Wakefield Restaurant Guide

A report of “the best meal of the last year” is indicative of the quality of the food at this modern canalside venture in the city centre, which originally opened five years ago at Kirkgate Market. Chef Mark Owens, who trained at Le Gavroche and was head chef at the Box Tree, sends out a souped-up gastropub menu featuring the likes of beef & oyster sausages. Founder Liz Cottam closed her flagship restaurant, Home, last year.

“Epic, authentic Indian street food that’s so moreish” is paired with craft beer (much of it from their own brewery in Manchester) at Mayur Patel & Marko Husak’s student-fave haunt, which started out here at Mill Hill in 2014 and has expanded to three more sites. “The best of the best when it comes to street food – a real taste of India”, many a guest does not even register that the Gujarati-based menu is entirely vegetarian or vegan. Top Tip – “the chaat is unbelievably addictive!”.

Handy for Leeds Playhouse, a “lovely French restaurant that‘s been there forever and understandably” – it provides much of what you’d want from a Gallic bistro recreated in a northern town: relaxed, affordable (it has long been of note for its early-bird deals), unpretentious, and with cosy décor that seems even cosier by the light of flickering candles.

“When you want a hipster burger dripping in your beard, this place delivers!” – Scott Collins’s “buzzy, vibey” joints are notorious for their “really good dirty burgers” with memorable names (the ‘Dead Hippie’ and its veggie cousin the ‘Tempeh Tantrum’), plus “excellent buffalo wings with blue-cheese sauce”. In early 2025 he opened spinoff venture BLOODsports in a Covent Garden basement (see also), showing live sports and horror films on large-screen TVs.

The city’s oldest pub – tucked away for more than three centuries in a narrow alley off Briggate and once hailed by poet laureate John Betjeman as ‘the very heart of Leeds’ – is no mere museum piece, and does a “fabulous Sunday roast” among other hearty dishes based around ingredients sourced from ‘God’s own country’. The ornate and well-preserved interior decor is well worth a look, too.

A lot of business has been done over “lovely food, very well served” at this Leeds institution – a classic French restaurant that’s “been going forever” (well, since 1991 – “I don’t think the menu has changed but it’s really nice food for a business lunch or dinner”). Founded by restaurateur Robert Chamberlain and executive chef Andrew Carter, who still run the show, it occupies a basement in the city’s financial district. Top Tip – the heavyweight wine list runs to 70 pages.

2022 Review: “A really good all-round experience”, this snazzy five-year-old above the Trinity shopping centre is one of four D&D London venues in Leeds, and its first Japanese venture anywhere. The menu majors on sushi and hot dishes from the robata grill to be shared – ‘Issho’ is Japanese for ‘together’ – and there’s a glamorous cocktail bar, Kori, with large choices of sake and Japanese whisky.

This “top Thai street-food chain” started life a decade ago at this “buzzing” location where, unusually, you dine (on “good-value” and “vibrant” noodles, bao buns and curries) in a tuk-tuk. Given the fact it’s modelled on a Bangkok market, it’s appropriately “noisy” and “you can’t linger as the turnover is fast”; but, by all accounts, once you brave such challenges (and the queue) it’s “great fun”. In summer 2025, the northern mini-empire spawned an eighth branch, on Manchester’s Lincoln Square.

2023 Review: This family-run spot delivers “beautifully cooked” home-style dishes from Shandong, including their signature “lovely crispy dumplings for starters” and dan dan noodles. “We used to go here when it was Hansas (RIP), so it’s great to find that Wen’s Chinese restaurant also produces good-quality, authentic dishes”.

2022 Review: “It’s still got it serving top noodles!” – this well-established Japanese canteen in the Merrion Centre continues to please its small but ardent local fan club.

2023 Review: “A popular local staple for many years”, this posh and hugely successful pub has been run by the Truelove family since 1968 and – much extended over the years – is known for its “consistently good food and service, with a great atmosphere”. Supporters reckon it is currently “back on form and, though expensive, a great meal is guaranteed (potted shrimps and shellfish superb!)”. A contrary view is that “the dining room decor is in a time warp, with no hint of frivolity to brighten the dullness”, while the “surprisingly long menu could do with being edited”, and the dishes arrive in “generous portions, but lack finesse”.

This “relentlessly excellent” family-run spot on “an anonymous corner in Meanwood” is “starting to get the attention it deserves” as “a place where a kind of magic can be experienced in plates of delightful Italian food”. “Russell Norman lives on in north Leeds!” – a reference to the late founder of Brutto and before that Polpo in London, where Rosario Leggiero worked before opening Zucco with his chef brother Michael over a decade ago. Michael’s wife Clare is also part of the team, and their sons Matteo & Joe are being groomed to take the reins.

2023 Review: In April 2022, Leeds restaurateur Joe McDermott opened this paella and tapas specialist at Saw Mill Yard in Holbeck Urban Village, on the city’s South Bank. Named after a variety of rice from eastern Spain, Bomba started off as a paella delivery service during lockdown, operating from Kirkgate Market. McDermott originally made his mark on the Leeds dining scene almost 30 years ago, launching the Arts Café in Call Lane in 1994.

Nisha Katona’s Liverpool-based operation has two branches in London (Charlotte Street and Westfield Stratford) offering her “very tasty” Indian street food – “with the occasional hint of raw spice”. The Lancashire-born former barrister launched the business in 2014 and now has 28 outlets around the country, whose “enjoyable, authentic food” is “really great for a chain”.

“Intimate and incredible” – Sam Pullan and Nicole Deighton’s lovingly restored ‘Cafe, Bar, and Wall of Flame Rotisserie’ channels the late Victorian vibes of its namesake on this site to deliver a thoroughly 21st-century formula, mixing an “ever-changing menu” of “innovative” bites incorporating small plates, and chicken from the rotisserie, plus “wonderful drinks”.