Birthday Trip to Home

After the extravagance of my trans shower at the end of April and my bouncy castle birthday party last year I wanted a much quieter affair.

There are many things that we love to do as special treats but probably our favourite is to go to a lovely restaurant and enjoy each others company over good food.

Ever since we first went to Home Restaurant in Leeds it has always been a favourite of mine. It's Run by Liz Cotton, who I know almost nothing about other than she was on Masterchef. She cooks amazing food though.

I still find existing in the world as a trans person quite daunting, what reception will I get will the people be friendly? This was the first time post transition that I'd been and I was nervous. I was wrong to be. They are effortlessly friendly and welcoming, and as a bonus, their toilers where unisex.

Their new premises are much bigger and brighter than where they used to be and although a little more noisy, or it may just be possible I'm getting older and that affects me more than it used to! overall they continue to provide a relaxed environment with attentive and friendly service. In fact the thing I love most is how responsive everyone is to you. We often get a wine pairing and if as part of the conversation we mention we like a particular wine then they often switch around the pairings so we get one. Tonight we mentioned we like Ice wine so they gave us a tasting of the ice wines they had. Incredibly generous and delicious. I love how they always tell you a story about the wine too. In this case that the ice wine came from the 'Golden Ice Wine Valley' of China. A place that doesn't actually exist but they labelled it to make it sound better, a fantastic wine none the less though.

I won't go into the food too much, incase you want to go and experience it yourself but it's a tasting menu with an optional cheese course. The dishes are all small but by the end you feel full without being stuffed.

In style it's modern British. Each course well balanced and is clearly thought through to make each plate taste well as a whole. My personal favourite was The Sea but I enjoyed every single dish on this menu. The Cheese course is very small and was a delicious cheese mille-feuille.

It was a real birthday treat and a perfect way to start off my birthday celebrations. I feel so lucky to be able to experiences places like this.

It was also delightful to spend proper time with Clare, Life has been very busy recently so being away from all the general frittering of life was just what I needed.

I've linked to the restaurant here and if you ever need a special treat I definitely recommend it.