Leeds Kirkgate Market kitchen marks a decade of serving fantastic flavours from around the world
Have you tried the Market Kitchen yet?
A hugely popular eating spot in Leeds city centre is celebrating a decade of serving delicious dishes to customers.
The Market Kitchen street food hall in Kirkgate Market first opened in Leeds in June 2016 as part of a £14m investment into the market by Leeds City Council.
Ten years on, the dining destination has become a place for independent businesses to thrive and many of the original market vendors are still trading today.
The Market Kitchen is known for offering a mouth-watering array of cuisines, including Vietnamese, Indian, Turkish and Jamaican, as well as fish and chips and Yorkshire pudding wraps, each from their colourfully-decorated units.
Manjit Kaur, owner of vegetarian Indian café Manjit’s Kitchen, said her business is “honoured” to be one of the Market Kitchen’s first vendors.
Manjit said: “We are incredibly proud to have traded at Leeds Kirkgate Market for the past ten years.”
My mum worked here when I was a child, and I spent many hours here growing up. Now, as an adult, I’ve spent lots of my working life here too. It’s a very special part of the city and an important asset to Leeds.
“Kirkgate Market gives independent businesses the chance to start, thrive and grow.”
Mylinh Chiem, meanwhile runs Bánh & Mee Vietnamese Street Kitchen alongside her husband Sengy Tang, and she is thrilled that her business has brought Vietnamese flavours to Leeds.
“We started with a simple mission, which was to improve people’s lunch breaks,” Mylinh said.
“After 10 years and serving thousands of customers weekly, we think we have succeeded in bringing a taste of Vietnam to our little corner of Leeds Kirkgate Market.”
Other long-serving vendors at the Market Kitchen include Fat Annie’s, Istanbul Bakery, Jenny’s Jerk Chicken, Mr Mackerel, Teapot and The Yorkshire Wrap Company.
Beginning with nine units, the eating spot has proved popular from the start with a full occupancy since day one.
In 2019, three new units were added, and a further five units on the periphery of the Market Kitchen area have also been repurposed for use by food-to-go vendors.
Connected to the Market Kitchen is an events space that also opened in 2016 which hosted more than 270 events, including record fairs, food festivals and cultural celebrations last year.
Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s deputy leader and executive member for economy, said: “Leeds Kirkgate Market is an historic and much-loved part of life in our city and, as a council, we have been determined to give it the investment it deserves.
“The opening of the Market Kitchen and the adjoining event space in 2016 was a great example of the transformational impact such support can have.
“A decade on, it’s fantastic to see the Market Kitchen thriving and its various independent businesses getting the rave reviews merited by their talent and hard work.
“The event space has been another big success, bringing people and communities together and reminding them that Leeds Kirkgate Market is a place that belongs to the whole city.”
The council’s commitment to the market has been further underlined in recent times by the soon-to-be completed £10m refurbishment of its 19th-century ‘blockshops’ area.
A planning application has also been submitted for STACK Leeds, a ‘container-style’ leisure attraction proposed for part of the market’s outdoor section.
If approved, STACK Leeds’s food, drink and entertainment offer would complement the Market Kitchen and, it is anticipated, increase footfall and broaden the customer base across the whole market site.