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Bobby’s is one of the best known Indian restraunts on the legendary Belgrave road - the heart of the Asian community in Leicester is located here.

The cuisine on offer is completely vegetarian, specifically from the Gujarati region of Northwest India where the majority of people (Hindus) are vegetarians. I am not a vegetarian myself and neither are most of the people I have dined here with, but we all agree with food this good, that does not matter at all!

The restraunt is composed of a downstairs and upstairs. Downstairs is a sweet counter, selling traditional Indian delicacies which you can purchase to take out if you so wish. There is also some seating at the side. Upstairs is seating only and where I prefer to dine. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a vegetarian-only restraunt would have a limited number of dishes, there is a large choice to choose from. Gujarati dishes tend to follow the typical Indian meal structure: rice and cooked veg as the base, with an infinite number of sauces ranging from the mild to extremely hot.

The service here is second to none, the staff are really friendly and make you feel like they want you to be there and enjoy your food. The food here is high quality, so you will find cheaper places, but for the quality of food is worth what you pay for it.

Walkabout Inn is the only branch of the Australian themed pub in Leicester, in fact I think it may be the only Walkabout in the whole of Leicestershire. For those who aren’t familiar with what the 'average’ Walkabout is like, the closest comparison is Weatherspoons, another major pub chain.

As with Weatherspoons, Walkabout combines a modern spacious pub with a standardised food menu; both food and drinks are priced very competitively. The general atmosphere in the place is a very relaxed one, compared to a lot of bars in the city.

Personally, I tend to come here either on a friday or saturday night and use it as my 'warm up’ for going on to a club. You will often get bands playing or a bit of a disco, which is a nice way to start the evening. A warm friendly atmosphere, with a bit of punch, a nice balance between a traditional pub atmosphere and a more modern bar.

Rock A Boom is my favourite independent music shop in Leicester. It is located in ST. Martin’s square which is about 5 minutes away from Highcross shopping centre - Firebug bar and McDonalds are nearby.

Rock A Boom is only a small shop and can’t compete with HMV for sheer physical space. What it can offer though is very good value on cd’s and a small selection of vinyl. They cater to alternative music fans, so you can find some right gems searching through the racks on everything from punk rock to drum 'n’ bass. The reason I come back here is because the staff are incredibly friendly and chatty. I don’t just come here to buy a record, I come here to have a natter. The attendant will often talk to me about what he’s been listening to and recommend things to try. This is the sort of banter and experience you just can’t get at bigger corporate record stores.

This is one of the better bars in Leicester. Its particular niche is as a sports bar. They have large screens to watch the latest Premiership, International and other big sporting action, whether it be boxing or cricket. This place is very student friendly, so if you like a quiet night out this might not be the place for you. It can get quite lively in here, but I have never had any trouble personally. They have decent drink promotions, especially on cocktails. In the evenings they have DJ’s playing a selection of student friendly tunes and music leaning more towards the dance side. I like to have a few drinks here from time to time, but I would not spend a whole night here as it isn’t really to my taste musically.

Rock City is Nottingham’s biggest rock club and also one of the biggest music venues in the city with a capacity in the main room of around 2000 people.

There are three rooms at Rock City. The main hall upstairs hosts bands and artists from across the music spectrum and gigs are on every night of the week. The sound is really great at Rock City and I can’t say I have ever been to many bad sounding gigs here. For more popular acts it can get very busy here and the bars aren’t that great. They have a reasonable selection of drinks, but they always seem to be understaffed and it certainly isn’t the cheapest place to have a drink. On the upside, there is a balcony overlooking the main stage, so you can get a good view from up here if the main floor is full.

Downstairs there is a smaller room, which is used for the clubnights and there is also the basement which puts on gigs by smaller and less well known bands.

The venue operates a number of club nights catering to different demographics throughout the week, as well as monthly theme nights for particular niches, punk nights or really heavy metal for example. Saturday is the biggest club night, with the top floor paying a good mixture of classic and new alternative and rock tunes from the modern age. Downstiars they play older rock classics and in the basement they play stuff from the heavier end of the spectrum. From time to time they do all nighters here, which are a great laugh if you go together with a few friends.

Pit and Pendulum has got to be one of the most remarkable pubs I have ever been too. I only get to go now and again as Nottingham is a bit out of the way, but everytime I go I make sure I come here.

From the outside you wouldnt realise this is a pub, it looks like some Victorian-fronted building. The interior is something else, it basically looks like a converted medieval crypt, the detail on everything from the walls to the decorations to the beams is outstanding.

