★ Sunderland city centre · Fawcett Street · since 2018
Family-run cafe and bistro, since 2018.
Run by Wendy Mulvaney herself at 58 Fawcett Street, five minutes from The Bridges. Traditional North-East home-cooked food, cooked to order from fresh ingredients, in a buttercream room with two floors of seating. Famous for the homemade pies. Open Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Mondays.
58 Fawcett Street · buttercream room · two floors of seating
4.7 ★73 TripAdvisor reviews
#1 of 15Sunderland dessert spots
11:45amBreakfast last orders
11:30Sunday roast opens
The story
Wendy opened the door in 2018. The kitchen has been hers ever since.
Wendy Mulvaney took on 58 Fawcett Street as a family-run cafe and bistro in 2018, five minutes from The Bridges. She runs the kitchen herself. Every plate is cooked to order, with ingredients from Sunderland and County Durham suppliers, on the rhythm of who walks through the door rather than batch-cooked off a warming pass. The mince and dumplings, the homemade pie of the day, the ham broth in winter, the pease-pudding sandwich on the lunch board year-round, are North-East dishes Wendy grew up cooking.
The room is small and full. A buttercream front counter with the cake stand, a staircase to a second floor of seating, the Wedgwood plates Wendy uses for afternoon tea. The reviews on TripAdvisor go back to 2018, and Wendy answers almost every one of them personally, signing with a green heart that matches the script in the logo.
“Thank you so much for your great review, please do call again, you’re very welcome.”
2018
Wendy Mulvaney opens Wendy's Place at 58 Fawcett Street, five minutes from The Bridges. Kitchen run by Wendy herself, every plate cooked to order.
2019
Homemade pie of the day becomes the most-ordered item. Local mince and dumpling recipe goes on the specials board year-round.
2020
Trading through the pandemic on takeaway only. Sunday lunch turned into a Sunday-roast-in-a-box for the Fawcett Street regulars.
2023
Sunderland city blog Nicola Cairncross features Wendy's Place in a 15-min marketing makeover. Wendy names the pies as the thing the cafe is famous for.
2024
Ranked #1 of 15 dessert spots in Sunderland on TripAdvisor with a 4.7-star average. August food-hygiene inspection scores Management of Food Safety as Good.
Today
Family-run by Wendy Mulvaney. Open Tuesday to Sunday on Fawcett Street. Closed Mondays. Every TripAdvisor review still answered by Wendy with a green heart.
Today on the board
The home-cooked plate, in four parts.
Breakfast until 11:45am, the homemade specials board through lunch, Sunday roast from 11:30, and the cake counter Sunderland keeps voting for.
01Breakfast service . last orders 11:45am
The Mega and the Full English
Cooked to order . served on the buttercream plates
Two eggs, two bacon, two sausage, black pudding, hash brown, beans, tomato, mushrooms, fried bread, toast. The Mega adds a third of everything. The Vegetarian swaps in halloumi and a portobello, the Children's halves the plate. Breakfast sandwiches are a build-your-own three-item rule on a stottie or a sandwich roll.
Mega 14.95 . Full English Large 11.95 . Vegetarian 12.95 . Children's 6.50
02Homemade specials . the kitchen runs deliberately slow
Mince and dumplings. Pie of the day. Beer-battered cod.
Cooked to order . fresh ingredients from local suppliers
The North-East plate. Homemade mince and dumplings. Cottage pie. Chicken curry with rice and chips. Beer-battered prime cod fillet with peas and bread-and-butter. Homemade quiche. Beef chili. Pie of the day, the one the cafe is famous for. Ham broth and dumplings on the winter board.
Mains 10.95 to 15.95 . Soup of the day 6.95 . Ham broth (winter) 7.95
03Sunday lunch . 11:30 to 15:00 . walk-in only
Sunday roast with the Yorkshire pudding it deserves
One sitting . walk-ins seated as tables free
Beef, chicken, pork, or a vegetarian nut roast. Roast potatoes, seasonal greens, mashed swede, gravy from the pan, and the kind of Yorkshire pudding that belongs on a Sunday in the North-East, not the kind that comes out of a bag. The kind of Sunday a Sunderland family with grandchildren does once a fortnight.
Sunday Roast 14.95 to 18.95 . no booking required
04Cake counter . ranked #1 dessert spot in Sunderland
Apple pie, sticky toffee, sundaes and waffles
TripAdvisor #1 of 15 dessert spots . afternoon tea on request
The reason the afternoon regulars come back. Apple pie warm with custard. Sticky toffee pudding with cream. Ice-cream sundaes, waffles, a rotating cake of the week. Afternoon tea for two laid on the buttercream cloths with the Wedgwood plates, on request the day before.
Apple pie 4.99 . Sticky toffee 4.99 . Sundaes / waffles 4.99
The North-East plate
Pease pudding, ham broth, and the homemade pie Wendy is known for.
What you will rarely find on a city-centre cafe menu outside the region. Pease pudding, a yellow-split-pea preserve that has been a Sunderland and Durham staple since the Victorian terraces went up, is on the lunch board on a stottie sandwich year-round. Ham broth and dumplings runs as a winter special. The homemade pie of the day, the dish the cafe is famously named for, lands on a Wedgwood plate with chips and peas every weekday.
Cooked to order, deliberately
Plates leave the pass when they are cooked, not when the bell rings. The slower lunch is the deal: fresh ingredients from local suppliers, not a warming-pan service. The reviewers know.
Pease pudding year-round
Pease pudding sandwich on the lunch board at 7.50. Almost no other city-centre cafe in Sunderland keeps it on as a regular. It is a North-East-of-England specialism we are protective of.
Ham broth (winter only)
Ham broth with dumplings on the winter board at 7.95. Cooked in a single big pot on Tuesday and Friday mornings, served until it runs out, never reheated to the next day.
58 Fawcett Street is on the high street running south from Sunderland station to Mowbray Park, opposite the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. On-street parking on Borough Road, the Russell Street multi-storey two minutes' walk.
58 Fawcett Street · Sunderland SR1 1SE · opposite the Winter GardensOpen in Google Maps ↗
FAQ
Five questions the front counter hears every week.
Where are you, and how do I get there from The Bridges?+
58 Fawcett Street, Sunderland SR1 1SE. Five minutes' walk from The Bridges shopping centre, on the high street running south from Sunderland station to Mowbray Park. Opposite the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. There is on-street parking on Borough Road and the council multi-storey on Russell Street is two minutes' walk.
Are you cooked-to-order, and is that why service can take a moment?+
Yes. Every plate is cooked from fresh when you order, with ingredients from local suppliers. We are deliberately a little slower than a chain, because we are not running plates batch-cooked off a warming pass. If you are in a rush at lunchtime, the breakfast sandwich on a stottie comes out in under ten minutes.
Do you do afternoon tea, and do I need to book?+
Yes, afternoon tea for two with finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and a tier of the cake counter, laid on the buttercream cloths with the Wedgwood plates. Phone the day before so we can bake fresh. Tuesday through Saturday afternoons are best.
Is there anything on the menu I will not find in another Sunderland cafe?+
Pease pudding sandwich on the lunch board, year-round. It is a North-East yellow-split-pea preserve that very rarely appears on a city-centre cafe menu outside the region, and we keep it. Ham broth and dumplings on the winter board for the same reason.
Are kids welcome?+
Yes. Children's Breakfast at 6.50, Little Ones (ages 1 to 5) at 5.50 with a drink, Big Kids (ages 6 to 9) at 6.50 with a drink. Highchair available. The staircase to the upstairs room has a handrail on both sides for the smaller ones.
