Big Scoffs: I went for Sunday Dinner at a Vegan diner in a trendy Yorkshire suburb
When a mother-and-daughter duo opened up a plant-based cafe, they never imagined that their biggest issue would be becoming too popular.
Scoffs Feel Good Food started life in Horsforth, an up-and-coming suburb of Leeds, which is densely populated with coffee shops
Tracy Wale and her daughter Ria set up ‘Little Scoffs’ on New Road Side in 2021, as well as offering outside catering. Now they have expanded, opening a second Scoffs called ‘Big Scoffs’ across the road.
Following Big Scoffs’ grand opening last month, we sent our reporter Sophie Mei Lan Malin for a vegan Sunday Dinner.
Mixed grills, surf and turf and full Sunday Roasts are on the menu at this fully vegan cafe Big Scoffs.
Tracy and Ria aren’t scared of pushing the boundaries when it comes to vegan food; that’s why they set up Little Scoffs, after all, to create exciting plant-based food.
Their mission proved so popular that they quickly outgrew the premises, which led Tracy and Ria to hire a kitchen across the road for their outside catering business. It was here where they had the idea of converting one of the dilapidated floors of the same building into a large diner.
While this diner, Big Scoffs, took two years and a crowdfunding campaign to come to fruition, it has finally opened its doors, offering brunch, lunch and tea from Thursdays through to Sundays.
Bookings and walk-ins are welcome at Scoffs. I was glad I’d booked,however, because there’s a huge demand to try the place out locally.
Big Scoffs is a trendy yet friendly and informal restaurant.
It was Sunday evening and its customers were made up of couples, families and people dining in groups. It reminded me of the vibe I felt when walking into some of the coffee shops while visiting my sister in Williamsburg, a gentrified neighbourhood of Brooklyn, in New York.
We were warmly greeted by the down-to-earth owner, Tracy Wale. Tracy was front-of-house while her daughter Ria is now head chef in their new kitchen. It’s a real family affair, she told me.
Tracy and her husband had delicately hand-varnished, sanded, and fitted each wooden panel on the wall. Every aspect of this diner is either made by the family themselves or funded by their neighbourhood crowdfunder.
This team effort has resulted in a slick-looking diner that larger chains would be proud of, but with clearly independent touches such as the art mural in the toilets, as well as, their menus, which are made up of dishes using locally sourced ingredients.
Sunday Dinner menu
There’s a choice of two starters, either a pate with bread or a scotch egg for Sunday Dinner.
The Sunday Dinners mains cost £16.95 with a choice of vegan ‘meat’, either turkey or beef, or nutroast. The turkey and beef are made out of seitan and made by a Leeds-based company.
My friend whom I was dining with is not only vegan but she has a nut and gluten allergy. She had dined out with me, assuming that as usual, she would only be able to eat some roast potatoes “at best.”
Here however she was offered pate with a mini loaf of gluten-free bread to start with (£8), followed by a full Sunday Dinner with gluten-free vegan sausages instead of the seitan meat. I tried both meats with my dinner, which came complete with roast potatoes, red cabbage, root mash, Yorkshire pudding, and tender stem broccoli - all of this is vegan but you can even order vegan and gluten-free Yorkshire puddings.
My friend devoured the pate, which was ideal as a buttery peppercorn spread.
She then polished off her entire dinner, having never had a proper Sunday dinner out due to her dietary requirements.
I was also surprised how tasty the gluten-free vegan Yorkshire pudding was. It wasn’t as crispy or fluffy-looking as their mainstream counterparts but it still had a golden colour and was fluffy. I actually preferred it to ones I’d had elsewhere, which use plain flour and eggs.
The tenderstem broccoli was nicely charred and I could’ve eaten a whole bowl of the braised red cabbage.
I’m not a massive fan of Seitan which is often used to create such plant based products but I did enjoy the novelty of having ‘meat’ on my roast. I would definitely normally order the nut-roast for the flavour, as I tried some of my daughter’s, especially when it’s hand made like they make it here.
The roast potatoes were lovely and crisp but my favourite part were the stuffing balls with lashings of gluten free vegan gravy which comes in your own jug so you can pour away.
I appreciated each element on the plate which almost represents a Yorkshire collective of independent producers.
Big Scoffs and Little Scoffs is clearly a community in itself but also one that felt inclusive where everyone could come and dine and have one big dinner party.