Big Mouth Gyoza review: Here’s what I thought of the Leeds Trinity Kitchen vendor serving tasty dumplings

It seems as though the whole of Yorkshire descends on the city for Christmas shopping and parties, and booking anywhere half decent is a mission we were too hungry for. So I suggested stopping off at Trinity Kitchen, the food court in Trinity Leeds shopping centre. Alongside a selection of permanent vendors - Pho, Rola Wala and Pizzaluxe included - the food court rotates six new street food vans every eight weeks.

It offers small businesses the chance to trade from the heart of Leeds city centre (without the spiralling rents), as well as letting customers experience new flavours and cuisine they might not have tried before.

After doing a quick lap of the court and weighing up our options, we settled on Big Mouth Gyoza - a business based in the Yorkshire Dales that I wasn’t yet familiar with. They specialise in meat and veg-filled Japanese-style dumplings - blast frozen to lock in their flavour, then steamed all over and fried on one side.

We both ordered the gyoza bento box - one mushroom filling, one pork belly - and a can of Ting to wash it down with. The gyoza is served with your choice of rice (we chose spicy) as well as red cabbage, spring onions and a sweet chilli vinaigrette.

The dumplings were silky smooth, with the perfect crispy bottom, and the mushroom filling was buttery soft with a big hit of umami flavour. My friend’s pork belly filling had similarly rave reviews, they said it melted in their mouth, although they like their gyoza with a little more bite.

The rice was well-cooked and there was a big whack of heat in the spice mix sprinkled over it - the rice itself needed a little more salt, but the pot of sweet chilli vinaigrette, probably meant for dipping, completely lifted the dish when drenched all over it. It was delicious.

It was a small portion for £9, but I do appreciate independent businesses are having a tough time of it at the moment. I can imagine munching on the gyozas at a festival, or cooking them at home (Big Mouth Gyoza offer deliveries) as part of a dinner party spread.

Big Mouth Gyoza might just do one thing - but they do it very well indeed.

Scores

Service: 7

Atmosphere: 7

Food: 8

Value: 5