their website also suggests a chophouse, which is going to be halal, is coming soon. I have no further information about that at the time of writing my Estabulo Leeds review.
The restaurant
Estabulo Leeds The Light is well laid out, with roomy tables and enough space to get past other people if you want to go to the toilets, outside or to the salad bar. It feels busy and the atmosphere was good, with everyone seeming happy. That makes sense, when there’s unlimited meat, to be honest!
We had pre-booked because there were five of us, we really wanted to eat there and everyone had travelled into Leeds, so we didn’t want to risk missing out. They gave us a large booth which was comfortable, although not the easiest to get in and out of. We had to keep getting up to let people in or out. That’s an observation rather than a criticism, and I’d still rather have a booth than a bigger table.
The drinks
Between the five of us, two (me and J’s sister) were driving, so we had soft drinks. She went for a Brazilian soft drink called Guarana, and I was boring and had an apple juice. J, his brother and his brother in law each had a beer.
J had the draught house lager (Estabulo). The other two had Estrella (also on draught) and a bottle of Portugal beer Sagres. Estabulo has a decent range of beers from around the world. They also had a pretty good cocktail menu, which I was sad I couldn’t explore, including the Brazilian classic, caipirinha.
There are extensive options when it comes to wine too, as you’d expect from a steakhouse. Wine lovers can share a bottle from £28 for the house merlot, all the way up to £60 for a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Estabulo also has an extensive mocktail menu, I just hadn’t had a proper look before we ordered.
The main event: food at Estabulo Leeds
Estabulo Leeds serves Rodizio, which is a Portuguese word meaning rotation, or to turn. It is a popular style of dining in Brazilian restaurants and usually consists of large skewers of fire-roasted meat.
The waiters at Estabulo continuously bring meat to your table. They carve a bit of the meat off for you, onto your plate. So that you can control things, you have a double-sided card, with red and green. Set to green for ‘please bring me more meat’ and red for ‘I need a break’.
At Estabulo, they serve a variety of cuts of beef, chicken wings, lamb, belly pork, chicken and bacon, and gammon. You can request chicken hearts, and if you do, you get a full skewer of those for your table. Chicken hearts are not for me, J tried one and wasn’t a fan, but our three companions really enjoyed those.
As soon as you’re seated at Estabulo, a server brings a bowl of fries to your table. You can request more at any time, and we went through two between us. You can also visit the salad bar unlimited times and help yourself to vegetables.
The salad bar also has some carbs like rice and boiled potatoes, along with a couple of hot dishes like Brazilian pork stew. I didn’t try the meat dishes here, but J did and enjoyed them.
Estabulo’s salad bar also has boiled eggs available, just in case all the meat is not enough protein for you.
We were surprised, but pleased, to realise skewers of roasted pineapple with cinnamon were being brought round. Estabulo’s menu also talks about unlimited garlic bread, but we didn’t see any at all.
It may have been because things were busy, but the waiters didn’t seem to pay much attention to whether our cards were green or red. Typically, they were offering us each cut of meat either way.
We kept forgetting to turn them over. So maybe they were just used to people doing this! It was useful, anyway.
All of the meat was brilliant quality. I enjoyed the steaks, the minted lamb and the gammon best, while J was a big fan of the linguica, a type of sausage made of cured beef and pork. The salad bar had a brilliant selection of things and the fries were super crispy on the outside, soft on the inside…perfect.
Desserts at Estabulo Leeds
Did we eat a dessert after an all you can eat Rodizio experience? Well, no – we were absolutely stuffed! Estabulo does have a dessert menu which I didn’t look at and can’t find online. But I suspect it will be very similar to the Estabulo Grill dessert menu, with various types of cheesecakes.
How much was the bill at Estabulo Leeds?
Because the rodizio was the same price, £39.95 per head, we knew splitting the bill at the end would be simple. At just under £250 including an already added to the bill tip, it felt really reasonable for the amount of, and quality of, food we had.
I couldn’t budget for a meal like this every week or even every month, but as a once in a while treat, Estabulo is absolutely worth the cost.
On Fridays and Saturdays, Estabulo’s rodizio is £3 more. All through the week it costs less for children, with kids under four eating for free, while it’s £12 for children aged 4-8, and £16 for kids aged 8-13.
It’s also a bit cheaper to go at lunchtime, but there are not as many cuts of meat available. For example, instead of eight types of beef with great variety, you only get a couple to enjoy: rump, and cap of rump.
Would I go back to Estabulo Leeds?
Would I go to Estabulo Leeds again? Well, after two visits, I can safely say it’s a resounding yes. Although at the time of writing this post, I’m still full of steak – and so probably not for a while!
The food was really good. The salad bar was kept clean and tidy with lots of options. The fries were great too. I cannot stand bad chips! As a treat for a special occasion, Estabulo hits the spot perfectly.
Have you been to Estabulo? Let me know what you think in the comments.
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