No. 2 Oxford Place
Leeds
LS1 3AX
Date Visited : 03 October 2014
Price: £18.95
All Gluten Free!
We first
heard about this place in the local Evening Post paper, and as my husband is a
coeliac I thought it would be a great idea to buy him a gift voucher. The whole restaurant is completely gluten
free – probably one of the first around to attempt this. For a coeliac, eating here is like being in
heaven – for once you’re able to eat out assured that none of the food will be contaminated. And you’ve got a choice of absolutely anything from the menu
for a change, instead of the odd dishes here and there. Bit of a bonus!
We decided
to opt for the afternoon tea, but there is an extensive menu serving breakfast,
brunch and dinner and the cafe is open until 10.00pm most nights.
The cafe is
situated down the side of the Leeds Town Hall so it’s quite easy to find. Although it’s not in the main shopping area
it’s only a five minute walk from the centre of town. The cafe is a very small brick building, which
presumably used to be offices – in fact it looks rather like someone’s house.
 |
| The upstairs room at Oxford Place |
Since we
opted for the afternoon tea, we were shown upstairs to another room. It was only very small with polished mahogany
tables and lots of mismatched chairs, some of which looked like they had come
from a church. There were lots of
different sized framed mirrors on the walls and a large fireplace but sadly no real
fire. The main wall over the fireplace
had purple flowery wallpaper and dark velvet purple curtains on the windows, and
next to it there was a glass show cabinet filled with retro ornaments, books
and board games – for some reason the whole room reminded me of something out
of Sherlock Holmes!
We were given a choice of at least eleven different teas to choose from, one of the options being a mug of ‘builder’s tea’ which for those who don’t know is a brimming bucket size beaker, perfect for biscuit dunking. I am not ashamed to say this was my choice of tea, I do love a big pot of tea and don’t really care what it comes in! My husband on the other hand insists on always drinking from a much daintier china cup as he says it is the only way to drink tea and it always tastes so much better! So he and my daughter chose the English Breakfast – we were as adventurous as ever! But you could have anything from Earl Grey to Fresh mint and Ginger.
When the
afternoon tea came we had an array of small finger sandwiches ranging from
cream cheese and cucumber, egg mayonnaise with chives, and Yorkshire ham and
mustard. There was an option of smoked
salmon and cucumber but again we opted out!
I have to say beforehand I was thinking the bread would be quite hard and
cardboard like, having seen some of the gluten free bread my husband eats, but
I was pleasantly surprised the bread was delicious and you would never have
known it was gluten free – the waitress was right! We were also treated to cheese and onion
quiche served with parma ham. The
portions could have been a tad bigger but it was very tasty.
There were
easily enough sandwiches for more than three of us but we still managed to eat
them all apart from one! Well we had to
save some room for the cakes!
 |
| Yes it really is gluten free bread! |
All the
cakes were miniature, but there were an awful lot to choose from! Served on a
three tiered cake stand, the top layer consisted of mini raspberry pavlovas
topped with strawberries and tiny red velvet cakes with a raspberry on the top. The second layer was traditional fruit scones
and some double chocolate scones which I have never had before but then again
any form of chocolate has to be good!
And the bottom layer had a whole range of cakes to tempt you, ranging
from peanut butter cheesecake, mini chocolate profiteroles, raspberry dessert
shots, brownies, and a chocolate tart.
It was difficult to decide which to have first.
I have to
say the scones were amazing, seconded by my husband who said they tasted just
like ‘normal’ scones. I have tried to
master the gluten free scones myself but they tend to come out either rock hard
or they just break into crumbs when you cut them in half. These did neither and were delicious. The red velvet cake was also very popular
followed by the raspberry compote which was very light and creamy. In fact everything we tried was delicious and
not at all what you’d expect gluten free cakes to taste like. The ones we
didn’t manage to eat the waitress boxed up for us to take home for later, and if you still want more cakes you can buy a
selection from downstairs to take home
too!
We will
definitely be back as we’ve heard the steak and ale pie is very good...
Ratings All Gluten Free:
Tea: 7/10
Sandwiches: 8/10
Cakes: 9/10
Scones: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Would I return? Definitely, gluten free is great!
