Restaurant review: Bengal Brasserie, Haddon Road, Burley, Leeds

As we approached Bengal Brasserie, Haddon Road, we saw the staff stir into action. Admittedly, we did arrive bang on their opening time and in the end, we needn’t have worried overmuch about the ambience being dulled by a solo dining experience, because within ten to fifteen minutes, the place was packed to the rafters. Well, maybe not the rafters but just about every seat was taken.

Bengal Brasserie, Haddon Road, is clearly a popular haunt for hungry locals in need of a decent curry. And so it should be. It’s in the middle of Studentville, sandwiched as it is between Burley Road at the top and Kirkstall Road below.

Places like this, embedded as they are in the heart of the community and therefore away from the beneficial effects city restaurants reap through the phenomenon known to human geographers as ‘conglomeration’, live or die by their reputation. That, in turn, comes largely as a bi-product of the food they serve. Or the service they offer.

Sure as chips is chips, the latter was bang on, because even though we were as early as an early bird can be, the door was opened for us by a polite gentleman, who uttered soft, pleasant greetings, before showing us to a table. As is the way with such things, we were placed near the window, which is a thing I’ve noticed most restaurants do, almost by way of a free advert, as if to say, ‘yes, we’re open, look! people are actually eating here now! Come in! Join them.’ And as I have already said, lots did, although I have a feeling pretty much all of them were pre-booked.

Bengal Brasserie’s reputation goes before it, of course. It took home our Oliver Award 2018 Best Indian award, though that was for its other, newer, swankier (and much bigger) dining destination on Merrion Way.

A quick look at their website will also reveal this is the home of the Rogan Josh Warrington, which only means one thing: that crafty, creative minds are hard at work not just in the kitchen but also in the marketing department.

Once seated, we had chance to peruse the menu, which is broad and diverse, with an above average range of starters, including plenty for the vegetarian and a mesmerising selection of mains, ranging from the placid kormas and jalfrezis to the more challenging garlic chilli duck (hot).

Pre-starters involved the obligatory pickle tray and popadums, the sweet mango chutney there by way of a lifesaver just in case one of the children gobbled down something a little too spicy.

Our starter came in the form of a special combo (£8.90), which had lots of tiny, tasty morsels, some hotter than others but all good.

Seeing as we had the little ones with us, we asked them if they could concoct the mildest chicken korma (£6.95) ever created and this they duly did. I know this because neither of them complained and when I tasted it later, it was full of soft, creamy, puddingy flavours. In fact, they might even consider bottling it and starting a ‘curry for kids’ line. The adults among the party, however, decided to go for something a little more challenging. I don’t know about you but sometimes, too much choice means you spend ages scanning/considering/pondering/changing your mind, etc... so, to avoid this pointless waste of time, I now choose the first thing which stands out, which in this case was the Chicken Sylheti (£8.95), from the specials page of the menu. It’s billed as a unique Bengali dish from the province of Sylhet, flavoured with fresh green chillies, cloves, cumin seeds, black pepper and garnished with coriander. It’s billed as fairly hot, although maybe my curry tolerance is increasing as a grow older or it just wasn’t as hot as it should have been. It did have some heat and a nice peppery under-layer of flavour and the sauce was good but overall, I wanted more punch. Still, it was decent. You wouldn’t turn it down.

My dining partner asked for a bespoke dish... she has a thing for chicken livers and asked them to do her a marsala and they kindly obliged. Said dish (£7.95) tasted a little odd to me but then I’m not used to ordering chicken livers, with their chalky, chewy texture but she liked it well enough, although again, she said it lacked fire and ultimately needed more of a kick.

Drinks, including wine, lager and some soft beverages came to £16.25. That, with two portions of chips (£4.50), a garlic nann (£2.75) and two pilau rice (£2.75), brought the final bill to an entirely reasonable £65.40.

Curry houses come in all shapes and sizes and there are pros and cons to each but this one is doing a good job with its stock-in-trade, the service is excellent and the value for money is enviable.

The fact it was almost full throughout our visit is testimony to how popular it clearly is. They also do takeout, so what’s not to like?

BENGAL BRASSERIE, BURLEY ROAD

Address: 65 Haddon Rd, Leeds LS4 2JE

Opening times: Mon-Sat 5.30pm-11.30pm, Sunday 4pm-11pm (including bank holidays)

Contact: 0113 278 5556/0113 278 9656

Website: www.bengal-brasserie.com/leeds

Ratings:

Food ***

Value: ****

Atmosphere: ***

Service: ****