Students living in or near the Hyde Park area have access to many local amenities which means that a trip to the city centre isn’t always necessary. Hyde Park boasts its own pubs, a cinema, shops and most notably the many friendly cafés; and all this right on your doorstep. So whether you’re after a hangover busting fry up or an afternoon coffee and slice of cake with your mates, here are five of the best.

Café Du Bien

With their slogan “A Little Taste of Heaven” Café Du Bien is located centrally on Queens Road, near the Hyde Park Picture House; one of the newest additions, having only been open for six months. It’s a decent size and offers a cosy Mediterranean style atmosphere, with plush indoor seating and outside decking that will be used in the summer.

The menu reflects their Mediterranean influence with tapas, sharing platters, cous cous and tagine but they also serve more traditional student grub: hot and cold sandwiches for around £3, and a full English breakfast with tea or coffee for just £3.95. Coupled with coffees from £1.50 and a choice of fruit smoothies and home made desserts, this new little cafe is worth a visit.

Coffee Mania

Located on Brudenell Road in the row of shops including Sainsbury’s Local, Coffee Mania is another new addition and their ethos is “fresh coffee, fresh food”. There is just one table outside but inside there is plenty of room and seating at tables; its decor in neutral brown leathers, beige and orange walls makes it feels new and modern, and definitely student friendly.

Their menu ranges from jacket potatoes and home-cooked pasta to sandwiches, paninis and waffles for dessert and of course a choice of coffees. Prices range from £2-3 for food and drinks and all food is available to take away which is great for students grabbing lunch on the way to lectures.

Popinas

You can find this throwback to traditional greasy-spoon cafés further up Brudenell Road, towards Woodhouse Moor; but Popina’s is clean and friendly and a hit with students and locals alike. Often bustling with students getting their hangover cured by a full English or breakfast bap, there is plenty of seating, benches and tables, both inside and outside.

It’s great value for money at just £3.50 for a small breakfast; but if you feel up for the challenge they serve a mega-breakfast and even keep a scoreboard between Boys Vs Girls. They also serve main meals and salads, plenty of choice in honest good food with no fuss.

Oranaise Café

Found at Hyde Park Corner (1 The Crescent) is Oranaise Café, a Moroccan inspired Café lounge by day and transformed into a restaurant by night. There is very limited outside seating but large and beautifully decorated inside with plenty of comfortable cushions to relax on and a window seat for people watching.

Their breakfast and lunch menu is varied, reasonably priced and good quality; continental breakfast is available for around £3 and they offer a variety of sandwiches and fresh homemade soup of the day. Their coffees and cakes are deliciously tempting, and they have smoothies and iced frappes too. Their current evening offer of a three course Moroccan cuisine meal for £9.99 Monday to Thursday is a great value treat for students, bringing a little culture to your weeknights.

Coconut Shack

A hidden gem amongst the Hyde Park terraces, the Coconut Shack Café is a charming little place located on Welton Road, right next to Brudenell Primary School. Although small inside, there is comfortable sofa seating for around twelve people, and there are a couple of tables outside; it has a bright ocean blue decor and even its own palm tree and parrot; but manages to be understated about its tropical influence.

The menu is full of traditional café food from hot baguettes (£2.75 with your choice of filling), breakfast sandwiches, jacket potatoes and a range of ice cream milkshakes. All food can be eaten in or taken away; the Coconut Shack is a great little place for a summer ice cream or smoothie.

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Cafes in Leeds Hyde Park for students

So, you’ve spent the day basking in the numerous attractions the city has to offer: you’ve shopped ‘til you dropped; educated yourself at the Art Gallery or Leeds City Museum; or maybe just dressed up like a superhero and gotten absolutely blind drunk participating in the Otley Run.

What to do now with the evening stretching ahead of you like a glistening ribbon of promise? Well, if the Otley Run hasn’t already taken care of that by hospitalising you, you could do a lot worse than inject a little culture into your life and check out what’s on at the excellent theatres of Leeds.

West Yorkshire Playhouse

Opened in 1990, the Playhouse has established a great reputation in a reasonably short period. It consists of two theatres seating 750 and 350, a bright, modern bar and various other rehearsal spaces and conference facilities – the theatres and bar are clearly the most important of these if you’re anything like the average punter (in this case, me), however.

The performance areas are large enough to create a vibrant, buzzing atmosphere but small enough so that you really get a sense of intimacy with the performance; and the acoustics of the rooms are excellent provided there isn’t someone behind you who has discovered a recent compulsion to eat sweets that come in plastic wrappers.

Many moons ago, when I was an MA student at Leeds University, there was a brilliant midweek deal of £5 tickets for under 25s, so ask at the box office whether this is still available. Their autumn/winter programme is well worth a look and includes Dracula, Dial M for Murder, Clive James in the Evening, The Secret Garden and (everyone loves a Christmas pantomime, don’t they?) Cinderella.

