Bengal Brasserie was jam-packed with diners for a Sunday evening, the well-known Burley restaurant was full of the sound of chatter and bustling waiters.
This is not surprising as the Haddon Road restaurant is one of four iterations of the curry houses across Yorkshire. The family-run Yorkshire chain first opened in York, and it also has eateries in Wetherby, Roundhay and Merrion Way.
The Haddon Road Restaurant was crowned Best Restaurant of the Year 2021 at the Curry Life Awards. Needless to say, it boasts a lofty reputation for good curry and atmosphere.
Read more: We try the new takeaway bringing 'mega hot blow your mind off' spice to Leeds
As we entered the restaurant was full, the front door was almost bursting with all activities going on. I had a sneaky suspicion this may be partly due to the restaurant’s Sunday Buffet, which comes at the very reasonable price of £12.50 which comes with starter and an unlimited range of main courses.
I had been tempted to order from the buffet special myself but when I looked over at the platter, the buffet table looked quite sad as if the silver globular metal containers were drooping rather pitifully. There wasn’t much activity around the buffet table, it looked rather lonely in the corner.
We’d booked ahead but our table wasn’t quite free yet, so a very friendly waiter called Danny offered us each a half pint of lager for free while we waited to make up for the inconvenience. Plus he seemed happy to do it, the customer service was simply exceptional.
The waiter taking our orders was called Shah and he was quite the character, a lovely chap who was making all sorts of recommendations about the dishes and offering several free items. We had a lot of good banter with him as we made our order with a lot of consideration and deliberation, there was so much, it must have been a slightly painstaking experience for Shah.
After we’d had our poppadoms which came with a generous platter of sauces, we were each served our starters. My chicken liver tikka was really delicate and rich with flavour as it was marinated in herbs and spices, plus I was given an ample portion. My dinner guest also had nothing but good words to say about the salmon tikka.
We shared a portion of onion bhajis, which is stable order any time I visit a curry house. They came as a trio and had a fine crisp outer layer and a moist texture within.
For my main, Shah recommended the Rezalla curry, a Bengal special dish, which I asked to have adapted to contain King Prawns. He was more than happy to do so. He told me it had a sweet taste with a slightly spicy kick.
The menu says it is cooked with a special tamarind sauce with green chillies. It certainly was sweet and very tasty, it went down very easily. However it was too mild for my liking, it needed a slight boost of spice to really elevate the dish. I regret not being braver and going for the Jalfrezi dish. The portion was massive, lots of prawns in there.
They also offer ‘healthy options’ on the menu without any excess oils, and they kindly agreed to make the salmon tikka main in that style for my dinner companion. Every step of the way they were happy to help.
Our sides were also good quality, Shah chucked in Chana Bhaji for free as he could see I was weighing up the decision of whether to get one. We also tried the kulcha naan which was ample in size and had a decent array of vegetables within.
After we’d finished our meal, Shah kept plying us with free drinks. He gave us each a Baby Guinness shot, and even offered us each a whisky and a sambuca shot after we'd paid the bill.
Terrific service, I look forward to visiting again.
The bill
- Liver tikka - £4.50
- Salmon tikka - £5.95
- Onion bhajis - £3.95
- Poppadoms (x2) and sauces £4.90
- Two beers - £8
- Salmon tikka main - £14.95
- King prawn Rezela - £10.50
- Mushroom bhaji - £4.25
- Pilau rice - £3.45
- Kulcha naan - £3.75
- Total: £64.20
Read next:
- We try 'best-rated takeaway' in Morley near Leeds to see if it lives up to the hype
- We tried new Leeds Wetherspoon with massive portions of food, cheap prices and lots of people
- Meatliquor review: We tried the Leeds burger named one of the best in the UK
- Sing Sing Bakery review: We tried one of the best rated Leeds takeaways on Deliveroo
- Divine new bar and street food restaurant brings something exciting to Leeds
