This wasn’t my first trip to The Hepworth Cafe with children, I thought that my first trip would be my last. When I heard that it was going to be under new ownership, I was absolutely gutted to miss the opening party due to it not only being my birthday but I also had a 10-day old baby so I was still in hermit mode bar the school run.
A few weeks later I was thrilled to be asked to review the cafe and I had been assured that the place was much more suited to families these days, so I took a teeny Tiny Mumbler along to check it out.
The new owners are, Masterchef finalist and Wakefield Business Award winner, Chris Hale of Pop Up North and his wife Sophie of Evoke Media Group, and their partners Chris Ball and Shanshan Zhu, who also own the popular House of Koko in Chapel Allerton. I’ve heard great things about Chris’ food and House of Koko so I was really excited to sample the food and atmosphere.
I met with Sophie and her daughters so that I could get the full family experience (Mini Mumbler had another engagement – she’s got a better social life than me at 4 years old!).
The Cafe itself and Staff
The cafe has plenty of room to manoeuvre your pram, staff that will hold doors, smile and make you and your children feel welcome. When you’ve spent hours trying to get yourselves out of the house and you’re feeling a bit frazzled these are the little things that make you feel happy.
There are clean toys available for the children and clean high chairs that the staff are happy to help bring them to your table. You can go to the counter to place your order but the staff will bring it over to your table, essential when you have a little one in your arms.
Food and Drink
There’s a huge choice of different drinks if you’re into your teas and coffees (they also sell alcohol, to remind you of life B.C (Before Children), you can always go back without them one day!).
The menu is great too, I found it very difficult to choose because the choices were right up my street. I had the mushrooms on toast which was delicious, but I went back a week later and had the buttermilk pancakes with bacon and maple syrup – The best pancakes I’ve ever had!
I’m sat here my mouth watering like Pavlov’s Dog at the memory! Afer a year of knowing about Chris and hearing about how good his food is I finally got to try some, worth the wait.
Children’s Food
The older children had the Bento boxes, which are a brilliant way to get even the fussiest kids to eat when out and about. It was like them having a little picnic (I don’t know about your children but Mini Mumbler’s favourite tea is a picnic, although mine is usually scavenged from what’s in the fridge so she’d be very impressed by these!).
Return Visits
I have now been to the cafe several times with the children and every time I have felt welcomed and received excellent customer service from the staff, even ones that haven’t been told that I’m doing a review. The Hepworth itself holds a number of family sessions, particularly in school holidays so why not make a day of it and stop for breakfast, lunch or both in the cafe.
Family Friendly Wakefield
The Hepworth Cafe is the first business to receive our new Family Friendly Wakefield status. This means that they have met our essential criteria and in some cases exceeded our minimum expectations. To view our ever growing list of Family Friendly Wakefield businesses click here. If you know of or own a business that you think deserves to be awarded Family Friendly Wakefield status please apply here.
I received a complimentary lunch and a drink for the purposes of this review. You’ve read that I have since been back and paid my own way. As amazing as the pancakes are, no amount of them would be enough to get me to write a dishonest review. You won’t ever read a bad review on Mumbler because they don’t get published, we don’t bad mouth, it’s not the Mumbler way.