Leeds welcomes Lunara, a simple, technique-driven pasta bar from Bobby Geetha

Bobby Geetha has put a new pasta bar into the centre of Leeds, and he has done it with the kind of confidence that makes a simple menu feel like a statement. Lunara opened on May 5 inside Nesso Café at 42 Merrion Street, with a stripped-back promise: “great pasta, done properly, without the fuss.”

Geetha is not a newcomer chasing a trend from the sidelines. The former MasterChef: The Professionals quarter-finalist also runs Kerala Canteen in Leeds, and Lunara extends the same instinct for sharp execution into an Italian register. He has described the new room as a modern trattoria, built around fresh pasta, balanced sauces and a seasonal menu that changes over time rather than trying to cover every corner of the Italian canon at once.

That restraint is exactly what gives Lunara its pull. The opening menu leans into shape and technique, with bucatini carbonara at the centre: guanchale, egg yolk and pecorino, served in a style that puts method ahead of gimmick. Other dishes have included mafaldine with pesto cream, roast chicken and pistachio, and pappardelle with slow chilli beef ragù. Lunara also serves a half spatchcock roast chicken with onion gravy, a move that widens the offer beyond pasta and makes it feel like a full meal rather than a fast casual stop.

Dessert and drinks are part of the pitch too. Tiramisu, cannoli siciliani, cocktails, wine and beer round out the experience, and the service window is built for both lunch and evening trade. Lunara is open Tuesday to Saturday, with 12pm-2pm and 5pm-8:30pm sittings, a schedule that fits city-centre workers, pre-theatre diners and the late-afternoon crowd moving through Merrion Street.

The opening also lands at a useful moment for Leeds. Nesso began as a smaller neighbourhood brunch spot in Morley before expanding into the city centre, where it has already established itself as a Yorkshire independent café with Italian flair and ingredients sourced from Italy. Lunara now sits inside that operation, adding a more focused pasta-bar format to a venue that already knows its audience. Leeds also has Sarto, another city-centre specialist focused on fresh, handmade pasta, which means Lunara arrives into a growing scene rather than an empty field.

Geetha has said he sees the same casual-but-skilled format taking hold in London, Manchester and Italy, and Lunara gives Leeds its own version of that movement. With a £29.95 bottomless dinner launch offer and a May promotion aimed at LS1 and LS2 residents, students and businesses, it is positioning itself as both approachable and serious, the sort of pasta bar that can turn a weekday dinner into a habit.