By Helen Fay. Photos: Helen Fay & Andy Parnham
Last Friday evening (26 October) saw the grand opening of the Bagaara restaurant in Armley. We were fortunate enough to be there to celebrate the event and have a meal there.
Proprietors Ganapathi, Reddy and Kiran were there overseeing the opening night and extending a warm welcome to their customers.
The restaurant, at 1 Stocks Hill, is housed in the old Midland/ HSBC Bank building and has been operating a take-away service for some time.
The owners have fully refurbished the building to a high standard and the premises have been tastefully decorated. There is a main dining area downstairs with seating booths and tables plus a feature log effect fireplace just below a window through which the chefs can be seen working in the kitchen. There is also a mezzanine upper dining area which is bedecked in lights and colourful umbrellas.
Now to the main part – the food. There was an extensive and varied menu with a wide range of options at reasonable prices. We chose the seekh kebab, onion bhajis and popadams to share for our starter. The bhajis were deliciously crispy and tasty and the popodams were accompanied by mint and chutney dips – the perfect way to start our meal.
For the main course, I opted for the butter chicken with a side of pilau rice and my partner had the chettinadu chicken with bagaara rice. Both dishes were excellent and tasty, though on reflection we decided that on our next visit we would share one rice dish between us as the portions were very generous.
The staff were welcoming and very attentive and the restaurant had a relaxing and friendly atmosphere.
We will definitely be returning for future visits and highly recommend the venue to others. Bagaara is a very welcome addition to Armley and brings a much-needed boost to the area. Bagaara is open seven days a week until 10pm Sunday to Thursday and until 11pm on Friday and Saturday.
Further information and contact details can be found on the website at www.bagaara.co.uk.