Such a distinctive building, it’s hard to miss when you know where you’re looking!
We’ve been watching the rise of Northern Monk Brew Co. over the last few years very closely, and we’ve been waiting patiently for the Refectory… it opened just in time for this, our 175th review!
Northern Monk is quietly establishing itself as a kind of “BrewDog south of the border”, with similar ambition, marketing and (most importantly) beer quality. The brewery has just moved into new premises in the old flax store of Marshall’s Mill, on the edge of Holbeck, and they’ve opened this taproom upstairs.
Where does brewery end and art begin? Hard to say.
We went twice for this review — once on a preview evening (most of our photos are from then) and once again over the weekend when they were fully open. It was clear even in those few days that they’re constantly taking feedback and making improvements, and we expect they’ll just keep getting better.
The bar. Look at all those kegs!
The Refectory is a large airy space with huge windows on both sides. Most of the seating is at communal benches but there are a few more romantic tables with proper chairs by the windows. The décor is beautiful, with exposed bricks, industrial relics, jars of hops/malt and art (for sale). [I’d like to give special mention to the (gender-neutral) toilets as probably the most amazing toilets we’ve seen on the Quest. If you like that sort of thing.]
Looking in one direction: lots of space to manoeuvre here.
Oh, right. The beer. There are sixteen kegs (8 Northern Monk and 8 guests) and two Northern Monk casks on at all times. Beer is available in ⅓pt measures (as well as ½pt and 1pt) which is great if you want to try a lot of them. There are beer menus on the tables and a blackboard listing all the beers (this is one of the things they improved in 3 days). The prices are pretty amazing for the beer quality you’re getting, even for the guest beers. As well as on tap, there’s a well stocked fridge featuring a good mix from Ilkley, Weird Beard, Founders, Kernel, Magic Rock, Sam Smith’s, Buxton, Partizan…
And the other direction: windows on this side too!
The other main draw here is that Leeds’s legendary Grub & Grog Shop has found a permanent home in the Refectory’s kitchen. This means that breakfast, lunch & dinner there’s incredibly cheap food cooked to all kinds of recipes that you can’t find anywhere else. We’ve been big fans of G&G for a long time now and it’s so exciting to be able to eat there any time we like!
Music is awesome and played at a reasonable volume. When the bar is quiet it’s incredibly peaceful in here. When it’s busy it’s pretty noisy (apparently acoustics weren’t important to the designers of flax stores — who knew?) but I still found I was able to find a table corner to read a book with my beer.
Northern Monk is on fire right now!
All the staff are amazing and really listen to their customers: something that has always set both Northern Monk and Grub & Grog apart from their competition since they started. I guess the only criticisms we have are that there’s currently no wifi or outdoor seating, and it’s completely inaccessible for people who can’t manage a flight of stairs (again, not a concern for Victorian industrialists…!) but other than these it’s close to being our perfect bar in Leeds.
Northern Monk is exactly what happens when you take the brewing expertise and enterprise of someone like BrewDog and give it a Yorkshire accent. Do we have to review the rest of the bars on the Quest, or can we just live here?
Tags: beer garden, breakfast, coffee, food
We're on a quest to review every pub and bar in Leeds city centre. After 199 reviews we've finally caught up and now we're waiting for more to open!
I must disagree with the supposedly ‘amazing’ prices quoted above. Having visited, the average pint is just above £4.00, and bear in mind this is for beer brewed on site. That’s expensive. Many of the options push £5-6-7 and beyond. For the standard, which is a solid 4 star at best, that’s not that great. Northern Monk don’t do session ales- which is a major disadvantage. It’s all aimed towards zeitgeisty trend-following ales like porters, various IPA and pale ales. They need to brew a standard bitter or golden ale which are the ultimate test of an English brewery’s quality. The interior feels brand new (in the industrial gentrified style) and there’s a reasonable social atmosphere inside. It’s all really well done, and the food menu by comparison was fairly cheap- between 6-8 pounds- though I don’t know about the portion size. Worth checking out and returning to.