Manchester’s best seafood restaurants
13 Sep 2024
13 Sep 2024
How Bundobust has become one of Manchester's most popular breweries
The Bundobust Brewery is located in the St James Building on Oxford Road. The owners had the hard task of opening the brewery in the midst of the pandemic. Yet, it has been very successful. It’s a 150-seater taproom and restaurant, but with a marvellous brewery tucked inside. Part of the success has come by captivating people’s curiosity through a unique crossover between Indian street food and Mancunian craft beer. The Bundobust Brewery opened in 2021, but the team has a few restaurants which have been open for longer. It all started when co-founders Mayur Patel (whose family ran the famous Indian restaurant, Prashad) and Marko Husak (who ran the Sparrow Bier Café in Bradford) met. Starting with pop-up events in 2013 before the duo’s first establishment in 2014, they have not stopped moving forwards since. With eateries in Leeds, Liverpool and in the Piccadilly area in Manchester, they have established a solid and respectable reputation across these Northern cities. But why is Bundobust so loved? This is what we decided to find out.
A unique blend
Bundobust has created a place where Indian street food and beer lovers come together. By establishing the brewery, it has been able to make its own craft beer that is made to taste even better with the Indian street food on offer. In addition, the collaborations – whether it’s to do with the merch or beer – are extremely innovative and make people feel a sense of significance when in this fabulous brewery.
The food
As it came first, we’ll talk about the Indian and vegetarian street food of Bundobust before the brilliant beer. If you feel like you need some food, but not exactly one large dish, Bundobust certainly has you covered. Providing 19 options on the main food section, there are many high-quality choices to pick and choose from. The menu is very flexible as it works for many different situations. Ranging from £2.75 to £7.15, there is lots of flexibility in prices too, which is a very good thing for customers who can’t spend much. One option includes the superb smacked khakri, which includes cucumber, quick-pickle with lemon, garlic, chilli, and black salt. From crispy onion, kale, and broccoli bhajis, to sweetcorn chevdo and okra fries, there are plenty of lovely sharing snacks here.
But there is a lot more than that. There are too many dishes to mention, however here are some of our favourites! As we love dhal, we must recommend the Tarka Dhal. We can’t forget the beautiful Bhaji Butty or the Raghda Pethis (potato cake with spiced mushy peas, sev, tomato, onion, and tamarind chutney) either, as both combine the North of England with Indian cuisine. Lastly, we cannot forget the Paneer Kadai as paneer is one of our favourite cheeses in the world! Cooked in red pepper and tomato sauce with cinnamon and fenugreek, then served with bhatura, it is the dish for cheese lovers.
Bundobust also do combos. For example, the combo for two includes six dishes at £31 altogether. If there is a large group of you, definitely get the Bundo Combo which feeds roughly six people and provides you with every dish on the money, except the Bhaji Butty all for £100! Divided by six, this comes to about £16.66 each, which is very cheap for all the dishes you get. Especially as this allows you try almost everything on the food menu.
Special shout out to their beer snacks as well. Far Far, which are multicoloured rice puffs, spicy nuts, popadoms and popcorn are fantastic snacks to have whilst drinking the creative craft beers.
The beer
Now imagine all that wonderful food, but with exclusive craft beer. Well, you don’t have to imagine because all you need to do is pop down to the brewery! There are many beers to select from, but here are some of our favourites. Firstly, there is a classic hazy pale ale, the Peela, which is brewed gorgeously with Azacca and Ekuanot hops to give it a tropical flavour. Secondly, the Chaitro, Nitro Chai Porter is a wonderfully unique beer made with roast malts, chai massala, and fresh ginger. Lastly, the brewery’s also made its own versions of a Kellerbier, West Coast IPA, Vienna lager and New England IPA, leaving beer loves spoilt for choice.
Innovative ideas
One thing to love about Bundobust is its unique collaborations. The team here has partnered up with some of the best breweries about to make fantastic beers. For example, the Impromptu Ladder Convention – a hazy pale ale – was made with Thornbridge. There are a few other beer collaborations as well, such as the New Delhi Dazzler produced with Northern Monk and many more are expected to come.
But the beer is not where the thinking outside the box stops. The uniform is created by Universal Works via HIP, who the team has a good relationship with since opening the first restaurant in Leeds. Not only that, but Bundobust now has a collection called ‘future friendship’, which you can have a look at through HIP and Universal Works.
Finally, there is the limited time partnership with Meatless Farm. In January this year, Bundobust added some extra dishes that are plant-based meat options, adding to the vegan food variety. It means the talented kitchen can create vegan versions of meat-based Indian traditional dishes, such as butter chicken.
Bundobust is full of ideas, symbolised most by the brewery. What’s exciting is to think what the guys will come up with next. It is their knack for innovating and developing, whilst providing people with a fun and friendly atmosphere, that attracts so many people here.