The Grand Theatre and Opera House

The Grand first opened in 1878, closed in 2005 for extensive refurbishments and reopened in 2006. It is a stunning building, with all the frills and furbelows of great Victoriana. Inside there is a distinctly Gothic feel, which only adds to the general theatricality of the place. Foreign Language performances always make me feel more intelligent than I actually am, and The Grand is the home of Opera North and the place to go for that sort of thing.

The décor lends itself beautifully to this genre, although it has also seen its fair share of comedy, dance, drama and musicals. The West Yorkshire Playhouse may be an exemplary model of a modern performance area, but for me you can’t beat the sense of grandeur and excitement engendered by a really stunning historical theatre.

The Grand has this in spades. Look out for Jules Massenet’s Werther this month, and if you really don’t think you can stand to sit through a Christmas pantomime but want to get that warm, fuzzy seasonal feeling then don’t miss A Christmas Carol from 1st December.

The Carriageworks at Millennium Square

The Carriageworks is the newcomer to Leeds’ Theatre scene, and is conveniently located in the new Electric Press Development on Millennium Square: perfect for both pre and post-performance drinks. Run by Leeds City Council, the Carriageworks is home to the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, an umbrella group of performing societies that gives local people a chance to use the facilities themselves.

What I particularly like about this venue is that you can go there and see a startling variety of performances at vastly differing levels: last year I saw a group of belly dancers who were every size, shape and age under the sun but who were clearly having the best time dancing to an appreciative crowd. It was hilarious, but never in a mocking way. You will always find something fresh, exciting and often unexpected at the Carriageworks – it’s a real ‘diamond in the rough’ type of place.

So there you have it. An incomprehensive but pleasingly pithy overview of the great theatres of the city: go and check them out for yourselves, you won’t regret it and it’ll probably be more rewarding than waking up in an unknown room with a banging headache, wondering who nicked your Superman cape last night.

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Student guide to Leeds Theatres

Living the student life is as much about studying as it is about learning to adjust to living away from home and living on a strict budget. Alongside partying, sleeping and (obviously) studying, eating is a top priority for students, so here are a few budget friendly hot spots worth a visit.

The Library

At only a stone’s throw away from the Parkinson building, The Library pub is a favourite amongst students. Yes, partially because of the cheap drinks but also because their menu offers some great tasting, high quality meals at very student friendly prices, including a selection of gourmet style burgers. I would particularly recommend taking a look at their all day breakfast menu which offers everything from a full English to a modest beans on toast.

Wokon Noodle

This is an ideal place to catch both a quick lunch and a relaxed dinner. If you like an all round experience, Wokon Noodle is just for you. The open plan layout means that the kitchen and chefs are in full view so you can watch your food being made, as the mouth-watering smells and the sound of noodles crackling ‘woks’ up your appetite (see what I did there?). I guess this deserves to be called fast food as, despite being made fresh, the food arrives very promptly. However, unlike the more well-known fast food restaurants, your food will not arrive swimming in grease. This is certainly a healthier option.

Trio Bar and Grill

The Arc is a popular drinking spot for students in Headingley, particularly frequented during the infamous “Otley Run” pub crawl. However, during the day (when most of us are still in bed!) the upper level is transformed into a modern restaurant. With fresh lighting and impressive decor, the restaurant provides an ideal spot for an informal lunch in an impressive setting. The menu ranges from salads and pasta to a various grills, and all at very reasonable prices. This place is proof that there’s no need to break the bank to “do lunch” in style.

Akmal’s Tandoori Bistro

Tucked away in a corner of Hyde Park lies this hidden gem. From a distance, the restaurant can be seen glowing through the trees, enticing in hungry students with its delicious smelling curry dishes and “bring your own booze” policy. Not only will they provide glasses, so that you don’t have to taint the sophisticated atmosphere by drinking from a can, but they also have a bar of their own in case you run out. The staff go out of their way to keep you happy and service is quick and efficient. Most importantly, the food is well presented and fresh and at such reasonable prices, there shouldn’t be any anguish over splitting the bill at the end.

No1 Oriental Buffet

For those with a large appetite and a small budget, buffets are ideal and No1 Oriental Buffet is easily the most student-friendly of those in Leeds. There are two price levels, the cheaper lunch menu and the Saturday grand buffet, however even with the cheaper option you get a more than ample selection to pick from. As well as main dishes, starters and desserts are laid out over two large tables welcoming all who enter to get as much out of their money as possible.

For this reason, this is an ideal spot for group meals, especially at the start of the year when everyone is still getting to know one another; the staff are wise enough to step back and let you get on with getting your fill once you have been seated so it is a lot less formal than other restaurants with table service. What makes this buffet restaurant better than its competitors is the menu. As well as the classic choices such as deep fried vegetables and chow Mein it also offers char-sui buns and dim sum for a more authentic meal.

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Best restaurants in Leeds for Students

September is here and soon large numbers of new students will be pouring into Leeds looking forward to three or four years of good student life. New to the city, many of these fresh faces will be away from home for the first time, and looking to forge friendships which may well last not just the time spent at uni, but quite possibly a lifetime.

