The Alchemist + Blackhouse

For my sister's partner's 26th Birthday we wanted to try something a bit different. He is a bit of a geek when it comes to messing around with alcohol TRYING (but sometimes failing) to replicate the classic cocktails like mojitos, so we though why not surprise him to evening taking part in the cocktail master class at the Alchemist (here).

The Alchemist is a bar and restaurant situated in Leeds at the new Trinity Centre (as show above) but there are also ones in Manchester (New York street and Spinningfields). As for drinks, the Alchemist really has proven to show an unorthodox approach on the classic cocktails and also introduces us to some new and exciting ones. Personally I love the whole experience. They really set the scene as some come in conical flasks (ready to be mixed) and some come all smoked up, making you feel like an alchemist yourself. Really recommend if you are looking for a fun, different night out. The menu is (here).

However when it comes to food, all I can really say about it is that it is a bit, well, boring. It didn't excite me like the drinks did, and I hoped like the setting around me I was about to experience some really high end food to match, but all I received was a an average menu to choose from with average tasting food, the menu didn't really have a theme running through, which I suppose is good for some as it potentially caters for different tastes. However it would be nice to tell you a specific cuisine. The menu is (here). Even though the food wasn't quite there, the service was very good, which made it still a very enjoyable night.

On the particular evening of my sister's partner's birthday, we avoided the food, and just went for the cocktail master class. If you clicked on the link in my first paragraph you would see that there are 3 packages to choose from, we went for the cheapest (£25 per person), which I think is personally the best option as what the package included I felt was just right. We got to make 3 cocktails each (and drink them!). The 3 included a passion fruit mojito, a French martini and a Smoky old fashioned (whiskey).A lady showed us how to do each cocktail and then leaved us to it so we felt at ease and not under pressure. I highly recommend doing this for a birthday or a night out, as it was a lot of fun and just a new experience. Here are a few pictures from out night... 

                                         Passion fruit Mojito

                                          Smoky old fashioned

                                         French Martini
After we went to a restaurant which was chosen to by the birthday boy. He chose the Black House, I had never been before, but I would definitely go again. It was quite a walk from the alchemist, so I wouldn't recommend going to the alchemist and the black house on separate nights. But as soon as we arrived it got me from the falling fairy lights that were lining the windows of the restaurant. Lighting for me in a restaurant is a big deal and the black house has it down to a T (I think that's the right saying...), it has a nice dim lighting, which makes you able to dress up if you are wanting to, but also go casual without looking stupid.

 

 

The menu was great, it had a lot of tasty options to choose from, which made picking what to eat very hard. I ended up going for the sharing platter to start from, which was a perfect option for me as I got to experience a bit of everything, the duck spring rolls were exceptionally good. For my main I went for steak and corn on the cob, it wasn't anything out of the park, but was still very enjoyable. Finally for main I had a quarter of sticky toffee pudding and a quarter of chocolate cake (a quarter seemed acceptable since I was on a diet) however I could of eaten it all up! A link to the restaurant is (here).

All in I had an extremely enjoyable evening, and would highly recommend recreating the night for yourself.

Hope you enjoyed by first post x

Lauren.