Some restaurants begin with a business plan.
Kerala Canteen began with memories.
The smell of curry leaves hitting hot oil.
Fresh coconut being grated in the kitchen.
Black pepper, ginger and spices being crushed.
Porotta being torn apart and dipped into curry.
Fish and seafood from Kerala’s coast.
Family meals where several dishes were placed in the middle of the table and everyone shared.
For Bobby Geetha, these weren’t exotic ingredients or restaurant trends.
They were the flavours of home.
Years later, after a career that took him from Kerala into professional kitchens, international hospitality, MasterChef UK and BBC Great British Menu representing Yorkshire & Humber, those memories would help inspire a restaurant in Leeds.
That restaurant became Kerala Canteen.
This is our journey.
It Starts in Kerala
Kerala is a narrow tropical state on India’s south-western coast, between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats.
Its landscape tells you a lot about its food.
There is seafood from the coast.
Coconut from the tropical lowlands.
- Rice.
- Tamarind.
- Ginger.
- Curry leaves.
And extraordinary spices grown and traded through a region historically associated with India’s Spice Coast.
Black pepper and cardamom helped connect Kerala with international traders for centuries.
But Kerala cuisine isn’t important to us because of history books.
It’s important because it’s the food we know.
- The food of families.
- The food of celebrations.
- The food of everyday life.
And that distinction became important when we began thinking about Kerala Canteen.
Indian Food Is Not One Cuisine
Ask someone in Britain to picture Indian food and certain dishes will probably come to mind.
- Naan.
- Tikka masala.
- Korma.
- Pilau rice.
They’re part of Britain’s extraordinary relationship with Indian food.
But they represent only a tiny part of what India eats.
Travel across India and the food changes enormously.
- Different grains.
- Different breads.
- Different spices.
- Different cooking fats.
- Different vegetables.
- Different attitudes towards meat and seafood.
- Different techniques.
Even neighbouring communities can have completely different culinary traditions.
We wanted Kerala Canteen to contribute to the next chapter of Indian dining in Britain:
The discovery of regional India.
From Kerala to Professional Kitchens
Bobby Geetha’s journey took the flavours of his childhood into professional kitchens and international hospitality.
Working as a chef changes the way you look at food.
Childhood teaches you what something should feel and taste like.
Professional kitchens teach you how to reproduce that experience consistently.
- Technique.
- Organisation.
- Produce.
- Presentation.
- Timing.
- Systems.
Those two worlds eventually came together.
The objective wasn’t to abandon traditional Indian cooking in favour of something fashionable.
It was to ask:
How can we take the food memories of Kerala and present them confidently in a modern British restaurant?
Then Came MasterChef UK
Appearing on MasterChef UK gave Bobby Geetha an opportunity to present his style of Indian cooking to a much wider audience.
But the journey didn’t stop there.
It continued into one of Britain’s best-known celebrations of professional cooking.
BBC Great British Menu.
Representing Yorkshire & Humber on Great British Menu
When Bobby Geetha competed on BBC Great British Menu representing Yorkshire & Humber, the philosophy behind his cooking was straightforward:
Combine outstanding produce from Yorkshire and the surrounding region with authentic Indian recipes, spices and techniques.
That idea became extremely important.
Because by this point, Yorkshire wasn’t simply where Bobby worked.
It had become part of his culinary identity.
Kerala was home.
Yorkshire was home too.
Why should a chef have to choose between them?
Kerala Soul. Yorkshire Produce.
That question eventually became part of the philosophy behind Kerala Canteen.
We didn’t want to open another restaurant that simply reproduced dishes diners could already find everywhere.
And we didn’t want to take Kerala recipes and remove their personality in an attempt to make them “Western.”
We wanted to do something much simpler:
Respect Kerala. Respect Yorkshire.
Use the flavours, recipes and memories of Kerala.
Work with excellent British and Yorkshire produce.
Then allow the two cultures to meet naturally.
We describe it simply:
Kerala in flavour. Yorkshire at heart.
Why Leeds?
Leeds is a city that understands food.
It’s diverse, energetic and increasingly curious about regional cuisines.
It has students arriving from across the world, a large professional community, an exciting cultural scene and diners who aren’t afraid to try something different.
For us, Leeds was exactly the kind of city where a modern Kerala restaurant could make sense.
Not Kerala food hidden behind a generic Indian menu.
Kerala proudly written above the door.
Why We Created Kerala Tapas
Traditional Indian family dining already has a strong culture of sharing.
Several dishes arrive.
They’re placed in the middle.
Everyone tries everything.
That social experience became part of the thinking behind Kerala tapas.
The word “tapas” makes the concept immediately understandable to British diners:
Smaller plates. Order several. Put them in the middle. Share.
But the flavours remain rooted in Kerala and South India.
It’s particularly useful if you’ve never experienced Kerala food before.
