5b Brewery Place,
Leeds,
LS10 1NE
(0113) 242 8778
The ViewLeeds Review
The idea is brilliant - a cafe inside a deli, inside a convenience store. Life is good when you can shop, have a beer, order a sandwich, pay and then chill out all in the same place.
The Venue
Located in a corner of the main square Yum Yum brings some irreverent freshness to the otherwise fairly stuck-up Brewery Wharf. It's a regular convenience store, stocking everything from yoghurts to deodorant, cigarettes and alcohol. It just not as crammed as your usual cornershop.
Yum Yum has a fairly regular looking deli bar with delicate, neat metal shelves and pink walls. What makes Yum Yum totally down to earth, ironic and irreverent is the fact that you can sit and eat in the same place as you can buy toilet paper. Their tables are pink and square with colourful plastic chairs inside and metal chairs for sitting outdoors.
The People
Not yet discovered by a crowd more appreciative of its cheap eatery nature, for now Yum Yum is known only to those living and working around Brewery Wharf or by Oracle customers who, for obvious reasons, give the place some attitude.
Yum Yum is a popular choice in this affluent development and the majority of people who are here to grab a bite to eat and a drink are fun and ultimately deserve a place like this.
The Food
Yum Yum has a nice deli bar. You can choose from a selection of classic sandwiches (£1.89 to £2), Yum Yum specials (£2 to £3.15) or hot toasted panini (£3). Fillings are simple but mouthwatering with poached salmon with lemon mayonnaise and watercress, Parma ham with brie and rocket and many others. You can also get a healthy breakfast and wash it down with a coffee (£1.75 to £2.75) or a tea (£1).
The Drink
You can peruse the shelves while making up your mind for as long as you want. There's all the regular soft drinks, a few lesser known ones and a good selection of beers and wines too. They have Red Stripe, Corona, Tyskie, Lech, Grolsch, Tiger, Millers and others, canned or bottled, starting from a mere £1.05 (Corona). And the wine selection is even more extensive. The average bottle is £5 to £7 but you can find something more exclusive if you're not a cheap drinker.
Once you've decided that Asahi is the best match to that sandwich you have been craving all day you just grab your bottle, order food and pay for both. There's a small corkage fee of 50p for beer and £1.50 for a bottle of wine but, by doing the math, your beer and sandwich will cost you less and taste way better than any pub. The only drawback? Beers are not refrigerated…yet.
The Last Word
Yum Yum needs either to expand all over the country or patent the idea. This concept must spread because it is just too clever not to. Visit the original before Yum Yums spring up all over the place and it’s not a new thing anymore.
Yum Yum has been reviewed by 6 users