Have some American colleagues flying to Leeds for a meeting and wanted to recommend some good pubs and/or restaurants for them. They’re going to be staying at the Marriott, so pretty central.

Nothing too flash, but equally not Greggs.

Any pointers?

Nothing too flash

You’ve never been to Leeds then? 😀

City Centre:

Friends of Ham – cured meat platters, and great beer
Bundobust – Indian ‘street food’, great beer
Whitelocks for a traditional pub – the oldest in Leeds
Cross Keys – 10 minute walk from the City Centre, but lovely food in a great building
… then just up the road from there Northern Monk – brewery/tap house with nice food

Don’t like the term ‘gastropub’ but that’s exactly what The Reliance on North Street is – extensive range of cask, bottled and keg beers with a great menu which changes regularly and has daily specials.
It’s a 10 minute walk.
Midnight Bell which is next to Cross Keys – see above.

I would say head down to Granary Wharf

Leeds

or

Home

Stay out of the more trashy bits of Leeds 🙂

Having worked for an American bank for 7 years I can say recommending Curry and UK Craft beer is a waste of time sadly.

Having been up to Leeds quite a lot over the past 7 years I can’t really recommend anywhere in the town centre, our focus was always on country pubs outside or a great curry which as I said usually doesn’t work for Americans

Well one of the places I recommend is eat as much meat as you can. Surely that’s right up there street?

Reds?

Or (although I doubt they could get a booking) go utterly bonkers at http://www.themanbehindthecurtain.co.uk/

What Tom Hill said.

Taxi to Chapel Allerton and then there is a bit of choice
El Bareto – fantastic tapas
Sukhothai – amazing Thai restaurant and usually in The Times Top 10 list
Olive Tree – great Greek food
Aagrah – fab curry restaurant
Casa Mia – average Italian food but being Americans they might think it’s nice

Another vote for Reliance as well… they’ll pass North Bar and a Brew Dog pub on their walk up there, and there’s another pub/bar next door – The Brunswick. Couple more minutes up the road, and North Bar’s Brew Co tap house for more beers.

Listen to Tom he knows the places to go.

Don’t listen to Jamba.

Heard good things about Shears Yard too.

Can I also recommend The Adelphi just on the other side of the river, great pub and excellent food and beer!

Flash………..ignore all the young hipsters.

The Duck And Drake.

The Adelphi

Its been ruined now though hasn’t it. Used to be a traditional boozer, looks like they have taken a lot of the original interior out 🙁

Johndoh – not heard of that place before. Looks interesting, bit mixed reviews though, have you been yourself?

No trip to Leeds is complete without a trip to Whitelocks

I would also recommend North Bar & Reliance on the North side of town.

If you want to venture south the Cross keys is OK, but the Grove, is possibly the finest. Not in the most salubrious area, but loads of ales on tap and often live music.

@FunkyDunc been a while since I’ve been so sad to hear that, was a great pub!

ton – Member
Flash………..ignore all the young hipsters.

The Duck And Drake.
– A proper pub !

Thanks, everybody. Plenty of oodles for thought.

Amy also wondering if Binners has a Gregg’s alert set up any time they’re mentioned on here.
🙂

for their English shopping mall experience send them to the new Victoria Gate with the new John Lewis, apparently the whole place is all very fur coat and knickers, also the victoria quarter nearby is very nice with old victorian look and nice shops and eating places.

Americans in Leeds? Take them to that curry house where the small naans are so big that they come hanging on metal stands. (Or is that Bradford? Been a while.)

Checking in as leeds newbie! Some ‘to do’ locations there by the sounds of it!

@Cougar – the Naan trees are in Akbars on the Headrow. To be honest the naan trees are the best thing there.
If you want a good curry in Leeds, Aagrah is always a safe bet as is Corner Cafe on Burley Road and Sheesh Mahal on Kirkstall Road

Fair enough. Cheers for the info.

good curry in leeds in Mumtaz on the armouries. very good indeed.

What about going to The Botanist which is kinda opposite the Marriot. Bibi’s for an italian,Chaopraya for thai stuff and these are within a 5 minute walk of the Marriot.
You also have the third floor of Trinity with a host of restaurants in there which they will be sble to see from there hotel room!

I went to Chaopraya last week for the first time and found it pretty average. Nice inside but I didn’t really enjoy the food.

Had a rather lovely mushrooms & chips in Headrow House the other week after a Drupal meeting. But Friends of Ham has to win on all fronts.

Rachel

I ‘ve only been to Freinds of Ham once but thought is was really up itself.

Tharavadu is a very nice Kerala curry house next to Bundobust which is also great.

Fazenda is really good and a couple of good pubs down there as well. The Hop and Arches, which also does good burgers.

Midnight Bell, Cross Keys and The Adelphi are all good pubs. I was in the Adelphi a few weeks ago and didn’t notice any real difference with a few years ago.

Agree with the reliance and North Bars comments. Good Thai place up that way as well called Zapp, very basic interior with great food. Thai village over by the hospital is a nice basic i.e. school canteen style restaurant as well.

Some good good new pubs around Boar Lane just outside the Marriot so they can’t go wrong round there. Tapped, The Botanist, The Black Prince.

Trinity Kitchen is good as well.

The Decanter on Park Row is a lovely wine bar.

North bar is great. But my personal fave is Smokestack.

The best Thai in Leeds is Jino’s in Headingley.

Art’s Cafe’s good. Always has been.

Sheesh Mahal got flooded last Christmas and afaik is still closed

The Alchemist in Trinity shopping mall is not bad.
As said above, Victoriagate is very fancy, too much for my simple tastes, but Victoria Quarter and the arcades across Briggate are nice

Try Riccis Tapas, not far from the train station, excellent food.

Duck and drake, get the septic tanks properly spewing.

American?

Do you want to show them local or a taste of home?

For American food,

Reds and Meat Licker would be my go-to places. For drinks, the Brooklyn bar.

Friends of ham is good if you like that sort of thing – which I do – or Little Tokyo for decent Japenese – and both are stumbling distance from the Mariott.

As is Scarborough Taps which no one has mentioned yet – maybe not as good as it was but good enough.

Whitelocks and Duck & Drake bring back memories – I think. Bit hazy.

To be honest central Leeds is full of good and interesting places – country pubs outside Leeds can be a bit generic, though there are a few good ones. I like Chequers at Ledsham – good food and beer.

Another vote for Fazenda, lovely grub, especially at night. Couple of decent pubs nearby too. San Carlo is super for Italian food also.

For pubs, call lane is good, down the corn exchange end.