You don’t have to gamble your entire dinner on one unfamiliar curry.
Try a few things.
Discover what you love.
Order another.
Trivandrum Fried Chicken: A Dish with a Story
One of Kerala Canteen’s signature dishes is our Trivandrum Fried Chicken.
Trivandrum — officially Thiruvananthapuram — is Bobby Geetha’s hometown.
So the name isn’t something invented by a marketing department.
It connects the restaurant directly back to Kerala.
For a first-time diner, fried chicken is familiar.
But the seasoning takes you somewhere else.
That’s exactly the kind of bridge we like creating.
Something you recognise. A flavour you don’t.
Crispy Curry Leaf Calamari: Kerala’s Coast on a Small Plate
Kerala has a long coastline, so fish and seafood are fundamental to its food culture.
Curry leaves are equally important to the aroma of South Indian cooking.
Our Crispy Curry Leaf Calamari brings those two ideas together.
It’s simple enough to understand immediately, but the fragrance of curry leaves gives it a distinctive Kerala identity.
For many guests, it’s one of those dishes that opens the door to the cuisine.
Green Pepper Lamb Chop: A Taste of the Spice Coast
Kerala’s relationship with black pepper stretches back centuries.
The Malabar Coast became internationally famous for spices, with pepper playing a particularly important role in historic trade.
So when we serve our Green Pepper Lamb Chop, pepper isn’t simply seasoning.
It connects the dish with Kerala’s wider culinary story.
This is something we want diners to understand about Indian food:
Spiced doesn’t necessarily mean chilli-hot.
Spices can provide fragrance, warmth, acidity, bitterness, sweetness and extraordinary depth.
Beef & Bone Marrow Curry: Kerala Comfort Meets British Produce
Beef has a genuine place within sections of Kerala’s food culture, something that can surprise diners whose understanding of Indian food has been shaped by other regions.
Our Beef & Bone Marrow Curry brings together that Kerala tradition with the richness of bone marrow.
And there is one accompaniment we particularly recommend:
- Kerala porotta.
- Flaky.
- Layered.
Perfect for tearing apart and scooping up curry.
Sometimes a dish doesn’t need a complicated explanation.
Porotta and curry simply works.
Then Kerala Met the Yorkshire Pudding
If one creation captures the journey from Kerala to Yorkshire, it may be our Beef Curry Pie.
- Kerala-inspired beef curry.
- Yorkshire pudding.
- Mature cheddar.
It isn’t trying to pretend that Yorkshire pudding is traditional Kerala food.
Of course it isn’t.
The point is the conversation between two places.
The same thinking continues with our Kerala-inspired Sunday Roast, featuring curried T-bone steak served with a giant Yorkshire pudding.
For us, this isn’t “fusion” for the sake of being clever.
It’s biography on a plate.
Our Drinks Needed to Tell the Same Story
If Kerala Canteen’s food is inspired by India’s Spice Coast, why should the bar feel disconnected from the kitchen?
So we started looking at familiar cocktails through Kerala ingredients.
The result is a collection of spice-infused cocktails and mocktails.
Our Gunpowder & Turmeric Margarita takes a recognisable classic and introduces turmeric and gunpowder masala salt.
The Tender Coconut & Ginger Mojito brings together coconut water, ginger and mint.
Our Hibiscus & Jaggery Old Fashioned gives a whisky classic a Kerala-inspired direction.
And the Canteen Star introduces ginger and jaggery into a tropical, passion-fruit-led drink.
The philosophy remains the same:
Don’t destroy the classic. Give it another identity.
Kerala Canteen Isn’t About Westernising Indian Food
This distinction matters to us.
Modern Indian food doesn’t need to mean making Indian food less Indian.
We’re not interested in removing spice, simplifying every recipe or disguising regional ingredients because we’re worried someone might find them unfamiliar.
We would rather explain them.
Let someone discover curry leaves.
Tell them why Kerala uses coconut.
Explain why pepper matters.
Show them what porotta is.
Encourage them to try dosa.
Then let the food do the rest.
Because the more British diners understand regional Indian cuisine, the less Indian restaurants need to hide its diversity.
Affordable Premium Dining
Great cooking shouldn’t automatically mean formality.
Kerala Canteen’s ambition has been to create what we describe as Affordable Premium Dining.
That means taking the cooking seriously:
- Quality produce.
- Authentic flavour.
- Professional technique.
- Thoughtful presentation.
- Good drinks.
- Warm hospitality.
But creating an environment where guests can return regularly rather than saving the restaurant exclusively for special occasions.
You should be able to visit for tapas and cocktails.
A curry and porotta.
A £9.95 lunch thali.
A Sunday roast.
Or a larger celebration.
Different occasions.
The same Kerala Canteen.
