Food Review Distrikt

Ben Johnson samples Mediterranean tapas in the most obscure of locations

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You could quite easily walk past Distrikt without a moment’s notice. It is somewhat lodged in a forgotten basement on Duncan Street between Ace and Kiosk 78 and underneath (yes, underneath) the Rebecca Charles salon. In Leeds terms, it’s second only to the HiFi Club for obtaining a real sense of both obscurity and exclusivity - although at least the HiFi Club is on a main street, of sorts, whereas Distrikt is a side door on a road which leads nowhere.

I mention this merely to stress the importance of a strong location, particularly when choosing a sight for a restaurant, and why in some cases a good footfall is no substitute for a decent atmosphere. This is where Distrikt have hit the nail on the head - creating the sort of laid-back vibe which is both relaxing and contemporary. And not in a horribly oppressive and pretentious way, either - descend the winding stairs into the small basement and you’ll find well converted room with seated booths against white wash walls, ambient lighting and contemporary art, not to mention the cool buzz of hip sounds.

The DJ area and well stocked bar highlights just how hard this place must party when the evening hits, but we’re there to sample the bar’s leanings toward small lunchtime bites.

It’s a tentative toe in the water for a bar with big dreams of expanding their menu (look out soon for a ‘foraging’ menu specialising in locally sourced ingredients) and this also explains why it’s such great value for money - half price tapas on Tuesdays, Fish Day Fridays and Drink of the Week deals on Mondays.

The tapas selection isn’t broad enough to confuse a novice, unlike the selections at somewhere like La Tasca which is enough to bring out a bout of cold sweats. Instead, we have miniature dishes of keftedie meat balls and lovely, fruity spiced cous cous (£4), flavoured mushrooms on sour dough (£3), tasty risotto balls with red pepper and goats cheese (£3.50), and a fishy mix of baby squid and chorizo (£4). They serve open sandwiches, too - we go for a goats cheese, red pepper and rocket one (£4.50), served with lovely hand cut chips. The dishes are small but beautifully presented, and just enough for a lunchtime top up - not too much to have you convulsing over the keyboard, and not too light to have you nibbling on biscuits until the end of the day.

Particularly if you go for a dessert, which we strongly recommend - particularly the roasted strawberries which are a delight (if clearly not foraged from anywhere locally that we can think of), and the crackling, battered delight of pineapple fritters, served with a devilish Kanua cream (£2). Whoever’s running the show here clearly knows their food, and there is something pleasingly ambitious about the way the different flavours are cunningly put together and presented - almost as if despite the venue’s small stature and off-the-beaten-track location, there are plans afoot for Distrikt to stamp a certain authority on Leeds’ food market, far above and beyond any other new bar that we can think of.

How on earth this pans out will be anyone’s guess, but we very much look forward to seeing this place develop into the next decade.

Posted on Monday 7th December 2009

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