De Baga Chapel Allerton review - our favourite Indian restaurant in Leeds

We're calling it. De Baga is officially our favourite Indian restaurant in Leeds.

We've visited the Chapel Allerton restaurant and every single time, the food is exceptional. Add in brilliant cocktails, a lovely team and a menu where deciding what not to order is genuinely difficult, and it's somewhere we find ourselves wanting to return to again and again.

De Baga specialises in modern Indian dining, bringing together Goan and regional Indian dishes with its own contemporary take. The original restaurant opened in Headingley in 2019, followed by its Chapel Allerton location in 2022, so North Leeds is very well covered.

Our advice? Start with the Crispy Corn Chaat.

It sounds like such a simple thing, but it might be one of the nicest things on the entire menu. Crispy, salty, spicy and completely addictive, once you start picking at it you genuinely cannot stop. Get some poppadoms and chutneys alongside and you've already started the meal very, very well.

Then come the starters, and this is where ordering restraint becomes almost impossible.

The Nepali Chicken Momos are an absolute must. Little dumplings packed with beautifully seasoned chicken, they're one of those dishes that disappears from the table almost immediately.

We also had the Chilli Paneer, which was another standout. Sticky, spicy, sweet and packed with flavour, it's exactly the sort of dish that gets passed around the table and is suddenly gone before you've managed to go back for another piece.

Then there's the sizzler.

De Baga currently runs a Sizzler + Drink Deal for £30 from Sunday to Thursday, and it's such a good way to try a bit of everything.

Ours arrived at the table still sizzling and loaded with lamb, chicken and fish, alongside Masala Fries and, crucially, the Garlic Cheese Naan. If you're heading down as a bigger group, there's also currently a Sizzler for 4 deal with a drink each for £55.

And we need to talk about that naan...

Hot, fluffy, garlicky and absolutely loaded with cheese, it's ridiculous. Tear a piece off, add a bit of whatever is left on the sizzler and thank us later.

The Masala Fries deserve their moment too. Crispy fries covered in spice alongside all that grilled meat and cheesy naan is exactly the sort of table we want in front of us on a Friday night.

The cocktails are another reason we love coming here. This isn't somewhere where the drinks feel like an afterthought. They're properly made, genuinely good and make De Baga just as suited to a Friday night dinner with friends as a midweek meal.

And whatever you do, save room for dessert.

If we see gulab jamun on a menu, we're ordering it, and De Baga did it so well. Warm, sticky, syrup-soaked sponge balls arrive with cold vanilla ice cream, and the combination is unreal. Hot against cold, sweet, soft and completely indulgent, it might genuinely be one of the nicest desserts we've ever had.

We'd go back for the gulab jamun alone.

What makes De Baga even easier to love is the team. Everyone is warm, welcoming and genuinely lovely, and there's a relaxed atmosphere that makes you want to settle in, order another cocktail and keep the evening going.

With restaurants in both Chapel Allerton and Headingley, De Baga has become a bit of a North Leeds gem.

There are plenty of brilliant Indian restaurants across Leeds, but when someone asks us where we'd choose right now, this is our answer.

Crispy Corn Chaat, Chilli Paneer, momos, a table-filling sizzler, Garlic Cheese Naan and that gulab jamun to finish.

De Baga, we'll see you again very soon.