A Limited-Edition Menu Inspired by Kolkata’s Chinatown Market
It’s Friday evening in Leeds and Bundobust on Mill Hill feels exactly as it should, alive.
There’s a hum before you even step fully inside. Cocktail shakers rattle behind the bar, craft beers pour steadily into branded glasses, and long communal tables fill with groups leaning into the end of the working week. The walls are bare in that deliberate, almost shabby-chic way. The lighting is warm. The chatter constant. It’s order-at-the-bar dining, no table service theatre here, and the rhythm of it all feels social, democratic, energetic.
Bundobust has always traded on this vibe. Since 2014 they’ve built a reputation as the OG Indian street food and craft beer bar, casual, loud, unpretentious. But this visit wasn’t about the core menu. It was about something temporary. Something limited.
Indo-Chinese Flavours Done the Bundobust Way
Their seventh Indo-Chinese special menu, launched to coincide with Chinese New Year, inspired by the fusion flavours of Tiretta Bazaar, Kolkata’s Chinatown market, and the culinary exchange that once travelled the Silk Road.
The eternal dilemma: Indian or Chinese?
Bundobust’s answer is simple. Why choose?
Indo-Chinese cuisine smashes together bold Desi spice with deep umami richness. It’s hugely popular across India and already represented on Bundobust’s main menu through their long-standing fan favourite, Gobi Manchurian. But for five weeks only, they’ve expanded the concept into a full limited-edition line-up.
And so we ordered everything.
Not selectively. Not cautiously. Everything.
The evening began with beer, and this matters. Bundobust’s craft selection is genuinely strong. For around £20 per head, you could easily have a beer, a curry and a side dish, which in central Leeds feels entirely reasonable. The rice lager brewed specifically to balance the menu’s spice sits lightly and cleanly against the boldness of what follows.
The Standout Dishes That Defined the Evening
Then the food began to land.
Salt & Pepper Okra Fries arrived first and immediately set the tone. Crisp, fiery, flecked with chilli and onion, they were deeply moreish, the kind of plate that disappears faster than intended. They carry that “Chinese chippy meets Indian street food” energy brilliantly. If one dish encapsulates what Bundobust does best, it’s this: punchy, snackable, sociable.
From there, the flavours layered.
The Gobi Toast, pav bread topped with garlic and ginger cauliflower, finished with a sesame crust, proved equally compelling. But what elevated it was the Schezwan mayo. Creamy, spicy, unapologetically bold. It’s one of those additions that shifts a dish from good to memorable.
Across the table, Bhutta 65 quietly won hearts. Babycorn pakoras coated in a Kashmiri chilli sauce, balanced by yoghurt and curry leaf. My daughter adored it, the sweetness of the corn cutting through the spice perfectly. It’s playful, confident and completely at home in a social setting like this.
The Gobi Manchurian, meanwhile, remains Bundobust’s Indo-Chinese anchor. Umami-heavy, coated in a savoury-hot sauce that nods firmly to its Kolkata roots, it feels the most resolved of the line-up. For me, this was the highlight, the dish that best embodies the Indo-Chinese fusion they’re celebrating.
Elsewhere, Egg Fried Rice and Miso Kheera, a smashed cucumber salad with chilli and sesame, added balance. Freshness. Texture. Heat and cool in equal measure. The Manchow Momo Soup, created in collaboration with Tofoo, brought a welcome punch of hot-and-sour comfort.
And yet.
Where the Menu Shines and Where It Doesn’t
None of the curries themselves left me craving more. They’re enjoyable. They work perfectly alongside beer. But they don’t have the layered depth or slow-burn complexity that makes you think about them days later. They sit comfortably within the experience, not above it.
But perhaps that’s the point.
Bundobust isn’t trying to be a traditional Indian restaurant. It’s not positioning itself as a quiet temple to sauce depth and culinary reverence. It’s a beer hall. A social canteen. A street scene transplanted into Leeds city centre.
There is, undeniably, an element of style here. Bright branding. Big flavours. Limited-edition buzz. But style doesn’t necessarily mean substance is absent, it simply means the substance exists within the context of energy rather than introspection.
Is Bundobust Leeds Worth Visiting for the Indo-Chinese Specials?
Would I go out of my way purely for the curries? Probably not.
Would I return on a lively Friday evening for Salt & Pepper Okra, Gobi Toast, a couple of well-chosen craft beers and the hum of a packed Leeds crowd? Absolutely.
Bundobust’s Indo-Chinese menu runs for five weeks only, served alongside their regular offering. It’s playful, vibrant and a clever nod to Kolkata’s Chinatown and the enduring appetite for culinary fusion.
More than anything, it’s fun.
And sometimes, on a Friday night, that’s exactly what you want.
