Get To Know... Leila Lily's

Opening its doors in 2019, Leila Lily’s on Grey Street has fast earned itself a reputation as a destination restaurant by serving excellent and often innovative food served in remarkably lavish, intensely floral and very Instagram-friendly surroundings.

Since Leila Lily’s recently opened a new dining area, this seemed like an excellent time to catch up with their head chef Jim Hall. Jim joined Leila Lily’s from Lumley Castle Hotel in Chester-le-Street and previously worked at hotels across the UK including Ramside Hall Hotel and Malmaison right here in the North East.

The Leila Lily’s menu is endlessly appealing and often full of surprises – something traditional like red wine braised beef appearing alongside a dish like honey and spice roast duck breast – so we asked Jim to sum up Leila Lily’s ‘culinary mission’.

“It’s a combination of modern British and modern Asian cuisine really,” he explains. ”That’s what the restaurant is known for and actually it’s a reflection of Newcastle, which is a wonderfully multicultural and diverse city. I’m a Master Chef of Great Britain and all holders of that title are expected to champion British food producers, growers, and manufacturers. It’s not something we pay lip service to - it’s very important to us and customers can be reassured that when I say we source locally and use the best of British, it’s because we do.”

One of the most interesting features of Leila Lily's kitchen is its Mibrasa charcoal oven - an overn that has a repuation for elevating any kitchen and one of the only of its kind in Newcastle. “It enables us to offer an extensive selection of grills and steaks and also to add barbecue flavour to other ingredients, such as watermelon”, explains Jim. “It’s basically a Spanish barbecue, so you can cook over open coals to temperatures of up to 350˚C. Men love to barbecue things and this enables me to do it all year round – it’s one of my favourite pieces of kit!”

Leila Lily’s offers a wide selection of menus too – beyond the à la carte menu you’d expect, there’s afternoon tea, midi, Sunday lunch, veggie / vegan options and more. Providing such a range and still staying true to Leila Lily’s ethos must be challenging. “Vegan dishes are a challenge for most chefs but it’s a challenge they’re all going to have to meet because the vegan market is worth around £3 billion a year and growing.” he says. “A vast amount of skill, thought and care goes into our vegan dishes, not least because members of the Malhotra family - which owns Leila Lily’s – are vegan and their approval is critical.”

The restaurant recently opened the Eva Rose Garden, named – like the restaurant itself – after one of owner Atul Malhotra’s daughters. It’s an oasis within an oasis, located in the restaurant’s basement and available for private dining and functions. Jim explains that the menu reflects this. “It offers a reduced version of Leila Lily’s à la carte menu and of course we can create entirely bespoke menus depending on the client’s budget and the style of the function. We are also considering creating taster menus for Eva Rose as well.”

Finally, if someone was coming to Leila Lily’s for the first time and is confronted by a menu packed with temptations, what dishes would Jim consider were not to be missed? “I would say the starter of seared and scorched scallops with a warm ajo blanco – a potato soup traditionally served cold – followed by either our ale and malt glazed chicken, a tomahawk steak cooked on the Mibrasa oven, or our chateaubriand. But my signature dish is an apple cheesecake dessert, which is constructed to look like an actual apple and is a showstopper.”

Leila Lily’s is situated in Grey Street Hotel and is open from midday every day except Monday.