The grand feature for the venue is a fantastic scuplture chandaler hanging from the ceiling straight down the stariway to the basement level, very ftting for the gothic theme of the pub.

My personal highlight for the pub is walking through the secret door in the book case to access the toilets, its like something out of Lord of the Rings!

As with fitting with the design, all the cocktails are themed to reflect the theme; aptly named after potions and spells. A good selection of shots is also available. Prices are fairly average, you are paying for the theme and venue, so you won’t find any brilliant deals on drinks here, but in my eyes the venu and atmosphere more than make up for it.

The pub caters to the goth and rocker crowd, so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the atmosphere is fairly relaxed and I have always felt at home in here. It can get real busy in here at times, so you may have to wait a while to be served, but there is plenty of things to occupy your mind, with classic rock and metal anthems being blasted out as well along to screenings of horror films.

Leicester Market is a very large market at the heart of the city centre, the outdoor market itself is covered and there ar also some stalls in an indoor market. You could conceivably purchase everything you need from the market as everything is on sale from fruit and veg to cd’s, dvd’s, electronic products, fashion, ceramics and everything else one could think of! Some reviewers have complained about the atmosphere at the market, yes they are loud and there is a lot of hustle and bustle, but this is just like any other market and it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A loud and vibrant market, or a busy and impersonal supermarket - I know which one I prefer.

I mainly come here to do my fruit and veg shopping and though it is a bit of trek for me, the savings that can be had make the effort more than worthwhile. There is an excellent range of produce available and you will get better prices than you will find at the supermarket and often better quality. I was sad to here recently that the market is experiencing some financial difficulties, no doubt it will faced increased competition from the recently opened Highcross shopping centre. It would be a real shame if one of Leicester’s treasures went the way of so many other English markets.

I would have to disagree with the review above. Though Waterstones is not a bad shop by any stretch of the imaination, it is definitely not the best bookstore in Leicester, at least for my needs.

It is a large store and does have a wide selection of all the latest fiction and non-fiction books as well as an extensive choice of other books, no matter your taste to choose from. They are well staffed and the coffee house is an improvement, though I do prefer the one at Borders Books. My main issue with Waterstones are the prices, with certain exceptions they always seem to be pricier than other bookstores, both in the city and online, at least for my particular areas of interest I have found this to be the case - my main area of interesting being history and political books.

They do sometimes have some good deals and sales on where you can snap up a good number of books at dirt cheap prices. But for new titles and non-discounted items, I have found Borders in Leicester to generally offer better prices. My advice for new and popular titles would be to shop around, as you may be able to get better prices and deals.

Loughborough library is probably the second biggest public library in Leicestershire, second only to the Central lending library in Leicester city centre. It has a good selection of titles for both fiction and non-fiction readers and I would go out on a limb and say they are actually better at getting new titles in than the central lending library.

All the usual library services are available, including internet access, newspapers and a very good selection of magazines. I have saved a fortune on subscription costs as the libary stocks most of the magazines I read. They also have a decent sized music and dvd collection that you can rent for a small price, though you will not find as many titles, especially new ones as you would at commercial retailers.

The staff are always very helpful and will go out of their way to help you find something if you can’t locate it. It also easy to keep track of your loans and renew titles online if you sign up to the internet service they provide, which allows you to do renews online and also reserve titles which are currently on loan, I really like this feature.

Nandos is a chain restraunt that specialises in piri piri chicken which originated from Portuguese settlers in South Africa. Piri Piri basically means the coating on the chicken, you have a range of options from mild herbs to extra spicey options, I personally tend to like my sauces extra hot! The menu is almost exclusively chicken, though you can get side orders, chips, garlic bread and my favourite spicey rice!

Nandos is like a cross between a restraunt and a fast-food joint. On the one hand, you are served meals on a plate, in traditional restraunt setting. However, ordering is more like at a fast food restraunt as a waiter/waitress does not take your order, you have to get up and order and pay for it from the counter. When the food is done it will then be brought over to your table.

I have been here many times, I have never had to wait to long, even during busy periods. The prices are competitive, more than you would pay at a fast-food outlet, but cheaper than many restraunts. The food has always been of the highest quality and I have no cause for complain relating to the service. One thing I really like about Nandos, is that for £1.90 you can get unlimited refills on your soft drinks, which comes quite in handy if you like the extra spicey sauces, like me!