San Lucus

San Lucus occupies the ground floor of this incredibly dull building.

San Lucus is a bar and tapas restaurant that has just moved into these large premises on Great George Street, formerly occupied by the doomed Johnny Fontane’s. We went to eat, but there is also a medium-sized bar area with plenty of seating (including a sofa) and you wouldn’t be out of place coming in here just for a beer.

The décor here is quite eclectic: there are fake bookcases, street signs, historic adverts, skis and a street lamp. It’s not entirely clear what they’re going for (a junk shop, perhaps?) but it’s nice enough; comfortable without being classy in the slightest. We’ve tagged this review with “beer garden” but the outdoor area really is just a handful of chairs in a row and one table. The soundrack is weird elevator music but it’s quiet and unobtrusive.

The bar area is very pleasant. We liked the “antique dresser” look of the bar.

The beer selection is entirely lagers: Peroni, Moretti, Sagres etc. on tap with more in bottles including Mahou, Quilmes and Cruzcampo. If you like lagers there’s a lot of similar ones to choose from, but if you are after something else you’re out of luck. They seemed very proud of their sangria so I guess that’s the drink of choice.

The staff are very attentive and trying very hard to be great hosts, which can be a little overbearing at times but also gives the restaurant a nice personal touch (the chef even introduced himself to us and asked if he could change anything for us next time).

A terrible photo of the dining area.

San Lucus’s main draw must be the food, and the food is excellent. A great selection of Spanish, Italian and Latin American dishes with small enough portions that you can try quite a few of them.

For a bar, San Lucus is not really for us as the beer selection is pretty poor, but it’s a good friendly unpretentious place for food, if you can stomach another tapas place on the Leeds landscape.