25Aug

Cycle and eat

Vegan breakfast in a bicycle shop? You got it!

A massive thank you to Beth who volunteered this lovely guest review. Beth wanted you all to know about a recent food experience in a unique setting.

Check it out and plan a trip to York. Unless you already live there. If that is the case, get busy enjoying what you’ve got!

Take it away, Beth.

Recently, I had a day of mooching planned in York. York is always a great place to visit for a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan offerings. I usually visit El Piano, which has been consistently making my tummy happy since I discovered it 8 years’ ago, and where I celebrated my 30th birthday. However, I hadn’t checked whether any new offerings had popped up for a while, so a quick browse of Happy Cow pointed me in the direction of Bicis y Mas.

Happy Cow describes this cafe as “A licensed vegetarian cafe set within a family, city cycling shop. Makes breakfast and lunch in-house, including cakes and biscuits. Has coffee, selection of loose teas, and Belgian beers. Family friendly. Has outdoor seating. Wheelchair accessible. Accepts credit cards.”

It sounded good to me. I do enjoy a good vegan breakfast, and the single review on Happy Cow raved about it (especially their carrot cake). I’m also a cycling widow, with six bicycles decorating a small house thanks to a bike-mad partner, and know cyclists like their food and are a very good gauge of whether a place is any good, so I set off to find it.

Bicis y Mas is located in the Walmgate/Fossgate area of York, which has lots of interesting gift and vintage shops to explore. The cafe itself is bright and airy with plenty of colourful, comfortable seating amidst the bike shop paraphernalia, and a wide selection of delicious looking vegan and gluten free cakes on display. The vases on the tables are old bike bottles, which was a cute and quirky touch. Big screen TVs scattered around the shop display cycling shows: the run up to the Vuelta, and then some dangerous looking BMX carnage whilst I was there.

The cafe is predominantly vegetarian and so had plenty of egg and dairy based options, but they also had a really great selection of vegan options too. All allergens are clearly marked on the menu, which was appreciated, and a quick discussion with the lovely staff informed me that they make their own vegan bread on site. I opted for the vegan breakfast with a pot of English breakfast tea.

Everything is made fresh on site by the chef, and they apologised for the wait whilst he cooked it, but this wasn’t a problem for me, I was more than happy letting my eyes wander around the bike shop, and looking out the window at the people passing by, and making use of the cafe’s free wifi. My food, which didn’t take long to arrive at all, was absolutely delicious. Spiced bean patties, bubble and squeak, steamed spinach, tomato and mushrooms perfectly cooked were an absolute pleasure to eat.

The rest of the menu showed a wide range of tasty looking lunch options. I’m led to believe that the menu changes regularly, so I’m sure there will always be something new to try. I’m also told that the cafe is trying out evening service at the present time with tapas style dining until 9pm from Thursday to Saturday, which I am sure goes down very well with their Belgian beers!

Sadly, I was far too full from my delicious breakfast to try out the amazing looking cakes that decorated the counter. However, it is a VERY good excuse to go back next time I am in York.