No. 2 Oxford Place Leeds

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!