Manahatta Leeds review: Here's what I thought of bottomless brunch at this New York inspired cocktail bar

A bottomless brunch is a delicate balancing act – you want to be able to walk in a straight line when it’s finished, but you also need to get your money’s worth while you’re there.

It means that there can be a lot of mental maths involved in choosing a good venue. You need to ask questions like: If it takes 10 minutes to drink a glass of prosecco, how many will I get in this allotted brunching time? And will that be enough to make the bill worth paying?

At Manahatta, the New York themed cocktail bar in Greek Street, the answer is yes.

For £35.95, diners can choose any brunch dish and enjoy two entire hours of unlimited drinks from an extensive menu.

We started with the textbook bottomless brunch beverage – prosecco. It was light and fruity, effervescent and boozy. And no sooner had we finished our first glass was our waitress promptly refilling them.

What makes bottomless brunch at Manahatta so attractive is its unsparing menu. It is the only brunch I have seen where the choices are not limited to prosecco, wine or beer. Here, the options include Aperol Spritz, Bloody Mary and Summer Punch – and we were free to mix and match the more exciting cocktails with the classics.

The standout drink on our table was the Orchard Apple Spritz. Its sweet and acerbic flavour evoked summer garden parties, giving us a refreshing and sunny feeling, in spite of the drizzly day on which we visited. The Aperol Spritz and Summer Punch were good too, their vibrant orange and warm red hues inviting us further into tipsiness. But it was the Orchard Apple Spritz that was our repeat order.

The food was more or less standard: we both enjoyed a bagel that left no distinct impression, but did its job. At bottomless brunch, it’s only there to soak up the alcohol anyway.

Manahatta is pristine inside. Its impressively stocked bar makes for an eye-catching centrepiece and its furniture, with American-style booths and plush upholstery, creates an elegant backdrop.

Returning to the question of value, there is no doubt that this city centre bar delivers. Not only are punters given above and beyond the usual time limit – a dangerous thought when you consider how many hen parties are attracted to bottomless brunches – the bountiful choice of drinks is reason alone to visit.

Factfile

Address: 29 E Parade, Leeds, LS1 5PS

Telephone: 0113 243 5118

Opening hours: Sun-Wed, noon-11pm; Thur, noon-12am; Fri, noon-2am; Sat, noon-3am.

Website: manahatta.co.uk

Scores

Drinks: 8/10

Value: 9/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Service: 9/10