There’s always been something about Trinity Kitchen which sets it apart from the bog-standard shopping centre food courts.
Venturing to the Trinity Leeds destination, you don’t find the Golden Arches, the colonel or any patty royalty you accustom to in food court across the country. Instead, as you likely know, Trinity Kitchen, prides itself on being different.
It celebrates independent street food traders with many switching on a rotating basis. While, any chains present are a little smaller in scale and a little more niche.
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Our trip to Trinity Kitchen preceded a visit to new football bar Golaccio where our Leeds Live team took on their famous quiz (we duly won, in case you’re wondering). So, realistically we were after a quick bite while we had about an hour to kill.
To offer a bit of variety, we decided to mix up where we ate to sample as much of what is currently on offer as possible. Some of the current additions included Yorkshire Cheese Grill, Ka-Bao, Good Boy Burger and Spuds n Bros who are based there on a temporary basis.
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While there’s the permanent selection of Archie’s, Pho, Rola Wala, Tortilla, Pizzaluxe, Absurd Bird and Doner Shack.
Our visit coincided with Trinity Kitchen’s recent makeover. For those who don’t know, some of the street food traders now operate out of refurbished retro vehicles.
The eye-catching vehicles, which have been lovingly restored and set up for food preparation, include a VW Camper Van, a Citroen H van, a horse trailer and even a shipping container at Trinity Kitchen.
My mains choice came from one of the vendors operating from one of the newly-added vehicles. I popped to The Little Pasta Company’s truck, which felt like the right choice ahead of visiting an Italian-themed football pub, where I had rigatoni pasta with tomato, garlic and basil. The food was freshly prepared in front of me while I waited and the chap behind the container was friendly and chatty as he juggled talking to me and cooking my dinner.
My pasta and a bottle of Birra Moretti came to £12 and the meal was served in a rather cute bowl. The sauce was rich and flavoursome and was some of the best pasta I’d had the pleasure of devouring for some time.
The portion was generously sized and I did see someone who’d ordered another pasta dish struggle to finish her meal given the size of the offering.
While, my evening’s dining companion grabbed a very stacked chicken burger from Absurd Bird based near the entrance to Trinity Kitchen. That, fries and a soft drink came to £12.
Possibly a little more in price than the high street fast food staples but I was reliably informed the burger tasted as good as it looked.
When we’d let our meals set we both felt inclined to indulge our sweet tooth. So, we popped to Archie’s beloved by a plethora of celebs and sports stars - presumably by the latter when they are in off-season.
We’d previously reported some customers have been far from impressed by what’s on offer from Archie’s - which includes milkshakes and mammoth desserts. Our experience was very much a positive one.
We both got half waffles (we didn’t have the stomach for full ones each) which came with ice cream, whipped cream and a little sweet looking Archie’s branded wafer. We had the snowflake and cookie monster which came in at just under a tenner
The former combined Maltesers, white chocolate sauce and chocolate shavings while the cookie monster combined Oreos and chocolate sauce. There were no complaints from us.
And, our visit really emphasised the variety on offer at Trinity Kitchen which has completely reimagined what a shopping centre food court can be and what it can offer.
The bill
The Little Pasta Company - Pasta mains and beer - £12
Absurd Bird - Chicken burger, fries and soft drink - £12
Archie's - Two half waffles with ice cream and whipped cream - £9.98
Trinity Kitchen - 27 Albion Street, Leeds, LS1 5ER - www.trinityleeds.com/shops/trinity-kitchen
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