YORKSHIRE EVENING POST RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2004

Not yet a year old and Anthony's Restaurant, Leeds is showered in awards. The new arrival Anthony's Restaurant, Boar Lane, Leeds is the Yorkshire Evening Post's 2004 Restaurant of the Year

IT seems like no time since Anthony's appeared in Leeds as the welcome answer to a food-lover's secret prayer. No fuss nor fanfare; no stardust sprinkling of pretentious hype – just the quiet arrival of a class act. Neither Anthony's nor Leeds has looked back since. Word of mouth generated the excitement which followed and that enthusiasm and fascination has been growing ever since. There's just no silencing the enthralled chatter of a food-lover who has found his Shangri-La. News travels fast when the new kid on the block is an obvious star. And here is a star well capable of outshining the rest.

It's not yet 12 months since young chef Anthony Flinn brought his talents to Leeds. It was barely 12 weeks after his opening that exchanges about his gifted work were cramming internet foodie chat rooms, dragging London food critics from their cloistered security onto north-bound trains and anybody who was anybody was asking: "Have you been...?" Anthony's is an exciting, innovative, refreshingly adventurous restaurant which – thanks to its brilliant young chef – bravely breaks down all stuffy culinary boundaries and barriers to stroke and pamper taste-buds within an inch of their exquisite endurance.

Anne Pickles