• 

• 

• 

Every so often, members of my old house from 2nd year and I go out for a catch-up over dinner. At the end of January, we went to Chaophraya, a S T U N N I N G Thai restaurant in Leeds city centre. The food was beautiful and the surroundings even more so. Although expensive, we had a 50% off voucher for January, so I’m sure there are discount codes out there. I was an idiot and didn’t take any photos so, unfortunately, you’ll just have to experience fine Thai dining for yourself.

This week, we went to Viva Cuba in Kirkstall. We’d been past it so many times in 2nd year and we’d always talked about going there, so we figured it was only right to finally go all together. Essentially, Viva Cuba is a tapas restaurant. All your favourite Spanish dishes (like tortilla española and patatas bravas), with some Cuban flare. For example, there was fried plantain and bean stew on the menu. The food came out pretty quickly and we were shook to the core by the portion sizes. PSA, DO NOT ORDER PERSONAL DISHES. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SHARE, OTHERWISE YOU WILL STUFF YOURSELF TO THE POINT OF ACTUAL COMBUSTION. The staff were lovely and had no qualms about putting the delicious leftovers in a doggy-bag for us.

Whilst living in Spain, I always found dessert menus to be lacking but Viva Cuba’s dessert menu had something for everyone and if you fancy a drink (or 10), the cocktails menu was very much the same.

The ambiance of the restaurant is hispanic sexy, with low lighting and candles everywhere. If you’re smaller than a party of 10 you can’t book, but if you go before 7/7.30 I’m sure you’ll get a table as when we were leaving we realised the restaurant had started to fill out. Find their website here and enjoy a little slice of the tropics in Leeds.