Hukaz

Nice little bar. Good atmosphere always. Nice beers and some pretty good munch if you’re hungry.

Nestled between the International Supermarket and Peter Chans Take-​Away, Hukaz is a quirky alternative to most restaurants you find in the student-​dominated Hyde Park. Formally a sheesha bar, Hukaz has managed the transition to bar and restaurant whilst maintaining the cosy sofas and ‘little known’ feeling of a smokers bar. The food is relatively cheap (most main courses are around the 5 mark) and if you’re a student you can take advantage of their NUS offer of 7.95 for a 3 course meal.
There is a wide selection of food and drink. As a vegetarian I was pleasantly surprised by the large selection of meat free food which included salads, wraps, falafel and burgers, but they also keep the carnivores happy with half pound beef burgers for 4.50, large cooked breakfast with obligatory pint of lager for under 6, and the option of adding meatballs to your salad an extra 75p.
Food is served until late, but if you’ve already eaten Hukaz is also a good place to have your pre-​town drinks or to settle in for the night, as it’s cheap, friendly, and full of character.
So whether you’re looking to go out for a meal with a date, or meet up with friends for a drink, I would recommend you make your way to to Hukaz, settle in to one their sofa areas, and enjoy the atmosphere.

This awesome bar cropped up out of no where a few years ago after I moved to Leeds and, since it was but five minutes from my house, became local to me and my friends whilst we were living in the vicinity. This was back in the days before the smoking ban, so our usage of their facilities was as much to enjoy a shisha as it was to go for a drink.
Now that the smoking ban is in place you might be concerned that cosy sofa laden venues like this might disappear, or become obsolete. Not so with Hukaz. They still provide excellent drink offers, a beautifully chilled atmosphere and some tasty food right on the student door step, simply sans the shisha inside. Since the old days I’ve quit smoking, so really, Hukaz is even more parfait!
The staff are lovely too and must have the patience of saints — once someone came in and tried to get away with drinking his own cans by pouring them into their glasses. The staff soon cottoned on and rather than getting aggressive simply asked him to leave quite nicely. In the way that parents manage to make you feel bad, I think he left on the grounds that the bar man wasn’t angry, just very disappointed in him. What a lovely place!

This little bar is a haven in central Hyde Park, not looking much from the outside, hidden in a row of hardware stores and off licenses, next to the international supermarket. Inside, you can enjoy 3 pints of lager for £5 or sample the bar’s extraordinary creation — the ‘Drumstick lolly’ cocktail. The place is dimly lit with bare brick walls and squishy leather sofas and is great to wile away a few hours and forget you are in Hyde Park. They also do great breakfasts, which include a pint, if you are looking for a hangover cure which includes a bit of the hair of the dog.

When the smoking ban put paid to the popular student activity of shisha smoking, Hukaz’s was left facing something of an identity crisis. Previously somewhere people came for a bite to eat, a beer and a smoke, it suddenly had to compete with a dozen cafes and bars without having anything special to offer. However, unlike some shisha bars in Leeds, Hukaz’s has weathered the change well. With pipes off the menu, Hukaz’s has focused instead on providing good, cheap food and decent live music, with some exceptional drinks offers to keep drawing the punters in. When I last went here it felt much more like a bar than before, with the focus more on drinking and listening to music than relaxing with a bite to eat, and with offers like 3 pints for £5 this is hardly surprising. All in all, a good spot for a drink if you fancy somewhere a bit more relaxed than the nearby pubs.