Couple to open nostalgic 'soul' food café in Caerphilly

Maybe it was bangers and mash? Pizza? Or even Sunday dinners that your grandma used to make?

A couple from Caerphilly are opening a café designed to bring back the nostalgia and memories of enjoying your parents' cooking and knowing that nothing can top what you're eating right now. 

Ross Walker and his partner Vicky Wheeler took over management of the Soul Food Café on the Pontygwindy Industrial Estate in early January, and are finally ready to throw open their doors after an extensive refurbishment, all completed by Ross' own building company, Look Fresh. 

For Ross, the decision to become owner of café was born when he and Vicky started to get significant attention from posting their Sunday roasts online. 

He said: "We had one post with 700 likes and thousands of comments, a lot of people saying stuff like, oh, we'd love to try one of those!"

Vicky and Ross have become famous across Gwent for their roast dinners (Image: Soul Food Café)From there, the couple began to deliver their homemade roasts from their home, at one point reaching 75 dinners a week, which caught the eye of the council. 

Ross said: "I remember we decided it was getting a bit much at home, especially with the council nudging us. It really prompted us to think 'Let's do this properly and get somewhere', it us gave us the motivation to finally do something."

According to Ross, beef has always been the most popular choice for their roasts, with chicken coming in second (Image: Soul Food Café)After having his heart set on the former Pontygwindy Café for years, Ross was delighted to finally take it over early this year. The team have been hard at work over the last two weeks, with the café now open.  

Ross said: "This is a really big thing for our family. Everything has just fallen into place. 

"We want people to come to us to relive favourite childhood memories of food, and to eat their true soul food. Our Sunday dinners are our prime example of that. 

"We're so proud of them - they are designed to remind customers of when their grandmother cooked on Sundays and how that felt."

This reporter, a self-proclaimed roastie lover, tried one of these signature meal, and it sure lived up to the hype. 

It was a really difficult choice between chicken and beef, and as both are very popular, I went for a mix, and it was absolutely the right choice. 

The meat was deliciously moist, and the roast potatoes - this reporter's favourite part - gorgeously fluffy on the inside and satisfyingly crunchy on the outside. 

I was almost instantly transported home to having roast dinner with my family as a young girl, and that's what this place is all about - reminding you of the child within. 

This was a prime example of what Soul Food Cafe are all about - a delicious Sunday dinner that transported me right back to my childhood (Image: Soul Food Café / Newsquest)I would certainly recommend that if you love a Sunday dinner, or just simply want a meal with a large dollop of nostalgia or want to feel like a kid again, this is the place for you. 

The roasts come at a charge of a large for £13, small £11, and kids £7.50. 

The menu for Soul Food Café, bringing back some childhood favourites (Image: Soul Food Café)The team are always open to new suggestions for their menu, and are encouraging people to get in touch. 

The café is open 8am-3pm Monday - Friday, 8am-8pm and 12-4pm on Sundays.