Bundobust, Leeds

Slightly curious mixture of an Indian street food eatery and a bar, with few tables at road level and the main seating / dining area located up a short flight of steps. Basic, canteen-style furniture and some pictures mostly related to the sub-continent. Further seating available in a covered yard off to one side. The servery initially looks like a fast-food takeaway, until you see the impressive row of 12 craft keg taps interspersed with a couple of handpumps. Kirkstall Three Swords and the 6.9% Transmission IPA (£2.50, half) were available from the latter, and the diverse range from the former is certainly worthy of note.

Now with 2 cask lines and 12 kegs plus the street food it's famous for. Some of the tables get reserved at busy periods. I did see people form an orderly queue to get to the bar, mainly to order food it must be said. Weird.

Finally made it to this recently opened craft beer bar, specialising in Indian street food. Although I knew beforehand (with some disappointment) that no cask beer was available, I was still keen to visit, from a foodie perspective, to see if the format worked. Found tucked away just round the corner from The Scarbrough, Bundobust has a long narrow interior, with three distinct drinking areas. The lower area, in front of the windows, is bizarrely lined with reclaimed doors and is obviously meant to appeal to those who wish to be seen. Up the stairs, the main room is very low key with bare floorboards, an exposed brick wall and tables made of welded tubular steel and Sterling board (what is it, with this stuff?) all artfully lit with fisherman’s lamps. To the left there is a sizeable semi enclosed area, kitted out in pretty much the same style. At the bar there are apparently four regular beers, including Kirkstall ‘Three Swords’ and the house coriander pilsner, plus, up to eight rotating guests, on the other fonts, featuring such breweries as Magic Rock and Mikkeller. I opted for the Atom IPA, which was pleasant enough, but lacking a bit of oomph. Service from the young, enthusiastic staff was warm and attentive. Food wise, the four dishes we tried were all pretty good, with the spicing just right, so as not to overpower the beer. However, portions were rather small and in some cases downright stingy e.g. the Bataka Vada (spiced mashed potato, covered in gram flour batter) came as three golf ball size pieces for £4.00. Quite busy when we called early evening on a Thursday, with a good buzz from a clientele composed of creative professionals and students. Overall, I thought Bundobust was OK, although it almost inevitably failed to live up to the hype surrounding its opening. The lack of cask beer and questionable value of the food would probably see me going to Tapped Leeds, over the road, if I fancied a beery lunch. It’s not a bad place, just not quite as good as it thinks it is.

called in this bar the first week it opened and was very disappointed to find no real ale just over priced keg beer eg kirkstall 3 swords at £3.90 a pint my other half like lager they had sold out of draft and had no bottles I regular go in to the sparrow in Bradford which is owned by the same people and is far superior to this bar