“Would have a place in Lyons”: Bavette, Horsforth, reviewed

Lyon in early autumn – a wonderful time to unite the center of traditional French cuisine. The other week I was in its old town eating smelly andouillette sausage, tête de veau (pressed calf’s head), quenelles de brochet (creamed pike dumplings) and the like. Always in old-school bistros called bouchons.

I’m apparently on trend. Back in more gastronomically diverse London, a large number of Francophile tributes have opened, notably Claude Bos’s spectacular Josephine Bouchon and Henry Harris’s benchmark Bouchon Racine. They have been followed by Camille, Bistro Freddie, Cafe Francois and others, offering Entente Cordiale à la Lyonnaise on a plate.

All the latter fade into the northern section of the genre. And whisper it quietly, Bavette, in the faraway Leeds banlieue of Horsforth, would hold its own in another French city – it’s that good. That’s why, just months after it opened, the Good Food Guide named it Britain’s Best Local Restaurant 2024 – “the youngest ever to receive the accolade” – and I’ve been there three times.

Yes, there is a Frenchman involved, although front of house/sommelier Clèment Cousin is from the Loire, not Lyon; her husband, chef Sandy Jarvis, is a Yorkshireman returning to his roots. That his roots are definitely French is evident from the menu in front of you in the elegant 40-cover dining room at Horsforth’s main entrance. It had been a trek from Leeds city center by bus. Warning: the town’s train station is quite a schlepp from Bavette.

However, voilà, the welcome immediately makes it seem worth it. Buzz is an overused word. You suspect that the fast track to fame has pushed for strict action, but they still manage admirably. The dining room is elegantly decorated, and the open kitchen is located at the back. My eye is drawn to the cookbooks on the shelves that divide the space. Think of them as a task.

A large illustrated work dedicated to Shell shit forcing me to order the pork and plum terrine (£10). A masterful mess of messy flakes of meat in a taut pastry shell, its tasty servants a dollop of earl gray jelly and a piercing pickled walnut.

Perfect Makers could offer double the range of house pastries with its parfaits and rillettes, but that might mean forgoing a quartet of the fluffiest and fluffiest Comté cheese croquettes (£6.50) or cervelle de canut (£7.50). The latter, essentially a fromage blanc spread topped with fresh herbs, garlic and shallots, dates back to 19th century Lyon (you can’t escape the place) and literally means the brains (cervelle) of the silk weavers (canuts). It reflects the low opinion the city’s wealthy have of the workers in the industry that defines it.

Meanwhile, 21st-century Horsforth braised squid (£12) and pork belly rillons (£10) make their way in. The fennel is a constant riff on Bavette, and together with the tomatoes and reduced red wine, forms an intense sauce for the squid, the aioli and gremolata toppings reinforce the Med vibe. A more delicate mustard-like ravigote sauce accompanies crispy rillons coated in frisée.

All quite Tour de France, this menu, which sticks to snacks, four starters, four mains and four desserts, plus cheese and, of course, shareable Côte de boeuf. I had previously won their eponymous bavette (which also means bib in French) after encountering this flank steak elsewhere. This time its muscular cousin onglet stood inside and ordered my partner. It was a small disappointment of the evening. You expect a certain toughness from what we call a hanger steak. The compensation is fried taste, which you rarely get from much more expensive fillets. This onglet (£26.50) lacked that. Unexpected as Bavette sources its meat from the impeccable Swaledale Butchers. The fennel fries and punchy au poivre sauce were the biggest flavors on the plate.

My fennel with pork chop (£25.50) was braised, flavored with espelette pepper in a piperade and the pomme purée had real olive oil. The chop itself was a bit dry, but the fat was delicately creamy. In an interview, Sandy had revealed that pork chops were her desert island staple; Clèment revealed to us on the same day that duck would soon replace it as they work to round out the menu for autumn.

Clèment’s own contribution to the success of the operation is significant, and not only because of his building skills. He and Sandy met while working at the pioneering natural wine bar Terroirs in Covent Garden. The French’s family background is largely minimal intervention in winemaking. Father Olivier is natural wine “royalty” in his native Anjou, even with a horse in the vineyard.

Bottles sourced from Leeds’ own natural wine specialists, Wayward, are flanked by ‘family specials’ made by Clèment’s brother Baptiste and a red now semi-retired Olivier, which goes perfectly with our meal. The Pur Breton (£43) does what it says on the label, offering startlingly clean, plump Cabernet Franc fruit. We resisted tempting digestifs and Distillerie Cazottes biodynamic liqueurs for coffees, as excellent as you would expect after desserts. The warm chocolate fondant (£9.50) was lip-smackingly melty, the yoghurt sorbet a sharp partner, while my gooey tarte tatin (£10) and vanilla ice cream was so French.

Which brings us neatly to Sandy’s bouchon timeline. His 15 years of cooking have been great The London establishments were born out of a meeting with a visiting chef lecturer at Leith’s Cookery School, where he trained. Francophile Henry Harris was an immediate inspiration and young Sandy was given a place in the brigade at the original Racine in Knightsbridge. The rest, as they say, is L’histoire.

Food tag4-6 Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RJ