There's a new restaurant addition in Leeds city centre, nestled in between the Grand Theatre and the Howard Assembly Rooms.
Kino opened recently as part of an £18 million project, and is backed by Opera North. It's serving cheese and charcuterie boards made from local food and drink suppliers this summer before opening up a full food offer from September.
LeedsLive reporter Jess Coppins and I headed down to sample the new opening's cheese, meats and wine, and to judge whether Kino was worth another visit.
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Situated on New Briggate right next to the Grand with a decently sized street dining option, even on a Wednesday night sitting outside at Kino had a buzzy atmosphere. People were queuing up to head into the theatre, and it struck me that Kino is perfectly placed for a pre-theatre meal and/or drink.
It's very spacious inside, and definitely looks all newly done over, with clean, modern décor. It was a decently warm evening, and we chose to sit outside.
The wine list is extensive, and I must admit, I don't know enough about the intricacies of wine to make a massively informed choice. We chose a red, as we thought it would go best with the charcuterie, opting for the Italian Baglio Gibellina Passimiento.
We chose this one mostly because I didn't realise there were other reds on the front page of the drinks menu - but it turned out to be an excellent choice. Rich and smooth in equal parts - we ended up ordering two carafes of this by the end of the night because it went down so easily.
The summer menu at Kino isn't huge, which in my opinion is usually a good thing. A small menu ought to suggest every offering is finely tuned (and makes deciding what to have much easier).
We wanted to try both the cheese and the charcuterie, so we opted for the sharer board that would give us both.
It arrived relatively promptly, with four different cheeses and three types of ham, grapes, apple slices, gherkins, chutney, crackers and sourdough bread. These are all from local and independent suppliers from around Leeds and Yorkshire, which is a great touch.
There was a brie, a cheddar, a stilton, and another cheese I did not manage to identify. The cold meats included a ham, bresaola and coppa.
These all worked great together, and the board meant you could combine the salty meats with the tangy cheeses. Jess's favourite was the soft and creamy brie, and mine was the nutty Dale End Cheddar that paired great with the sweet chutney.
Unfortunately, neither of us are quite cultured enough to get round blue cheese yet. I'm hoping to get there one day, but this stilton was too strong for me - which I can very much accept is purely on me. I only wished we'd been able to choose a different cheese to replace the stilton on the board.
The board was a decent portion size but still left room for dessert, so we ordered an ordinary brownie and a salted caramel brownie to top it all off.
They were both good, but the gooey salted caramel brownie was the better dessert - sweet and salty and melting in the mouth.
But overall, my favourite thing was the wine - if you're nearby, maybe heading to the theatre or anything, I recommend Kino as a place to pop in and eat, but definitely for a pre-theatre drink.
Bill breakdown:
- 2x 500ml carafes of Baglio Gibellina Passimiento: £38
- Local Cheese & Charcuterie board for two: £24
- Brownie: £3.50
- Salted caramel brownie: £3.60
Total: £69.10
Read next:
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Headingley's Greek meat spot which is probably worth battling to order from
Heaney & Mill review: Leeds restaurant is the perfect place for a summer dinner
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