Bundobust, Mill Hill review: Why this kick-ass curry blows away the January blues

The answer to that is yes – and it comes in the form of the superb Indian street food at Bundobust.

The Mill Hill restaurant is just a couple of minutes’ walk from the station and, this being Friday, quite a few revellers were already taking two steps forward, one backwards and a couple sideways.

At just after noon the place was absolutely buzzing; the décor is vibrant and there’s a subtle scent of incense as you walk in to be greeted and seated.

The drill is that you order at the bar, which led to a bit of a wait as almost every table was taken. But it does give you a great excuse to check out the beers on offer.

Not only does it have its own Bundobust Brewery that makes beers designed to go perfectly with the food, there are also local collaborations such as with Northern Monk. It's difficult to imagine anything going better with your food than the Mango Lassi Dazzler – it was utterly perfect.

And the food… where to start? I’d ‘neglected’ to tell my guest that everything on the menu is vegetarian or vegan, to see if he noticed. He didn’t.

We had the combo for two plus a side order of okra fries and it was, in a word, sensational.

It’s street food so portions are roughly tapas sized; the platter for two has six dishes – we just dug in and shared the lot.

The vegetarian version comprised a couple of cold starter style dishes – mung bean chatpata and Bundo chaat, an intriguing mix of the crunchy, zesty, creamy and spicy. As it was a festive menu, there were also sprout bhajis to share – probably the best ever way to serve sprouts.

The paneer tikka kebabs were superb, generous chunks of chargrilled cheese with mushrooms and peppers, while the palak kofta was a modern take on a saag aloo – golden, crisp potato globes in a smooth spinach sauce.

The meat-loving guest polished off the majority of the festive dhal and rice, declaring it was difficult to believe it was vegan.

Meanwhile the okra fries were sensational – and a safe bet as they were delivered to practically every table in the restaurant.

There's also a vegan version of our combo, plus ones for four and one that includes the entire menu – you’d have to be seriously hungry to demolish that lot.

The only hiccup was that the order was allocated to the wrong table but after we queried it, things were swiftly put right.

The atmosphere was genial, the food superb and it was great value at £37 for our shared combo. And we’ll never look at a brussels sprout in the same way again.

FACT FILE

Address: 6 Mill Hill, Leeds

Tel 0113 243 1248

Open: Mon-Thurs noon-10:30pm; Fri-Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-9pm

Scores:

Food 9

Atmosphere 9

Service 7

Value 8