Munch Cafe Headingley: Meet the new owners of the much-loved Leeds cafe serving a new south Indian menu

And word is beginning to spread about an exciting change at Munch Cafe, which is now open in the evening - serving it’s popular English breakfast and lunch by day, and a newly-introduced south Indian menu by night.

Choks Thenappan took over the North Lane cafe in June, launching an evening menu with head chef Sandhiya Prasad and her husband Rameswaran Selvarathinam a month later. The daytime offering remains the same, with Choks keeping on the two long-standing cafe chefs.

Choks, 40, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Sometimes it’s written for you. We were looking for a place to serve our south Indian food, but it all came together and the hybrid setup is working well.

“The feedback has been really positive. 95% of the customers we get through the door every day have heard about us through word of mouth references.

“We don’t do much marketing, but because of the quality of the food and the customer service, people are talking about us on Facebook and WhatsApp groups. We also get a lot of support from the Leeds vegan community.”

The new owners have run an online Indian grocery store for the last five years, and before that Choks owned an IT consultancy company. Choks said they were committed to retaining the cleanliness and service that the cafe was loved for under its previous owners, as well as making changes to improve the quality of the dishes - without upping the prices.

In the evening, the concise vegan menu includes a variety of dosas – south Indian pancakes – as well as rice noodles, dumplings and south Indian filter coffee.

Choks said: “It’s a limited menu, but everything we offer is fresh every day. We don’t carry over anything to the following day - sometimes we’ve had a bigger crowd than expected and we’ve had to turn people away. But we would rather do that as opposed to making more than necessary and then reusing it the following day.”

Choks said he loves being in the Headingley community and has been busy getting to know Munch Cafe’s regular customers; some have been visiting for almost a decade. With a 4.7 star-rating on Google reviews and a cult following in the student community, Choks understands the importance of keeping the cafe’s prices low.

He said: “We have the commitment to continue the cleanliness and the service of the previous owners.

“We focus on the customers, making little changes to improve their experience. We’ve changed some of the things inside, we wanted to give that bit of extra quality, and changed the coffee beans to a more premium variety.”

“I love the sense of purpose that running a business gives you,” Choks added.

“And you give livelihood to other people and give back to the community - we’ll donate a proportion of what we take to charities. As a business, you grow and you take your employees with you. And that’s so satisfying.”