REVIEW | Ambiente Tapas, The Calls

BEFORE the slew of new tapas restaurants arrived in Leeds over the past twelve months, with the rapidity of a Flamenco dancer's heels, there was Ambiente.

The corn looked as though a cardiologist had buttered it - one who takes their job too seriously

I was aware of its existence, doing what it does from its first-floor kitchen and dining room above Calls Landing. But it's never really made much noise beyond its own four walls, being largely absent from food festivals, street food fayres and the general PR circus that so many newer restaurants use as a springboard to the front of everybody’s conscious.

And while the purists may poo-poo me for saying this, the exposure is crucial. Just two days after Ambiente popped up with a street food stall in Trinity Kitchen, I was on the phone making a reservation at the restaurant

It helped, of course, that the bloke manning the stall happened to be the restaurant’s head chef, and he couldn’t wait to tell me about the Josper grill they’d recently invested in (I couldn’t give a monkeys about cars, or watches, or gadgets, but if you’ve got a ten grand grill which breathes pure fire I'll be there to see what you can do with it). Not to mention, the dish they were serving - a simple box of confit garlic potatoes with a fried egg and a choice of serrano, octopus, padron peppers and so on - was the very essence of pure pleasure.

As soon as I heard about the Josper I began drooling over the menu, with promises of smoked mussels in fino sherry (£5.95) and barbecued lamb rump with parmesan (£6.95). Their Instagram had me sweating over roasted corn on the cob (£4.25), smothered in a deep terracotta pimento butter, giving it the appearance of something from a Mayan archaeological excavation.

Roasted corn in its 'profile picture' VS real life

So I couldn’t help feeling hoodwinked when served overcooked, past-their-best mussels in an acrid liquor, honking more strongly of sherry vapour than nan at a funeral. Far from being crusted with pimento butter, the corn looked as though a cardiologist had buttered it - one who takes their job too seriously.

A quick note to waiting staff: by all means go through the foreplay of “warning” diners that their meat might be served on the pink side, but please make sure the kitchen keep up their end of the bargain. Barbecued lamb rump (£5.95) starts off well with a decent charred crust courtesy of its jostling, but finishes with a consistently grey and dreary flesh right the way through.

Pallid lamb 

The highlight of the visit came, unexpectedly, from the non-Josper section of the menu. This was Queso de Cabra (£4.95), a filthy take on the goat's cheese and beetroot combo that plagues vegetarian choices, encased in an elegant batter and drizzled with warm honey. It’s half takeaway-fritter, half middle-eastern patisserie, and easily the best thing you're likely to find at Ambiente.

That they can pull that off, but get even the most bankable tapas wrong is mind boggling. Measly, overcooked crab and shrimp croquettas (£4.25) look like small, varnished wooden bedknobs and carried only a vague, generic fishiness. Pan Catalan (£2.95) was stale, chewy and laced with garlic rather than being lively with tomato and olive oil. It’s one thing when a dish leaves you pining for a better version of it, but another when that better version is a Greggs french bread pizza.

Goat's cheese with beetroot and honey was the only highlight

I’m happy to accept some responsibility, as this never would’ve happened if I hadn’t been so bloody English about the whole thing; checking menus, getting my hopes up, ordering everything at once as if it was thirty seconds until the end of happy hour. Restaurants like Ambiente prove the Spanish have it right when it comes to ordering tapas, choose a little at a time and move on to the next bar should you feel like it. 

Had we done that, we'd probably have taken our cue after the platter of Iberico de Bellota (25g £7.95) - savaged, possibly with a hedge trimmer, rather than carved - and gone elsewhere for our next course. Trinity Kitchen probably, for more of that Huevos Rotos.

Iberica de Bellota - savaged

Ambiente Tapas, 36-38 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7EW

Courgette noodles (£4.25) - Like something you unlodge from the plug hole

Bar marked squash with ricotta & molasses spiced grape reduction (£5.25)