The Best South Indian Restaurant In Leeds

No exaggeration, the new Kerala Canteen in Leeds, opened just six months ago by pioneering Masterchef quarter finalist and culinary consultant, Bobby Geetha, is not only the best South Indian restaurant in Leeds but I’d go as far as to say, the best in the whole of the UK! Truly.

Layers and layers of authentic Kerala flavours, delicate spices and seasonings and seasonal, local produce appears to be the winning culinary equation which goes into Bobby’s moorish tapas, curry bowls and biryani masterpieces. Bobby’s unique and tastebud-exploding interpretations of traditional dishes are so good, I could eat there every day!

Feast your eyes on this…feast!

Cleverly influenced by the Spanish style of eating, and meze too, when it comes to us Greeks, this collaborative, shareable experience of tapas plates to start, allows you to taste a little bit of everything followed by a sumptuous curry and/or biryani dish with carby sides, leaving you full and content, but not bursting from the seams of your jeans (which is always a welcome relief here).

The restaurant decor is just as impressive as the food too. Look at this exquisite decor which transports you to Kerala under the moonlight!

 

Kerala Canteen offers you an elevated, fine dining yet relaxed, child-friendly experience without the huge price tags you’d expect from such an outstanding, and beautifully Instagrammable restaurant.

We must have tried everything on the menu thanks to Bobby’s generosity with every tapas plate, curry and biryani dish plus dessert to follow, we sampled, prompting us to audibly ‘oooh’ and ‘aargh’ at how delicious everything was. My kids loved it all too and gobbled up the rice and wholewheat flatbreads along with the curries before we had even had chance to photograph them! I’m following a low carb diet and there was SO much for me to eat on my diet which can be rare with other restaurants!

We devoured the below which collectively knocked our socks off:

Crispy Curry Leaf Calamari 
Lightly coated calamari with curry mayonnaise.

Chilli and Tamarind Cauliflower.
Fried cauliflower tossed in a light chilli tamarind sauce.

Trivandrum Fried Chicken 
Lightly spiced recipe from Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala with fried garlic yoghurt.

King Prawn and Courgette Masala. Tail on King prawns tossed in a spiced onion tomato.

So much flavour, texture and taste in every plate!

Salmon and Green Mango Curry. 
Skin on salmon in a lightly spiced Kerala village curry cooked with green mango.

Kovalam Beef Brisket Biriyani.
Kovalam is an international beach tourist destination in Kerala, famous for its beef biriyani. This aromatic recipe is slow cooked, locally sourced beef Brisket combined with short grain karma rice.

Whole-wheat flatbread cooked in a griddle, brushed with clarified butter and grated cheese. Premium basmati rice (not photographed due to the kids’ greed!)

Dubai Chocolate Cheesecake and Gulab Jamun.
Dubai’s expat population majority is from Kerala and this dessert is dedicated to them. Baked vanilla cheesecake, warm gulab jamun (round, sweet sponge) and berry sauce.

What a showstopper!

Kerala Canteen truly sets the bar for South Indian food in Leeds, in the UK and worldwide. Wow.

Situated next to the Leeds Playhouse, it’s perfect for a pre-theatre dinner or a family lunch or early dinner.

This was a complimentary meal but as always, my words are honest.