La Fiesta Leeds review: I visited a city centre restaurant serving all-you-can-eat tapas

Located at the Merrion Centre, it is handily close to the First Direct Bank Arena and various city centre watering holes.

The restaurant itself is bright, bold and quite frankly beautiful. As far as interiors go, it is up there with the most polished and inviting I have seen.

Fully embracing the spirit of Mediterranean tapas, there is undeniably a real buzz about the place.

It is a place that lifts the mood immediately, with the warmth and energy welcomed as you escape the winter cold.

Service, first and foremost, was exemplary. You are given the option to order via a tablet that displays images of the food and a timer ticking down until you can next get plates sent over.

I appreciate it may not be for everyone, but we found it really handy and it was easy to use. From around five minutes after sitting down until we left, our table always had food on it.

Staff were pleasant and patient, keen to make the process a smooth one. The five minutes before our first plate arrived gave us the chance to explore the salad bar, which was packed to the rafters with deliciously fresh appetite-whetters. Early signs, it is fair to say, were good.

We ended up ordering over 20 dishes between us - and most were genuinely lovely. The Filete De Ternera Al Romero (grilled and sliced sirloin steak with rosemary sauce) was sensational, as was the Montaditos De Gamba (creamy prawns with garlic, paprika and chilli on toasted bread).

I also adored the Chorizo y Mocrcilla, which combined two of my absolute favourites in chorizo and black pudding.

The chicken dishes, however, were certainly on the dry side. We also ordered Chuletas De Cordero, but there was very little lamb to pull away from the bone.

We ordered a jug of Sangria to wash it all down with, but it was really watery and I reckon I would go for a simple pint of lager next time. For dessert, there is a churro station, but they were a bit stale and could not be saved by the lashings of chocolate sauce.

It may have been a bit of a mixed bag but we definitely enjoyed more dishes than we disliked and this is a new restaurant that is maybe still finding its feet.

However, when you are paying a £37.95 set price on weekend evenings, you hope pretty much everything is flawless.

La Fiesta is undeniably a place with potential and the place itself is fantastic. I also cannot stress enough that we had some really top notch tapas, but I would be inclined to go when it is cheaper for my next try. From Monday to Thursday, it is £27.95 at lunchtime and £34.95 in the evenings.

This is definitely not a place to write off, but I think there are improvements to be made for the price to be justified. If there can be some fine tuning, it could end up being a firm favourite.

Factfile

Address: Unit 4b, Merrion Centre, 7 Merrion Way, Leeds LS2 8BT

Telephone: 0113 548 0397

Opening hours: 12-10pm all week

Website: https://www.lafiestaleeds.co.uk/

Scores

Food: 7/10

Value: 5/10

Atmosphere: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Total: 7.25/10