The Vesper Gate

When me and a few mates fancy a drink and a bit of decent scran but want to stay in walking distance of home this is normally the pub we end up in, just a 5 min steady walk from my home the vesper is nice sized pub over the road from the beautiful Kirkstall abbey next to a field and near a play park to keep the kids entertained, and with a bus stop just a few metres up the road with regular busses into and from town is easy to get to.
The food is great and cant find any fault same with the service as it is normally the same barmaids working whenever I go in. There is plenty of seating both inside and out with a smoking shelter with built in heaters for when it gets cold (at lest somebody thinks about us in winter), There is a good selection of drinks with something to suite everybody, unfortunatley they do not have a pool table but they do have a couple of games machines, a dart board and T.V.s for entertainment with weekley pub quizzes.
All in all i would say that this is a great family pub with something for everybody and must be checked out some time.

This pub is very much my local (I only live 2 mins walk away!) so go down here a fair bit, and it definitely has it’s place.
It’s a ‘Sizzling’ chain pub and as such has the standard chain pub food to offer, including various dishes served on ‘sizzling’ skillets. A nice little gimmick until you realise your meat carries on cooking after it arrives at the table (so your ‘med rare’ steak ends up more ‘well done’ by the time you’ve had a few bites), your sides ended up burned to a crisp (mmmmm crunchy rice anyone?) and you get a rather awful cloud of vinegar steam in your face if you put vinegar on your chips too soon!
Having said that, some of the food is really nice, the kids meals are a fabulous size, and the chicken nuggets they serve (the Mini MacDoo’s favourite) are actually really nice with proper meat in them. The chicken bacon pie is scrummy and the fishcake salad is great too.
So other than coming down here for food, the other main reason I come to the Vesper Gate is to do the pub quiz on a Wednesday night. It’s pretty good fun and not too difficult, we’ve won a few times!
A couple of fairly recent positive developments are the inclusion of a baby changing table in the toilets (I always found it odd that there wasn’t one considering they have highchairs and a kids menu!) and the departure of the old landlord who, as pointed out in a previous review, was a funny chap, and not in a ‘ha ha’ way! This has been great as the rest of the staff are lovely and really friendly, and they always make an effort to chat with the kids.
So all in all, not a bad choice if you’ve been to Kirkstall Abbey for the day with the kids and you get struck down by a case of the munchies and need to get scoffing, or if you’re on the lookout for a Wednesday night quiz. Maybe see you there? Mine’s a pint.

Great value sizzler restaurant. Great for kids, food is excellent and it is situated right accross from a great tourist attraction Kirkstall Abbey.

The Vesper is a adequate pub inside a huge building on Abbey Road (not that Abbey Road unfortunately), but little more than that.
I went here a couple of weeks back because a friend of mine lives in the estate behind it, and it was the only pub within walking distance from his house.
We had an urge for some pub grub as we often do, and so chanced upon this place expecting the standard pub grub that you get from unremarkable places like this.
We got what we expected — a couple of burgers that were definitely edible, and a huge serving of chips to go with them, which, along with the drinks, were fairly priced. The atmosphere, however, was a bit weird due to the landlord’s arguments with the staff and customers, so we didn’t stay for a second drink.

Family orientated pub really near Kirkstall abbey. Great pub food and outside area. Cosy for the chilled weekends. Good deals with spirits. Friendly and relaxed, definately worth a visit if around the area.