Wholesome food and friendly service... it can only be Big Baps LOVE BINGO? and a friend can play for FREE
ANDREW ROBINSON HAD SUNDAY LUNCH AT THE ROADSIDE CAFE You
IT was nice to be back at the Big Baps cafe to do something other than investigate the well-documented complaints about al fresco liaisons in the nearby woods.
Today is a novel experience for me, but something that lorry drivers do a lot: Sunday lunch in a roadside cabin cafe.
Big Baps at Junction 25, just off the M62 at Brighouse, has been opening on Sundays for a few months, offering traditional fare such as chicken breast, pork fillet, and roast beef with Yorkshire puddings. The business recently upgraded to a more spacious dinerstyle cabin, with views of passing traffic and woodland.
Some of the traditional Sunday dishes weren’t available, because the menu does change, so I chose steak in ale pie which came with mashed potato, veg, and a generous portion of gravy made from meat juices and sage and onion stuffing. Slow-cooked to perfection, the beef was pleasingly complemented by the ale - Newcastle Brown. A huge dollop of mash made for a hearty meal, all for a very reasonable £7.95, which included a drink.
As Heart radio played in the background, I chatted with the friendly coowner Sharon Wherrett as the cafe began filling up. Most people opted for an all-day breakfast which comes in three sizes. The large version is a proper belly-buster and comes in at £7.95. One customer was asked if he needed a ‘doggy bag’ as he was clearly struggling with his sausages.
The cafe sells around 50 breakfast feasts on Saturdays and maybe around 30 on Sundays. Sharon describes the cafe as something of a meeting place where people like to make friends and chat.
And if you don’t fancy being sociable, the cafe has daily newspapers and car/ motoring magazines to read. Or you could just while away a few minutes looking out of the window. Most of the rubbish has been cleared up from the roadside and woods and you might even spot a wild deer in the woodland across the road.
Among the Sunday diners was Kevin, a retired engineer from Queensbury, Bradford, who hit the nail on the head when we chatted about why this place is, in his words, something of a ‘goldmine.’
“It’s nice home-cooked food. I don’t like posh places; I like friendly, downto-earth places. You go in some pubs and the food is warmed up. The food here is wholesome and the portions are big. People always chat in these places. If I go somewhere posh it’s not like that.”
He joked that Big Baps is a good spot if you don’t like to spend too much cash. “This is a good place for people with short arms and deep pockets.”
I found the cafe atmosphere friendly and it took some effort to extract myself from the conversation and get back on the road.
Big Baps cafe is open seven days a week. It closes at 2pm on Sundays. Food is now also available through Uber Eats.