Mana, 92 Wellington Street, Hong Kong
April 27, 2013 at 3:31 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, gluten free, Hong Kong, Mana, vegan, vegetarian cafe
Score: 8/10
Mana is a veggie and vegan cafe in Hong Kong, serving wraps, sides, salads and juices. We stumbled our way there from Hong Kong Park, after we’d tried to visit the Lok Cha Tea House and found it stops serving at an early hour. We made our way over and around the dual carriage ways and made it to Mana, where wraps and juice where enjoyed on the communal table in the upstairs section, while earwig going the conversations the manager was having. Only downside, they’d run out of chips on our visit. Good spot for veggies, vegans and anyone looking for something gluten free, take out available.
The Marvellous Tea Dance Company, Birds Yard, Kirkgate, Leeds
January 5, 2013 at 5:08 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Leeds, Marvellous Tea Dance Company, Tea
Score: 8/10
This place is great fun, why did I never know about it before? The Marvellous Tea Dance Company combine a tea room and some crafty shops on Kirkgate. It’s all mis-matched china and tea cosies.
Sandwiches are brill, coming with salad and homemade coleslaw (red cabbage in winter). The tea is fairtrade, and comes in teapots. There is a selection of good-looking cakes and the promise of an afternoon tea. The only fault I can speak of on our visit was that the toaster was only half working, leading to the record for the slowest ever making of two toasted tea-cakes. That aside, what a top spot. Two sarnies, two tea-cakes, three teas and one coffee came to £20. Great value, top cafe. In fact, possibly giving Pickles & Potter a run for its money as best Leeds cafe.
Rada Cafe, Malet Street, London, W1
November 18, 2012 at 6:01 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: British Museum, cafe, central London, Rada
The RADA Cafe is a bit of a find, open to the public, close to the British Museum with a nice range of food and drinks. The fresh salads all looked lovely, as did the cake. I had salad, the DC had soup. Both very good. The coffee and soft drinks are good. Next time I will have cake. You also get to sit listening to all the luvvies, which is pretty interesting. This is definitely a central London bolt-hole worth knowing and taking advantage of.
Honey & Co, 25a Warren Street, London, W1T 5LZ
October 20, 2012 at 3:49 pm | Posted in Cafes | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Honey & Co, London, Warren Street
Score: 9/10
Honey & Co is a small cafe on Warren Street, with a couple of tables on the street and a handful of tables inside. As you walk, the shelf along the window is covered in cakes, all clamouring to be eaten and daring you to walk out without them all.
Tables have paper covers, thick paper napkins held with clothes pegs, and tap water comes served in old milk bottles. The menu seems to change regularly and has four or five starters and four or five main courses, four puddings and all those cakes. There is a good veggie choice and there was a gluten-free cake when we visited. The list of coffees includes one flavoured with cardamom, the teas includes a loose leaf Assam, mint and a couple of others.
We had two home-made lemonades, tart and with bits of lemon floating around. Between us we shared two starters and a main. The starters were falafel with lovely smoky humus and figs with creamy soft goats cheese, Regent’s Park honey, lemon and pistachio nuts. The main was courgette stuffed with lemon flavoured rice and currants, with a side dish of rocket. It was beautiful, but a little on the small side for a main portion. We rounded it off with a raspberry and almond bun, which has been casting appealing glances at us since we’d walked in, and was brilliant. This plus a coffee lead to a bill just short of £30 excluding service. The service was a little disorganised – so having asked for the bill which as brought over to us, we were then presented with a new second bill covering the coffee they had forgotten to add the first time.
In short, Honey & Co is brilliant. A little bit of fine tuning and this place will be the only cafe in central London worth bothering with.
The Singing Kettle, Clayton Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne
October 12, 2012 at 12:20 pm | Posted in Restaurants, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Newcastle Upon Tyne, restaurant, veggie-friendly
Score: 7.5/10
The Singing Kettle previously had the honour of seeing me on a lunchtime, so on this visit we went for tea instead. Am pleased to report great staff and loads of veggie and vegan options. Also serves dandelion and burdock (you know when you’ve left Edinburgh and arrived in the North-East).
