Almost Famous

This is a first for the Quest: it’s the first time we’ve reviewed a bar that’s replaced one we reviewed earlier (…escobar). Almost Famous is a legendary Manchester burger bar spreading its wings and joining us on this side of the Pennines.

There’s no doubt about it that Almost Famous is all about the burgers. Their Twitter feed seems to be endless streams of high-quality photos of their stupendous burgers and even more ridiculous meat-&-cheese-covered fries. And they are good – really good – but we’re not here to review the food.

Beer-wise the selection is significantly more extensive than their menu lets on. There’s Brooklyn on tap as well as a house brew “Danger & Mayhem” that they let on is actually Holsten Pils (oh well). In the fridge you can find Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Pacifico, Tetley’s Hunstman and two from Backyard Brewery, which is new to us and seems to be Carlsberg’s attempt to break into the craft beer world. There are also a number of interesting soft drinks that presumably exist primarily for cocktails (Ting, Dr Pepper, A&W root beer, cream soda…)

What really stood out for us, though, was the amazing atmosphere they’ve cultivated here. Almost Famous is cool (but not oppressively cool). There are two large rooms (one light, one dark). There are humorous neon signs. There are speakers in the walls. There’s a table filled with sweets. There’s “stained” glass. There’s a gorilla. Almost Famous is very photogenic and we couldn’t help snapping a lot more photos than we would usually take. Hell, even the toilets are photogenic.

Talking of photos, this is the only bar in Leeds that has its own photo booth, dubbed “selfie heaven”. Somehow I think once word gets out, it will not be the last bar with one.

There is no shortage of burger joints in Leeds, and more are opening all the time. But so far none of them have made this kind of impression on us. We will be back. Every time we have enough hunger to stomach it.