Restaurants and stuff

Its at Salt Beer. Not read too much into it but it looks like 3 car parks around the old Hop and new brewery are now run by Parking Eye and you need a ticket from inside the bar to park there or get a ticket.

 

Got done at the Old Ball last year with a parking fine, queried it and I was ‘supposed to tell a member of staff I was parked in the car park’ (wtf), fortunately paid for food/drinks on card so could quickly prove we’d spent money there and they resolved it straight away (well rehearsed with the same complaint I suspect) but a pain none the less.

 

I generally ignore parking 'tickets' unless they are official ones issued by Council Parking Wardens. The latter are for breaches of local byelaws and you will get hammered if you don't pay up.
All these 'fines' issued by private companies are actually nothing more than civil law notices of breach of contract. If you ignore them then the company has to sue you in the County Court for breach of contract to get any money off you. They send you all these threatening letters to scare you into paying but if you don't respond to them then 9 times out of 10 they just quietly drop it and go away.

 

That's true but is it fair for you to use someone's car park but not their facilities? It's a bit cheeky. What if their car park is full and a potential customer goes elsewhere. You've lost them business.

 

Private parking notices are in fact an invoice and after a court ruling in the high court are legally enforceable, The days of just ignoring have gone and will now usually result in a court judgement and expenses against you if you refuse to pay,

 

Yes, I agree. I wouldn't park in a private car park that was close to full and deny a paying customer a parking place. But, for example, I once parked in the ASDA car park in Shipley for a couple of hours. It was nearly empty but I got a 'ticket'. I ignored it, and the follow up letter, and never heard another thing.

 

Yes, of course they are legally enforceable. They always have been. But the onus is on them to sue you for non payment and my experience has been that they rarely take it that far.

 

You may be right but doubt it, These firms used to give up but now very rarely do, Instead of allowing it to go on for months and then giving up they now tend to register a credit default against your name if you fail to pay and also in most cases will get a judgement in the lower court online, You are taking a big risk on your ability to get credit in the future if they register a default with the credit agencies most lenders use.

 

Fair enough. Sounds like the situation has changed. Thanks.

 

Pub near me has a barrier that only lifts up with a token you get when ordering something from the bar. The chance of getting a ticket, as a paying customer, would potentially put me off.

 

Well it's as glammy as the name and prices suggest, but the cooking's bang on.

 

My in-a-nutshell review:

It's a big place - 75 covers? - and was pretty much full by 8pm. There's a bar doing Amstel and Peroni.

It's glam but not OTT. @abbomf would have views on the lighting, in that the fixtures are very nice - chandeliers etc - but it's pretty bright. Possibly to highlight the beautiful folk of Birkenshaw.

Menu: 3 fish, 3 meat + steaks. 1 veggie option + a couple of pizzas. Also a tasting menu for 55 quid. Swerved that.

Had the classic 'beef tournedos' - fillet of beef expertly cooked to an even pinkness, with a sauce heady with booze and stock. Really enjoyed it, as i'd hope to for 29 quid. (Prob well into the 30s in leeds/manchester.)

Non non wife had seabass - 2 fillets for about 23 quid. Another bit of good french cooking, with finely diced tomatoes, capers and toasted almonds. Had summat similar at the box tree once. This was better.

Both needed sides - we shared fancy spuds and a dish of green beans, both on the small side for 3 quid but i'd rather that than overwhelmingly massive sides.

Didn't do dessert but did have another sup at the bar. Wines - plenty in 20-30 quid range with a few showy bottles in the 70s-80s.

Will post full review when it's up, but would happily return on my own coin. Chef can cook.

 

Salt Bar parking, the more I think and read, the more I don't like it, I am withdrawing my custom forthwith, that'll teach them. I have no problem with them enforcing a customer only parking system, but to absolve themselves of that responsibility whilst partially passing it on to their customers is not on, it's a piss poor corporate "Couldn't give a fook about them" decision.

Was quiet on Friday night at 11pm....................but not as quiet as North Parade, my god, how time have changed, I used to queue to get in joints at 10pm on a Friday night! I went there are 10pm and if you had collected every customer from every bar and put them in The Sparrow, it'd have been half full. Bradford was dead as a dodo.

 

I will show Mrs Abbo that and see if she want to go.

 

And here's the review with proper sentences.

https://confidentials.com/leeds/grand-cru-birkenshaw-reviewed

 

Enjoy - quite an achievement to get the star less than a year after opening.

I notice the Yorke Arms lost theirs.

 

I think 4, maybe more, tapas joints in Leeds have closed down in the past 18 months, Bilbao Bar, Pintura, La Ramblas and one opposite the Town Hall. It's a tough market that I don't think people have got their heads around yet, how can you still be hungry after having spent £50 per head? Ambiente is a good (bog standard) tapas chain & Iberica is at the top end with a stunning interior, both restaurant and bar, El Gato Negro will have to spend a bloody mint on the fit out to attract the same customers. I'll go.

Slummed it Saturday, just couldn't be bovvered to queue for a drink (it was 5:30pm), Three Legs, General Elliot, The Regent and The Templar, all well manky but not as manky as the Victoria Gate casino...............

Gt Northern at Thackley, hmmm, it's opened in a rush & needs time to find it's feet. It's a modern bar, no longer a pub, great IMO but the locals are all out of synch with it right now. A pool table and a darts room, WTF? Thackley will soon have 3 micro pubs, 2 big pubs and a bistro and it's not even a place, just a drive thru, I'd have rather the investment had have been spent on Idle, we'll see.....