Missed this comment the first time.

Yes, I'd agree, I ate there twice too (it was handy as I was staying at the Marriott around the corner).
Very busy place, popular with the younger diner and large parties of shrill, high-maintenance young women.
Menu reads well but the actual food is poor.
The place has delusions of adequacy.

You might appreciate rlthisrl then.

I printed it off and sent the company a copy. The eventual reply was most apologetic and explained that they'd sent a regional rep down. He'd done some digging, got rid of the manager and organised staff training.

I was offered a freebie at their place on Regent's Street, but never took it up, but I like to think of it as an example of the importance of complaining.

Anyone findinb themselves in South Devon (as in South Hams, not Dally's version) would do worse than eat at The Fortescue Arms in East Allington. They keep a limited menu of 5 starters, 5 mains and 5 desserts, plus fish on the specials board, depending on what's been landed. Similarly the veg is seasonal-dependent. The young chef is a star and is rightly proud of his three times cooked chips.

I ate there twice, the john dory was superb and even though I almost never eat cod, the fish & chips was some of the best I've tasted. Even the burger (kitchen-ground beef from a local herd, topped with local bacon and cheese) was worth the £12 asking price

The Cattlemens Association in Harrogate last night was a good choice as should any restaurant that has been trading for 25 years in the same location, food very good, steaks as they should be, nothing to fault at all, good food served in a non-corporate restaurant where food is cooked to your specification, its easy to forget that this is how it should be.

One strange thing that happened last night though, we seemed to be waiting a long time to be served our starters and then between courses and yet when we left the restaurant we'd only been in there for just over two hours and it was then that I commented that if we'd been in France or Portugal where eating in a restaurant is more a social night out and the whole point of being out, then that would be considered to have been a fast food experience.

Thinking more about it our local "special meal" restaurant is a branch of the Gusto chain and we've never been there without being aware that they need your table for the next wave of diners who are arriving 60 minutes after you have sat down, we have always had very quick service in Gustos but you do get home rather early afterwards with the lasting taste of being hustled through a dining experience rather than doing it for enjoyment - all that happened last night in Cattlemens was we were left to spend the evening with them and as a side effect I didn't have that awful "full" feeling afterwards that means that you don't sleep too well that night (especially if you pig out like me).

Sometimes you need to be reminded ...

And?
We're on tenterhooks here.
Come on, spill the beans, which steak did you go for in the end?

Didn't go over the top, just went for the 10oz rump, rare and very nice it was too.

Then had to eat half of the wifes well done rump steak too, you know me, can't see food go to waste, don't know how people can eat meat cooked to hell though.

Fazenda in Leeds

Best meat place I have ever eaten at

I'm intrigued as to how they say that one cut of lamb (shank) is in season but another cut (steak) isn't.

Except that, if my local butcher is typical ... he only sells Dales lamb and he maintains that English cuts don't include shanks and that shanks come frozen from New Zealand, hence he doesn't sell lamb shanks.
(I like shanks but he is very sniffy about them because of the frozen NZ aspect ... I do suspect that some butchers will cut British lamb in styles other than English cuts and he's just being a bit narky about it).

Anyway, IIRC, the main season for fresh English lamb runs up to about September, Scottish up to November, so, maybe, Piccolino had simply run out of fresh Scottish lamb steaks and were using frozen NZ shanks ... hence the "seasonal" excuse.
Or maybe it was all bollox anyway.

Remaining question ... can anyone out there confirm/refute what my local butcher says about lamb shanks i.e. they're all (or mainly) frozen NZ lamb?

A perfectly good question. If, as you then note, it depends on imports, then the menu should reflect that.

I wouldn't normally want to be instrumental in someone getting the sack, but in this case, the manager was presiding over a series of quite deliberate cons, in the hope that people wouldn't check the bill again. Naughty.

I've no idea about the answer to your question on the shanks – it's not a cut I use very often. And in essence, I get whatever my farmers/butchers have available or can bring up if I order during the week.

Up there with Reds as one of the most overrated in Leeds IMO

Long time listener first time caller!

What your butcher says is pretty much true, NZ Lamb is butchered slightly differently in that they remove the shank /knuckle from the shoulder to sell separately but leave the neck fillet on. British lamb tends to be butchered the other way round so the shank is left on the shoulder for sale and the fillet removed.
NZ lamb is not necessarily frozen, it is quite easy to transport fresh meat half way around the world in a refigerated container.

Thanks for that !
You've also cleared up another niggle, which was whether the shank was below the shoulder or the bottom of the hind leg.

I can see the sense in the refrigerated container rather than frozen, after all meat is hung for a few weeks to mature, so I guess it's a bit like that, just colder.

Cheers.

You live and learn.

I had no idea of that. Thanks.

I knew those days subbing for the butcher behind a supermarket meat counter would come in useful. I was actually a fishmonger!

You won't get many shanks on a fish though ?

Or a neck...