Leeds

[janeite]

Have booked a few nights in Leeds. Does anybody have any recs of must see/must do things, or good restaurants? It will be dp and I plus two teenage girls and three of us are veggie.

DD1 will want to shop (and I hear that Leeds is great for this!) but dp and dd2 hate shopping.

Any good places for afternoon tea? Days out by public transport? Good museums?

Thanks.

Tropical World is a nice place to spend a couple of hours.

The shopping is excellent and much of the city centre shopping areas are pedestrianised. Check out Harvey Nicks and the Victoria Quarter. Harvey Nicks cafe in the main Victoria Quarter arcade do a nice afternoon tea!

Loads of stuff to do - The Royal Armouries, Art Gallery, Henry Moore Gallery, Thackray Medical Museum, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Grand Theatre, Kirkstall Abbey, Temple Newsam House. York is only 30 mins away on the train for a change of scenery.

Harrogate just up the road for afternoon teas, including Betty's Tea Rooms, and they have some very good seafood restaurants. Or you could take the steam train to Haworth, pop into the parsonage and follow the Bramwell Bronte trail into the Black Bull although Top Withens and the falls are very picturesque if it's nice weather.

In Leeds itself, there's Roots and Fruits in the Arcade which is basic veggie food but good and Hansa's which is veggie Indian and very good. Also Harvey Nics has a cafe/bar above it called the Fourth Floor.

The Royal Armouries is at Leeds, National Media Museum and Imax at Bradford.

Ooh I went off to thrash dp at Scrabble and had forgotten I'd started this!

Thank you. Have spent a lot of time in York, so probably won't bother with it this time. Hawarth would be fab - can you get there from Leeds without a car then?

Thanks especially for the veggie recs. Is the Tiled Hall cafe any good? Or any of Anthony Flinns' places? We wouldn't bother with the mega-expensive one but he seems to have a few?

I am a coward about flying and creeping insecty things so if Tropical World is butterflies I would probably be useless with it. If it is monkeys, that would be good!

Catch train (one every 30 mins) from Leeds to Keighley. Change at Keighley for the http://www.kwvr.co.uk/index.htm steam train to Haworth. Plenty of walkers set off for the falls behind the Bronte Parsonage but no idea how far it is!

steam train

Fab - thank you.

Evening bump?

No idea about Anthony Flinn's restaurants. To be honest after seeing him on one of those chef competitions he came over as such a self absorbed twunt 'I can only work with square plates, round ones limit me' that I can't bring myself to pay good money to eat his food. We also have a Raymond Blanc bistro that might be worth a try.

As for the Tiled Hall, I've only had coffee and cake there and to be honest it was the worst chocolate fudge cake I've ever had. Beautiful surroundings and not bad prices though.

Kendell's Bistro is excellent and gets some rave reviews. It's one I would recommend. It close to the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Lots of info and reviews on google.

Sam's Chop House also comes quite highly rated. I don't know anyone who hasn't raved about it. The veggie menu is a bit limited but good I understand.

I do recommend Hansa's though. Excellent veggie food.

And yes, dead easy to get to Haworth. Train to Keighley, walk across the platform and get on a steam train!

Can I ask where you're staying?

Brilliant - thank you. I had never heard of Anthony Flinn until I googled Leeds restaurants and now agree that he sounds a prat.

Will look at Kendall's and Sam's now - thanks for those. Hansa's looks lovely.

We're just staying in the Novotel, as we got a really cheap deal.

I went to Anthony's Piazza in The Corn Exchange last night and it was lovely. I saw that they do afternoon tea, but I don't know what it is like. The food was fantastic though and the building is amazing.

Thanks Niggle - yes, the building looks fantastic.

The Novotel is well located for everything. Hope you have a great time!

Thank you.

Anymore ideas anybody?