In several suburbs of Leeds, various cultures from diverse backgrounds gather harmoniously. On the streets of areas such as Harehills and Hyde Park, there are lifestyles from every continent adapted positively for their Leeds home. Many traditions are shared, most notably by authentic eateries serving up the flavours of their origins, providing an opportunity to experience other cultures, taste different cuisines, and together break bread.
For 25 years, one such place has been doing just that from its Indian heritage to the people of Harehills, and in the last year have also expanded into Hyde Park. Anand Sweets has become a Leeds legend to those in the know, for its warm welcome, inclusive atmosphere and delicious home-cooked food at purse pleasing prices. Having organically changed ownership in 2019 to a long-standing employee Surjit and her husband Harvinder, their daughter Gagan spoke to us about the evolution of this fab and friendly Leeds restaurant.
Our family are from Punjab in North India. My mum made sure we stuck to our roots and always used to feed us Indian food at least once a day. She’s really fond of cooking and an amazing chef.
When we moved here she always wanted to have her own business. She joined Anand Sweets, which has been open for almost 25 years. My mum had already been working here for 6 years and wanted something to call her own, so when they sold this business in 2019 she decided to take over the original name of Anand Sweets.
With the food, my mum had to be satisfied with the quality and preparation so she decided to make everything her own. The menu is now full of homemade quality dishes made using her recipes. All of these are authentic from Punjab, it’s exactly how she used to cook at home – just now in a much larger quantity!
Everything is made in the Harehills restaurant every morning and then some is delivered to our new Hyde Park restaurant. There are dishes like curries that need making on the spot so we tend to deliver savouries like uncooked samosas, pakoras and cook them in the other restaurant – it makes sure the food always tastes fresh.
The ingredients we get shipped from India, and it is all organic. We also support local businesses for other ingredients and regularly visit a family owned business called Natasha Foods.
Our most popular dishes are the samosa chaat, shahi paneer (an Indian cheese in a seasoned gravy but is not too spicy), bhatura is an inflated and fried bread that comes with a chickpea curry, and the thali of the day – in this you get 2 curries, rice, 2 sides and 2 breads.
A lot of people come here especially for the parathas, we make them from scratch and many people have told us it tastes like home. Paratha is a flour dough with a filling in between, wrap it up and roll it to use as a chapati and put it on the grill shortly. You can have it plain or with many of our other dishes.
The sweets we serve are very similar to what was available here for many years. My mum does the cooking for savouries and my dad has taken over the sweets. A few slight changes have been made but we try to keep it as authentic as we can. A lot of the people working in the kitchen have been here for many years.
The atmosphere is nice and cosy, very warm, welcoming and friendly. The people that come to eat at Anand Sweets are looking for some traditional high quality food, which we’ve been serving for years. We serve many people from a lot of different cultures and ethnicities, and there’s a big variation in age as well.
We’re really proud to be bringing our culture to the city and introducing so many people to new flavours and dishes from our home. Sharing food absolutely brings people together, some cultures’ food can be similar but it’s nice to see people exploring new dishes and learning about the flavours of other cultures. The food brings people joy.
Photos: 1 & 3 Michael Hodges
