There seems to be so much excitement in Leeds this week with the opening ceremony of the Tour De France tonight, there seems to be such a buzz going around the city. Leeds seems to evolving so much over the past year and it seems were always happy to welcome on-bored new restaurants & bars with open arms.
Yesterday I had the chance to visit Bundobust a vegetarian, Indian street food restaurant opening at 6 Mill Hill (a stones throw from the train station for those unfamiliar with Leeds). Often when I get the chance to visit new restaurants and places in Leeds, the first thing I find myself asking, is will this add anything to the city? Recently there seems of been an influx in trendy cocktail bar/restaurants such as the Botanist and the Alchamist with the opening of the trinity shopping centre. We've seen the hype of Reds True BBQ exceed expectations for delicious american style BBQ grub, not to mention some of my fav restaurants including rare and roast & conch popping up in the past year, but it still felt something was missing. Then tonight Bundobust arrived, offering something quite different.
Bundobust, has delighted me in offering up something new to the city. Stepping away from the cliché cocktails bars and hyped up burger joint this place has taken a risk and for that I adore them.
Serving up firstly a vegetarian menu, secondly by deciding to serve mostly craft beers and finally by been daring enough to offer up traditional style Indian street food.
All a delicious combination located in a very understated modest, yet cool setting. Just like the food and drink it's self. I can really see an effectiveness in the simple location with exposed brick, chipboard still showing around place and low hanging light bulb lighting really takes the emphasis on dining and drinking back to basics and offers much more opportunity to enjoy the simplicity of good food & drink and good company.
For the food it's self we was treated to try two of the dishes from what will be a tapas style menu (or the option to get a dish when a little peckish...there's no formal rules). First I tucked into the more unusual Bhel Puri (puffed rice, tamaran chutney, turmeric noodles, onion, tomato and samosa pastry) which I can honestly say I have nothing to compare this dish to. It kind of tasted like crunch, tomatoay, sweet and sour chilli-esk noodles, told you I had no comparison. However as weird and wonderful as all that sounds it was exceptionally moorish and very very delicious.
The second dish was something a little more familiar (low and slow mung beans, gara massala and basmati rice) known as the spice & rice. I'm a huge fan of lentils or bean dishes such as chana dal and this to me feels like comfort food. A nice little warming pot of something flavoursome and filling.
Overall I cant wait to see how the Bundobust takes of and I'm really rooting for this place to be a success. Upon first impressions I was quite unsure what I felt about the place, was it going to be a "posh takeaway" that now served beer such as barburrito? but after trying the food and really getting more of a feel for the place I'm defiantly backing this 100%. It's amazing to see new concepts bought into the city and the food seems something very special. I'm pretty sure over the next few weeks I'll be recommending this to friends and colleges with a lot of enthusiasm.
Defiantly check this place out!
Sammie