Heading up for a lads weekend celebrating our 50th year on this planet got a train pub crawl thing going on this Saturday
http://realaletrail.net
So we need pubs to visit on The Friday before a good old curry we hare staying at the Hilton near the Station.

Saturday looking for some night life with some live music later on

So Leeds people whats the craic 🙂

You could go to the Scarborough Taps, The Head of Steam and the Leeds Brewery Tap finishing with a curry at Tharavadu on the Friday night and you won’t have walked 500 meters from the Hilton.
RM.

Friends of Ham ain’t cheap but the beers good.
North Bar is my favourite.
There’s Brewdog too. Whitelocks, The Grove.

Akhars for a curry. Also Bundobust for street food and good beer.

For live music there’s The Grove, Duck & Drake, Oporto, upstairs at Milo, Nation of Shopkeepers, O2, Beckett University, First Direct Arena and many more – seriously good city for live music. Best bet is to look up the Leeds Gig Guide
http://www.leedsgigs.co.uk/guide.html

best place for the kind of beer you like is at present Tapped on boar lane.
Head of steam in ok too. also The Hop which is just behind your hotel.

Cheers Tony !
John Drummer any rock indie bands on the Friday or Saturday?

Neon Dolls + 2 supports at Verve on the friday if that rings your bell: https://www.facebook.com/NeonDolls/

crybabycry + support at The Wardrobe on the saturday: https://soundcloud.com/crybabycryuk

North Bar and Smokestack are my faves.

As suggested, Akbar’s is good – get the Family Naan if you’re feeling hungry!

Anything else we should do in Leeds ?

Tharavadu curry house on Mill Hill near the station is very good, and not as run-of-the-mill as a few others. Bundobust just up from there is good for street food and a few beers. Tapped has a cracking selection of ales on.

Bar-wise, Smokestack, Mook, North Bar and the HiFi Club are my fairly regular haunts.

Have a wander to Northern Monk, have a Mocha Porter 🙂
http://www.northernmonkbrewco.com/old-flax-store

Don’t speak or make eye contact with anyone until you get to Mirfield on the real ale train. In fact, play it safe and don’t get off the train until Mirfield 🙂

Tapped has a cracking selection of ales on.

Cracking pizzas too

+1 for Smokestacks, best place to dad dance in Leeds

Nawaabs on Wellington Street isn’t too bad, work Chrimbo Dinner was there, just pre-ordered a whole mix of starters and mains and everyone just dug in and got a bit of every dish.

http://www.nawaableeds.com/

Shabab curry house, opposite the Scarborough Taps near the station.

+1 for Akbars.

+1 also for the family naan. It’s like a curtain! Seriously. Size wise, not taste wise. Well, I assume not taste wise, I’ve never tasted a curtain. Well, not a fabric one anyway.

My advice, don’t do the ale trail. It used to be great but it is so popular now that it can be a really crap day out. Lots of hen & stag dos on it and frequent problems with overcrowding and sometimes fisticuffs in the pubs. A lot of the locals don’t like it and it can ruin a nice day out. The pub by the tracks is Mirfield is crap too.

You’ll be better off getting a train to Huddersfield where there are loads of real ale pubs; or train to Todmorden, Hebden Bridge & Sowerby Bridge where you can enjoy yourself with less muppets and have a leisurely drinking session in each town. Or even just explore Leeds more.

I’m not being a killjoy but over the years the ale trail has, pardon the pun, gone a bit off. You do see BT Police occasionally at the stations too so that should indicate that its not all peace, love and real ale. Its a shame ‘cos I used to love it.

Doubt there will be many Hen/stag dos in January but good call must admit I would favour one town!

Tharavadu is an awesome curry, might need to book though.

So many good pubs in Leeds:
North Bar
Crowd of Favours
Whitelocks
The Ship
Lamb and Flag
The Palace
Duck and Drake (music…acquired taste!)
The Pack Horse
The Angel

That’s less than half a mile of Leeds centre pubs and should see you drunk on nice beer and not stabbed or molested 🙂

beer train is crap Rich.

Doubt there will be many Hen/stag dos in January but good call must admit I would favour one town!

get train to Huddersfield. best pubs being,
the grove
the sportsman
rat and ratchet
kings head
magic rock tap (owned by a sweary northerner).

@Ton – don’t forget The Star near Rat & Ratchet and the Slubbers Arms
(Also Bar Maroc surprisingly have 3 or 4 real ales on and they do great pizzas too)

Rich – this could be useful

Cheers guys I have linked this thread to my weekend drinking companions!

The Grove in Huddersfield is the best pub ever.

bookmarked not far from the station by the looks of it!

Best live venue in Leeds is currently the Brudenell Social Club Leeds 6
Not too far out of the city centre (just up the hill from the ‘YTV studios’)

Good selection of beers etc at reasonable prices, Pies and a good PA system.

I frequently make the trip from Sheffield.

Mind you … I still miss the Duchess of York on Vicar Lane …

otley run is always a laugh

The Beginner’s Guide to the Otley Run

theres a few others on the route that aren’t in the guide

Thanks for all the suggestions guys we must have tried 15 different pubs only duff one was the Friends of Ham surly staff and really expensive cheese /ham boards.
Duck and Drake had a great band playing on the Friday night ended up in Stone Rosies till 3.30am
Saturday we did an alternative ale trail to Saltaire and getting on the steam train to Haworth serving Taylors on the train. Visited the Fox in shipley which was good after a few at the Saltaire Brewery :-)Saturday night consisted of some pubs behind the Hilton forget there names Head of Steam again before heading to the Shed bar for late night drinking 🙂

quite good Leeds nowadays……..and i am loathe to say that.