The Angel's Share have bought in a set of lava grills, volcanic stones which are heated to searing temperatures, and brought out to the tables along with raw meat – and the customers do the rest.

"It's our party trick," said bar manager Kat Sellers, who wasn't entirely certain where the lava bricks had been sourced from. "It's either Mexico or Korea," she told me.

Our lava grills duly arrived. "They're very hot," we were warned, unnecessarily as it happens as it was suddenly like sitting in a sauna with these two hot plates between us.

When I'd been told about this, I kind of assumed that the chef would come out and cook the meat for us, but here the customer is very much part of the process, so I was soon searing my lovely lean cut of fillet steak and skewer of big juicy king prawns.

This surf 'n' turf option was delicious, served with a small bowl of roasted vegetables and a big mushroom and beef tomato.

There was a little mesh basket of chips too, and I did momentarily wonder whether this might come with a mini deep-fat fryer, but thankfully these were already cooked. At £18.95 you might expect the meal to come ready-to-eat too, but I guess the self-cook option makes for an interesting evening out.

My partner did similar, going for the cheaper rump steak (£12.95), which came with similar accompaniments.

One thing to say in favour of the lava grill is that it gives Angel's Share a certain novelty in a very crowded market place. The centre of Chapel Allerton has more than its share of bars, and though they all seem to do good business, it is doubtless important for each to find something which distinguishes them from the crowd. "This is the only lava grill in Leeds," said Kat.

She admits that both the lava rocks and the American grill menu are an attempt to develop a niche feel to set Angel's Share apart from the competition. "There's quite a lot of niche restaurants here and we have tried to find our own."

Given the all-American theme it naturally goes big on slabs of dead animal. Choices include a half-pound rib eye steak (£13.95), a New York strip loin (£14.95), an Alaskan salmon fillet
(£11.95) and for those with mighty stateside appetites an 18oz Porterhouse T-Bone steak for £19.95.

Angel's Share is owned by the Leelex Group, which also has city centre bars Neon Cactus, Jake's and Oporto. They were celebrating this week when their London venue, the Portobello Star picked up a boxing style belt for the Best Bar Award at the industry Oscars – the Class Awards.

Angel's Share occupies a footprint which was for many years simply a neglected piece of ground between a parade of shops and a supermarket.

It opened in 2005, the clever design making the most of this tight space, with three floors of drinking and dining rooms, and a broad patio area to the front which always curiously puts me in mind of some beach bar you might find in the West Indies. If only it were the gentle lapping of the Caribbean sea I could hear, rather than the relentless traffic of this busy suburban junction.

It's nicely fitted out, with comfy leather sofas and stools, wooden floors and a distinctive colour scheme of crimsons and creams. The low-backed chairs in the restaurant mean you can quite literally rub shoulders with the people sitting behind you, if that's your thing.

The top floor, which is also available for private parties, benefits from an attractive balcony area from where you can happily watch the world go by, weather permitting. Combined with the front patio area, this gives the bar outside seating for over 100 – great in summer. A long bar dominates the downstairs room, and it's topped by an array of polished fonts dispensing a cosmopolitan range of beers, a choice further expanded by a dizzying choice available by the bottle.

Kat advised that me to try the Blue Moon, an unfiltered Belgian wheat beer. Well, as Belgian as any beer can be that actually comes from Colorado. Unlike some wheat beers, this one was deliciously smooth, almost creamy and very easy-drinking. And in the midst of all this the foreign competition it's good to see that there's room for the excellent handpulled Leeds Pale Ale on the bar.

In the fullness of time the waitress returned to clear our table of the detritus of our self-catering experiment. Though the lava stones had begun to cool they were still too hot to handle, and little burned remnants of steak clung determinedly to their surface.

I wouldn't like to be the one who had to wash up – but fortunately they employ people to do that.