After telling you about the Bundobust Euros menu at the beginning of last month, I just had to go and give it a try. Following the close shave on Sunday evening I thought that I might be too late, but, thanks to Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, we still have an active interest in the competition, so off I went.
Speaking of competition, I will set you one. No prizes other than your chance to glow in the knowledge that you are a smart arse. I will show you a picture of the dishes I sampled and want you to rate them in order of spiciness.
Top left is the Gobi Wingers, on the right is the Hot Bundog, and at the front we have the Vindaloo Pie. I will give you the answer in the body of the piece so no use in scrolling to the bottom!
There are five items on the menu, but, being familiar with Bundo portions, I cut my samples down to the thee above. The missing pair are Mogo Panenka Chips, which are on the normal menu so you might be familiar with them anyway and the Fat Les, which is the Vindaloo Pie in a Pav.
If you are with mates there is a Euro Combo comprising Hot Bundog, Gobi Wingers, Mogo Panenka Chips, Vada Pav, Bhajis and Smacked Khakri. It is a snip at £34 and, should that not be enough you can add a Vindaloo Pie for another £6. Hey, it might go to extra time and penalties.
To accompany the food, there is a special beer which has been produced by Bundobust Brewery, called Shynee. It is £6 for a pint being a pleasant English hopped lager and at 4%, not too dangerous. Again, if you are in a group, you can get a 3 litre tower of this brew, Python or Peela for £30. Now that’s a bargain, although you do have to dispense it yourself. For the more genteel drinker there is the Half-Time Orange cocktail, comprising tequila, triple sec, and Aperol chaser with a segment of spiced orange. They would have been served during the break in the dressing room back in the time of Greaves and Best.
I don’t think I should have drunk it before I took the photograph. Never spilt a drop!
Now, back to the nosh.
The first dish I sampled was the Gobi Wingers, cauliflower coated in garlic, ginger, chilli and curry leaf, before being deep fried to crispy perfection and served with lemon-gochujang dipping sauce.
Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables so I sampled the winger on its own. The coating added a wonderful texture to the contents, as well as a spicy, if very mild flavour. The cauliflower had been done to perfection, retaining its firmness.
As for the dipping sauce, that’s another story. A generous dunking of my second bite revealed it to be pretty high up there in the heat table. It wasn’t so hot that it masked the subtlety of the brassica but it had a real good try. A second, more careful dip confirmed that the two elements worked well together, so, lesson learned I filed the experience in my memory cabinet and moved on to the Vindaloo Pie.
The press release from which I wrote my preview reassured me that, although being filled with vegetable vindaloo, the taste was not as overpowering as the name might suggest. Far from being the typical go-to option in the curry house taken by someone who wanted to prove his masculinity after a drinking session, this was very subtle and came as much of a shock to me as had the dipping sauce, but in the polar opposite way.
The creation is a combination of Great North Pie Co’s pastry and Bundobust’s filling. The former was soft and buttery and the whole melange superb. Had you been served this anywhere other than in an Indian restaurant, you would not have guessed its origin. The topping of mushy ragda (white peas) reinforced this impression.
My mind flashed back to the first experience, which began with a benign main component and then caught me unawares, so I poured the desi gravy, which was served in a separate pot, sparingly over a small section of the pie. I’m not as stupid as people give me credit for, well, maybe a bit. To my amazement, this was also very mild and lived up to its description as a gravy rather than a curry sauce. I then proceeded to add the rest of the contents of the pot to the dish.
You will have guessed by now that this turned out to be the mildest plate of the three, so, what was number one.
No match is complete without a hot dog and here we had the veggie version, the Hot Bundog. The ‘sausage’ is made from soy and mushroom masala and served in a brioche bun. It is topped with onions, obviously, which had been caramelised as well as some of a more crispy consistency.
When buying a conventional hot dog I am always torn between adding mustard or tomato ketchup as they both work really well, so I was pleased to see that a decision here was not required as both had been, applied. Being Bundobust, and this a meal full of surprises, the red sauce was chilli ketchup and the other, curry mustard.
I now declare the winner of the hottest dish to be – drum roll – the Hot Bundog!. In the couple of seconds taken in grabbing a napkin to wipe the ketchup and mustard from my top lip after my first bite, I was assaulted by an enormous heat hit. My mouth went numb and the tears, and nose, began to flow. This is not an option for the faint-hearted, but more a choice for the chap who felt totally let down by the vindaloo being so mild. If I thought that the dipping sauce had a kick, this was in a class above. As already observed, the condiments had been applied before the dog was served, so I can’t blame myself this time. Well, actually I can, because in contradiction to the previous claim regarding my stupidity, I decided to test whether the first mouthful had immunised me against the effects of the toppings, so I took another, somewhat smaller, nibble. Although not quite so nuclear in its effect, the heat was still there, but somehow a faint taste of the sausage came through and it didn’t seem quite so bad, perhaps the shock value was not present, along with the part of my nervous system controlling my mouth.
I am back to the theme of competition here, as the experience reminded me of Man v Food, the American television programme in which a competitive eater, originally Adam Richman, whose ancestors happen to be from Leeds, accepts challenges from various restaurants, usually based on heat or quantity, to clear a plate of victuals. Because the three samples provided were so ample, and the third also so piquant, in this episode Food won, and I found myself reluctantly unable to eat up. No dessert for me then.
The main restaurant
Should you wish to call in just to try the special menu, or even the conventional one, you are more than welcome to do so, it is on sale until 14th July. The remaining matches in the tournament will be shown on television screens in the back room of the restaurant with an entrance fee of £5. This, however, includes the price of a pint so, in effect, you are being paid a quid to watch the game. After the dismal England performances so far, I am not sure as to how much of a bargain that is. Booking is essential.
The viewing room.
All that there is left for me to do is make a prediction about the outcome of the tournament, as has everybody else who doesn’t know what they are talking about. I have no wish to be unpatriotic but I harbour a sneaky fancy for our next opponents, Switzerland. They are on a roll at the moment so expect the odd jammy goal, and, if they lake as well as they have been doing, they could be mountain the winner’s rostrum in the Final.
Back to you in the studio, Gary.
For all bookings, whether for the games or not, please go to https://bundobust.com/locations/leeds/
All photographs by Stan Graham
Tyke It To The Limit 