From an Idea to One of the UK’s Top 100 Indian Restaurants
What began with memories of Kerala and a belief in regional Indian cooking has developed into an award-recognised restaurant concept.
Kerala Canteen has been listed among the Top 100 Indian Restaurants in the UK.
For us, recognition like this matters because it demonstrates something bigger than the restaurant itself.
British diners are ready to explore Indian food beyond the familiar.
They’re ready for regional stories.
They’re ready for unapologetic flavours.
And they’re curious about where their food comes from.
The People Behind Kerala Canteen
Kerala Canteen’s culinary identity brings together chefs with experience spanning Kerala, Britain and international hospitality.
Bobby Geetha, known from MasterChef UK and BBC Great British Menu, brings the perspective of a chef born in Kerala whose professional journey eventually became deeply connected with Yorkshire.
The kitchen’s pedigree also includes Chef Abdulkhader Allingal Siddique, whose experience includes the prestigious Taj Group of Hotels and working alongside Michelin-level culinary talent.
But professional pedigree only matters if it reaches the plate.
Our objective isn’t to tell guests how experienced the chefs are.
It’s for guests to taste that experience without needing an explanation.
What Should You Order on Your First Visit?
If you’ve never experienced Kerala food, our biggest recommendation is:
Don’t play too safe.
Start with something familiar and something completely unfamiliar.
Try:
Trivandrum Fried Chicken
A great gateway into Kerala Canteen.
Crispy Curry Leaf Calamari
For seafood and the unmistakable fragrance of curry leaves.
Green Pepper Lamb Chop
For Kerala’s historic spice connection.
Chilli & Tamarind Cauliflower
For the balance of heat, sweetness and acidity.
Mini Broccoli Masala Dosa
For a taste of South India’s dosa tradition.
Then share:
Beef & Bone Marrow Curry + Kerala Porotta
And if you’re drinking, consider a Gunpowder & Turmeric Margarita or Tender Coconut & Ginger Mojito.
That’s a pretty good introduction to our journey in one meal.
From Kerala to Leeds: Frequently Asked Questions
What type of Indian food does Kerala Canteen serve?
Kerala Canteen specialises in Kerala and South Indian-inspired food, presented through contemporary sharing plates, curries, biryanis and regional accompaniments.
What is Kerala cuisine?
Kerala cuisine is the regional food of Kerala on India’s south-western coast. It is known for ingredients including coconut, curry leaves, black pepper, ginger, tamarind, rice, seafood and aromatic spices, although cooking varies significantly across the state and its communities.
What is Kerala tapas?
Kerala tapas is Kerala Canteen’s contemporary sharing format: smaller dishes designed to allow guests to experience several different Kerala flavours during one meal.
Who is Bobby Geetha?
Bobby Geetha is a Kerala-born chef and international chef consultant known from MasterChef UK and BBC Great British Menu, where he represented Yorkshire & Humber.
What makes Kerala Canteen different from a traditional Indian restaurant?
Kerala Canteen focuses specifically on regional Kerala flavours, sharing plates and the relationship between authentic Indian cooking and quality British and Yorkshire produce rather than reproducing a conventional curry-house menu.
Is Kerala food very spicy?
Not necessarily. Some dishes contain chilli heat, while others focus on black pepper, coconut, curry leaves, tamarind, ginger and aromatic spices. Spiced and spicy aren’t the same thing.
Does Kerala Canteen serve vegetarian food?
Yes. Kerala and South Indian cuisines have extensive vegetarian traditions, and Kerala Canteen offers vegetarian and plant-based dishes alongside meat and seafood.
Where is Kerala Canteen?
Kerala Canteen is in Leeds, bringing the food and spice traditions of Kerala together with its Yorkshire identity.
Our Journey Is Still Beginning
From Kerala to Leeds, a lot has changed.
The ingredients travelled.
The chef travelled.
The techniques developed.
Yorkshire became part of the story.
But the most important thing hasn’t changed.
Flavour.
We want curry leaves to smell like curry leaves.
Pepper to taste like pepper.
Porotta to be torn and dipped into curry.
Kerala food to feel proudly Kerala.
And Yorkshire produce to be celebrated as Yorkshire produce.
Because Kerala Canteen isn’t about choosing between where we came from and where we are.
It’s about bringing both to the same table.
If you’re searching for Kerala food in Leeds, South Indian food in Leeds, Indian tapas Leeds, Bobby Geetha restaurant, Great British Menu chef Leeds, authentic Indian restaurant Leeds or simply somewhere different to eat in Leeds, we’d love you to discover the story for yourself.
Come for the Kerala tapas.
Try the curry.
Tear the porotta.
Have a spice-infused cocktail.
And discover how a food journey that began thousands of miles away found another home in Yorkshire.
From Kerala to Leeds.
Kerala in flavour. Yorkshire at heart.
Kerala Canteen.
