The Case | Leicester: A Beautiful Restaurant for a Blind Date

Here's the Case restaurant on the first floor of these buildings. It looks very inviting, doesn't it, especially on a winter's evening. It's one of my favourite restaurants and I have indeed eaten here on a blind date in the past :)

The Case is in the old part of town, in the Lanes near the market. Here's one of the quiet roads leading off the High Street into the Lanes, full of small specialist shops and Victorian arcades. In the distance you can see the steeple of Leicester Cathedral, the resting place of Richard III, the last Plantagenet.

The Case Restaurant is in Hotel Street, just opposite St Martin's Square. It was originally a luggage factory on the first floor, which is why it has such beautiful huge windows, and the goods were sold in one of the shops at street level.

I would recommend meeting in the Globe, just around the corner from the Case, an 18th century landmark building. As you can see from the golden glow through the windows, it is very snug and cosy. Previously, the Globe was one of the market houses and it was used at the hiring fairs by farmers who were recruiting their workers for the year. The Globe is owned by the Everard family, local brewers, and for many years the Globe brewed its own beer from a spring in the cellar.

Lots of the original features have been retained in the Case, with original stripped wooden floorboards and wood panelled walls. The decor is simple and tasteful, with lots of features like this window over the staircase leading up from the street to a small seating area where you can relax while you wait for your table. It is lovely and warm inside.

Here's our table, covered in snowy napery, with a pretty display behind it. There are lots of cosy quiet nooks and crannies around the borders of the main area, just right for a romantic tete-a-tete. The service is impeccable and discreet. Water and pretty little tumblers were provided, freshly-baked rolls arrived with the menu and wine list.

One of the reasons I chose the Case is because it does a set menu as well as a daily a la carte menu. The set dinner menu is two courses for £16, or three courses for £20. With a range of very good house wines by the glass for between £5 and £7, this restaurant offers very good value.

I chose pumpkin pancakes, with creamed leeks and pecorino and roasted chestnuts. To drink, I had a glass of Heretiques Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine, France at £6.50 for 175ml (bottle £26):

"fresh goosberry notes with lingering lemongrass this wine has a lovely clean finish of honey."

It did as well :)

Unfortunately, the a la carte menu was offering Rack of New Season Lamb with fondant potato, wilted spinach and blackberry jus and as I love lamb, I turned out to be a very expensive blind date :). But it was gorgeous, and if you were my blind date, you would have been delighted with the happy expression on my face! From the moment it arrived, tinged pink and bordered with a thin layer of crisp scored fat, smelling deliciously, I knew I had made the right choice.

To drink, the server recommended Lan, Rioja Crianza Tempranillo from Rioja, Spain also £6.50 for 175ml (bottle £26):

"Intense red cherry colour. Red berry aromas are framed by fine nuances of vanilla and toffee. Silky and structured on the palate, it has a long-lasting and satisfying finish.

Well, I don't know about all of that, but it was certainly delicious and perfect with the lamb.

We had extra green vegetables - green beans, broccoli and finely shredded cabbage with a garlic and ginger butter - but they weren't really necessary, especially if you wanted a dessert.

The dessert menu looked superb, for example, apple millefeuille with calvados butter, but I was full. I looked longingly at the cheese platter with a selection of local farm cheeses, the petit fours, the sorbets and ice-creams but it was no good: I was definitely full. Instead, we had black coffee with Paye d'Duze Calvados Apple Brandy (£6) served in a warmed glass at the perfect temperature. It was a lovely way to round off an exquisite meal.

Here's a view of the main area of the restaurant - it was about half full, one or two groups of six, but mostly twos, threes and fours. The noise level was just right, people happy and enjoying themselves, and the background music was a selection of Christmas songs and crooners.

The toilets were pleasingly decorated in art deco style, with a black and eau de nil colour scheme.

The restaurant has a good wine menu and offers lots of non-alcoholic drinks (lager, mocktails) as well as cocktails, champagne cocktails and bellinis, vermouths and a fine range of whiskies.

This was an expensive meal coming in at just under £90 for two of us ... but we were celebrating, not a blind date, but our anniversary. It is a special place and sets the right balance between picking a very nice restaurant, but with the set menu, not going overboard on price - both critical factors for the perfect blind date venue.

My top tip would be to not have a starter and to save yourself for the puddings. They were scrumptious!

The Case is closed over the Christmas holidays, but the staff are there on Christmas day serving Christmas dinner to between eighty and a hundred and twenty homeless people, working in partnership with the Bridge.

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Restaurant Information

The Case Restaurant

Hotel St, Leicester LE1 5AW, UK

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The Case | Leicester: A Beautiful Restaurant for a Blind Date
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