It is the weekend of 19th/20th that most of the freshers will be moving into their new accommodation in Leeds, so of course this marks the start of Freshers Week. Lectures actually begin on Monday 28th September, so the week is a carefree time for relaxing and socialising before all the hard work of term kicks in.

Leeds University Union (LUU) will be pushing the boat out with a cool collection of events. Sunday 20th September gets things going with an awesome Welcome Party that offers free entry across all three clubs (Stylus, Pulse, Mine), and the two bars (The Terrace, The Old Bar), at the Union, with resident DJ’s. Then there’s an Intro Party on Monday 21st with S Club 3, Matt Willis of Busted, and Booty Luv for just a tenner.

On Tuesday 22nd it’s Bad Robot in Stylus and Pulse, as well as the Novak 3D Disco, where, yes, you really are provided with 3D specs to wear while you dance to DJ’s Doorly and the Eskimo Twins with some upfront house and electro.

Wednesday 23rd it’s time for the School Disco, where you can get sentimental with three rooms of party hits, indie and a decade of dance. Thursday 24th you’ve got Valve Soundsystem with an all nighter of drum n’ bass and dubstep with Marky, Friction, Beardyman, Krafty Kuts, and others.

Then on Friday 25th it’s the regular event Fruity! which gives the noobs the chance to try one of the most popular student nights in Leeds, with three rooms of anthems, indie, R&B and dance. Saturday 26th you can wax lyrical with the magnificent house and electro night Wax:On, and there’ll be Simian Mobile Disco, Herve, and Plastician.

Now, if you are starting your studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, (LMU), you will find that an entire week long festival has been laid on for you, starting on Saturday 19th September with a Family and Friends Weekend. Then on Monday 21st LMU have a Freshers Party at The Stage in the Civic Quarter.

On Wednesday 23rd at The Stage there is a Headphone 3D Disco, and on Thursday 24th there is an Innovation North Showcase, featuring student bands and performers, at The Union, Headingley Campus. LMU will also be having a Freshers Ball on Thursday 24th at Harewood House, and on Friday 25th there’s a Friday Night Disco at the Kirkstall Brewery Bar, as well as a Club Night at The Stage.

But if you feel the need to escape uni events for a while, then there’s plenty of other stuff besides, with Leeds pubs and clubs all eager to offer new students a warm welcome. Wednesday 23rd is a good night to discover The Faversham, with the excellent student night Jagerbomb which is only £4 entry, and offers some good dance, indie, hip-hop, and electro.

On Friday 25th you have big student night That Bling Thing at Halo Nightclub, which, in case you don’t know, is in an old church right next to Leeds Uni. Expect some R&B, hip-hop, electro and D&B.

Finally if you want a serious intro to Leeds pubs around the two universities you can’t do better than Leeds’ famous Otley Run, which starts at Woodies out at Far Headingley, near LMU’s Headingley Campus, makes its way past the University of Leeds, and finishes at The Dry Dock right near LMU’s Civic Quarter.

Freshers Week is something good to look back on when you are slogging it out over assignments and sitting through endless lectures, so, to all Leeds Freshers – have a good week!

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Leeds student fresher events for September

Moving to university opens up an opportunity to recreate yourself, but re-branding your wardrobe isn’t always quite so simple. Although Leeds does have an endless list of ideal shopping spots, for most students the choices are somewhat restricted by a lack of funding.

However Leeds, being the considerate city that it is, offers a range of shops for those with double-knotted purse strings. Aside from the massive Primark which is, needless to say, student friendly here are a few less well known places for the bargain hunters out there.

Charity Shops

There are a few charity shops dotted around Leeds all supporting numerous charities and they are ideal if you are willing to set aside a little time to browse the rails. To name a few, Scope (The Headrow), Oxfam (Otley Road) and Poverty Aid (Cardigan Road) are great places to do some guilt free shopping.

In fact, you can feel good about your spending as the profits go towards deserving causes. These places are goldmines for those who like to look individual as a lot of items sold are no longer available elsewhere, and if you’re lucky you may even find some real vintage gems. Some even sell second hand furniture, which is great if you’ve just moved into your first empty student house.

Kirkgate Market

Kirkgate market is at the bottom of town and boasts a repertoire of over 800 traders. Not only can you pick up fresh fruit and veg and quality meat for dinner, but you can also get a new outfit for Friday night and a new toilet seat (to replace the one you broke last Friday night) all in the same place.

As the student year draws to an end and your student loan is running out, Kirkgate market is a great place for window shopping. The hussle and bussle of the busy shoppers and the jolly traders creates an amazing atmosphere which is a pleasure to be a part of.

The Vintage Fair

Every year Leeds is graced with the arrival of the Vintage Fair. Usually held in Leeds University’s Student Union, the fair is an opportunity for anyone to pick up some amazing one-off items. These can range from baskets full of old watch faces to winter coats and 50’s dresses, with prices that are just as diverse.

Although there are tons of bargains on the rails, there are also collectable items worth a little more than the change from your sandwich. The Vintage Fair will be coming to Leeds’ student union in late September and throughout the year, with dates to be confirmed.

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Shops for Leeds student bargain hunters