Horsforth Restaurant Guide

This “Headingley institution” has provided good-quality pasta, pizza and Sicilian specialities for almost 50 years. John & Gip Dammone were both awarded MBEs last summer, having spent their entire working lives at the restaurant their father Salvatore founded in 1976. They sold up in 2023, and the new owners are not making big changes.

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.

This “buzzy, busy” subcontinental started out here as a tiny 28-seater, but its waistline has expanded over the years in sync with what is now a ten-strong national chain (the most recent offshoot of which, opened in early 2024, is the flagship of Blackburn’s £50m Cultural Quarter). The “seriously yummy food” (“always cheers us up!”) features epic naans, baltis and a special section of old-school classics; if you can’t get enough of it, try the ‘Chef’s Challenges’: the quantitative ‘For the Big Man’ and qualitative ‘For the Brave’ (you face a plate ‘hotter than a dragon’s breath’). Breaking news… RIP the founder of the chain, Shabir Hussain, who passed away aged 56 in October 2024.

“Decent tapas for the price” – with “all the usual suspects (patatas bravas, padron peppers, tortilla, croquettas)” – win praise for this Hispanic quartet, now well into their second decade. These days the cooking is reckoned “competent”, if “not up to the earlier standards” – perhaps a reflection of improved competition. Top Menu Tip – “it’s worth checking out the vegetable dishes” (“with some left-field options for the adventurous; the beetroot with coffee was great!”)

This “very Gallic” and “traditional basement bistro” in the city’s financial district is just the job for schmoozing clients over a boozy lunch. Founded by Robert Chamberlain and Andrew Carter in 1991, “nothing has changed for many years” – “we weren’t there for business, but judging by the loud conversations around us there were plenty of others who were”.

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.

“Amazing Thai food that can be eaten in a tuk-tuk” awaits at this “buzzing and bright” street-food outfit – est. 2015, and now the flagship of a seven-strong northern chain. Recreating the atmosphere of Bangkok’s markets, there’s no shortage of choice on the menu (bao buns, curries, tom yam soup) while the atmosphere, as per the inspiration, is “hectic” (“and you can have to queue”).

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.

“Ambience is not key when you just want to stuff your face!” – you “just get a great dirty burger” at these tongue-in-cheek diners, whose signature offering is the ‘Dead Hippie’. Founded 16 years ago from the back of a truck by Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis, at the time a technician with the English National Ballet, it now has 15 London outlets and a national delivery operation.

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.