This was the spectacular sea bass pae-sa at Thai A Roy Dee (120-122 Vicar Ln) that @Nangbarou pointed to on another thread
We had the sea bass (£15.95) at lunch on Monday, December 23, our first full day in Leeds. What a great way to start a trip! In subsequent days we were to have some superb meals, but this dish remained one of the knockouts: the edges of the fish above the broth crisp, and the broth itself satisfyingly hot and sour, and loaded with vegetables. The cauliflower florets were particularly good, absorbing the sauce as they did. So did the submerged, meatier parts of the fish. Jasmine rice was a perfect accompaniment. We also had chicken tom yum with noodles (£8.95) , also hot and sour, but with a different profile from the fish (a mellower sourness, from a touch of coconut), and for textural contrast some chicken toast (£4.95):
By current US standards the prices at this meal (and at every meal in Leeds) were extremely reasonable (at roughly $1.3 to £1). We drank water and a couple of canned FOCO drinks, of which this one was particularly good (it had essentially no additives and a fresh, clean not-too-sweet taste):
Another type, mangosteen, was just flavored sugar-water. FOCO is an international company headquartered in Thailand. Their drinks are available in the U.S. (where I’m based), and I looked for this one (with roasted coconut) on my return. I could only find regular coconut water, with tinier bits of coconut, lots of sugar and stabilizers, and an unpleasantly chemical taste.
This lunch was one of the best meals we’d had in recent years (and one of four spectacular ones we were to have on our visit). So thrilled were we by the food that we ordered delivery from them to our hotel the very next night. We wanted drier dishes and got pad see ew with tofu (£8.95) – only so-so, and perhaps we deserved that for making such a conventional choice; prawn and vegetable tempura (£5.95) – very doughy, again getting what we deserved for choosing tempura at a Thai restaurant; crispy and spicy pork ribs (£5.95); coconut rice (£2.95); and pad kinge with beef and a robust gingery kick (£8.95). The last three made the meal, but it was overall a slight letdown from lunch at the restaurant the previous day – our fault entirely for “ordering wrong”. The morning glory dish that @Nangbarou had recommended had eluded me on our in-person visit. I spotted it on the delivery menu, but stupidly didn’t get it. More on that in the December 30 post to follow.
The restaurant is on a stretch of Vicar Lane, in a section of town that has many Thai, or Thai-adjacent establishments. There’s Zaap Street Foods (more on them later) across Vicar Ln, and Mommy Thai next door. Not quite at the extreme level of the stretch of 9th Ave in NYC around the 40s where you can’t spit without hitting a Thai restaurant, but a similar vibe on a smaller scale (and Vicar Ln is a nicer-looking street than 9th Ave, although that doesn’t take much):
And there are markets
A few general comments about our visit: This was a reunion, the reason for which was to celebrate the birth of a baby to a couple that lives in Leeds. I’ll refer to them as MN. They like their food, and had independently suggested some of the same places that @Nangbarou had (Thai A Roy Dee, the Brunswick, Trissur Pooram, among others). In our eating in town we were guided by @Nangbarou’s advice (OP of the thread linked to above, plus this post further down, theirs, and some independent digging I did. Our party was diverse: apart from us Boston-Cantabrigians, and the Leeds group, there were people from Czechia, India, and the nation of Birmingham. We like to eat. One member of the party is a professional foodista, the head baker at an upscale Bombay bakery. (They continued to supervise operations in Bombay via video from Leeds.) We didn’t do everything together, often splitting into subgroups. I’ll comment mostly on my experiences and on what touched my own tongue. I’ll also try and make each post food-topward, so that that those interested just in food need only read the tops of my subsequent posts and ignore the ramblings below them.
Our visit was to have begun with a group Sunday roast (December 22) at the Lamb and Flag, a pub in town (more about it later). But bad weather in Boston, followed by more bad weather in Dublin, followed by a further incident, meant that my wife and I missed it. Reviews from the others on the meal were mixed. Some found it bland, but MN said it was very meaty.
After our Thai lunch on the 23rd, my wife and I met several others from our party at the Leeds Kirkgate Market, one entrance to which is a short, pleasant walk down Vicar Ln from the Thai restaurant. The market deserves its own post.