The restaurant has quite a few awards and a number of other branches within the UK
I visited award-winning restaurant cherished by Rick Stein (Picture: Isobel Pankhurst)
It is a good signal for any restaurant when Rick Stein is a fan, as is the case with Bundobust, which has 4 branches within the north west. The Leeds department, which was the primary to open in 2014, featured on the Yorkshire episode of Rick Stein’s Meals Tales in 2024 and gained the chef’s approval.
Alongside this, the model has gained quite a few awards, together with being topped the Greatest Indian and Nepalese Restaurant within the north and midlands by Deliveroo, in addition to Greatest Innovation at The Informal Eating Awards and the UK’s Greatest Taproom on the SIBA Awards. With two branches in Manchester, I opted to go to the Bundobust Brewery on Oxford Street, which is styled as a tap-room, with 9 tanks of Bundobust beer being brewed and served beneath the identical roof.
The Oxford Street department operates as a brewery in addition to a restaurant (Picture: Isobel Pankhurst)
As somebody who does not drink beer, maybe the brewery facet was misplaced on me, however the restaurant provided a beautiful ambiance, and happening a Monday evening meant it wasn’t too busy. I think about it will get busier later within the week.
The menu consists of small dishes, and the wait workers suggests ordering two or three per particular person. Alongside this, there are quite a few combos, together with one which serves each dish on the menu and accommodates as much as eight individuals – though, seeing as I used to be consuming with only one different particular person, I made a decision in opposition to ordering it.
After being seated and looking out on the menu, my buddy and I opted to order the vegan combo for 2, which incorporates cobis nu shack, okra fries, onion bhaji, bhel puri, aloo and dhal kachori, and chole saag.
For drinks, I opted for a peach mai tai, whereas my buddy ordered one of many Bundobust beers – the Peela Pale Ale. Each drinks had been nice, and I sit up for making an attempt some extra of their cocktails on future visits.
Throughout Rick Stein’s go to to the Bundobust Leeds department, he joined cooks within the kitchen to make raghda pethis, an Anglo-Indian mash-up dish consisting of potato cake with spiced mushy peas, tomato, onion, and tamarind chutney.
Whereas this definitely sounds scrumptious, I opted in opposition to including this to my order seeing because the combo already included the same dish, the aloo and dhal kachori – fried potato and candy potato patties filled with a spicy dhal combine.
Though Bundobust provides a tapas-style expertise, the dishes arrived , and pretty shortly at that.
My favorite dish was the okra fries, which had been achieved to perfection, however there wasn’t a single merchandise I did not take pleasure in. Even my least favorite, the cobis nu shack (a mixture of shredded cabbage, peas, carrots, and spices) is one thing I will surely nonetheless order once more.
The meals was scrumptious (Picture: Isobel Pankhurst)
The onion bhajis had been one other scrumptious merchandise, though having three in a combo for 2 is probably an odd alternative, however with the quantity of meals, you will not be left hungry in case your dinner companion takes two.
Finishing the set had been the bhel puri, a well-liked avenue snack consisting of damaged samosa pastry and puffed rice with peas, onion, pomegranate, and tomato; and the chole saag, a chickpea and spinach dish served alongside puri.
Costing £37, it is a nice solution to strive the menu with out breaking the financial institution – and in the event you’re not vegan, there’s the common combo for 2 that replaces a few the gadgets with paneer dishes.
As soon as drinks and a tip had been added, the full got here to £52.76, which was fairly good worth for the quantity of meals that arrived, which, whereas scrumptious, was maybe an excessive amount of for simply two individuals.
Recipe inspiration for the entire household plus chosen provides and competitions Subscribe Invalid e mail
We use your sign-up to supply content material in methods you have consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This will embrace adverts from us and third events primarily based on our understanding. You possibly can unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
All in all, I cherished every of the dishes included within the vegan combo for 2, and will definitely take into account ordering it once more, though maybe I might carry a 3rd particular person alongside, because it turned out to be simply an excessive amount of for the 2 of us.
Bundobust has branches in Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester. Go to their web site right here.
Leave a Reply