We had two veggie chillis, very hot in all senses, one apple crumble and a swedish glace. The later we had out of curiosity and actually it’s pretty good and vegan. All this plus a couple of soft drinks came to £23.
It’s worth noting that the cafe stops serving at 8pm. Definitely one of the best paces to eat veggie in Newcastle.
Eteaket, 41 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
October 6, 2012 at 3:03 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews, Tea | Leave a commentTags: breakfast, cafe, Edinburgh, Eteaket, Scotland
Score: 9/10
Eteaket is a terrific tea-room, which we have previously sampled in the afternoon. Staying nearby in a well-known hotel chain where the breakfast is delivered in a bag we thought we would head to Eteaket instead. As it turns out, it was a wise choice.
Eteaket opens at 8am for breakfast and initially we were the only people in the place apart from the staff.The menu is good, including eggs of various types, granola, porridge, toast, etc. We went for juice (fresh and enormous), granola (top, excellent berries and yoghurt), toast (mulitgrain, with honey), a three shot large latte (excellent, great that a cafe takes the trouble to give you a real hit of coffee) and an Awesum Assam tea which arrived as loose leaf tea with it’s own tea-timer. All was excellent, and this plus some tea-leaves to take away (not yet sampled) cam to £15.
Extra good things include the ethical tea policy and donations to local charities. This is my favourite cafe in Edinburgh and the best place in Edinburgh for a brew.
The Bothy, Grant Street, Burghead
September 9, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: Burghead, cafe, Moray Coast Path, Scotland
Score: 8.5/10
Burghead is a small village in Burghead, so it is not surprising that there is little in the way of shops and facilities. What is surprising is that there a cafe this good for a walker to rest their feet in, after they have come into town on the scenic route passing the distillery and the seemingly non-existent Pictish castle. The Bothy was full on a Saturday afternoon when we visited.
This would be a great place for lunch or breakfast. For afternoon tea we had two scones, one decaf latte and two cups of hot milk. Nothing short of a triumph. It is very much even-stephen’s as to whether this or the Rockpool in Cullen is the best cafe on the Moray Coast Path.
Spey Bay Visitor Centre
August 18, 2012 at 8:33 am | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Moray Coast Path, Scotland, Spey Bay, Speyside Way
Score: 7.5/10
The Visitor Centre at Spey Bay is on the Speyside Way and the Moray Coast Path, and provides a good place for walkers to take a break. There is a cafe, toilets, picnic benches, a gift shop and the visitor centre run by the WDCS. We were walking from Buckie to Kingston, so this was our lunch stop.
The cafe serves soup, sarnies and light meals as well as scones and cakes. Most of the food is home-made. We had two lentil soups, one apple juice, one coffee, one millionaires shortbread and one scone which came to £12. All very good, and the staff were friendly is a little scatty (nearly didn’t remember to charge me!)
Spey Bay itself is lovely, with a big shingle beach and banks at the mouth of the Spey. There were no dolphins when we visited, but we did see an osprey out fishing for its lunch. This is a top spot.
Rockpool Cafe, 10 The Square, Cullen, AB56 4RR
August 11, 2012 at 10:09 am | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Cullen, Moray Coast Path, Scotland
Score: 8/10
The Rockpool Cafe sits on the square in Cullen, next to the bus stops for the main Inverness to Aberdeen bus and diagonally opposite the Tourist Information. The Cafe is open seven days a week (9-4 Monday to Saturday, 10-4 on Sunday) and does breakfasts, lunches, cake, tea, coffee and takeaway.
I know the ice-cream shop in Cullen is the famous go-to place, but honestly, the Rockpool is actually the place to be. Staff were really helpful and the late lunches other people were having looked fab.
We visited twice, once for an apple juice, a proper coffee and one of the most amazing pieces of Millionaire’s Shortbread ever beheld by the human eye (£4.95 altogether) and once for takeaway sarnies (£4 each) good bread, good cheese and served in take-out boxes with salad and crisps. Thus prepared, we tackled the first leg of the Moray Coast Path, headed to Buckie.
The Needlemakers Cafe, West Street, Lewes
May 26, 2012 at 2:55 pm | Posted in Cafes, Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cafe, Lewes, Needlemakers, West Sussex
Score:7.5/10
The Needlemakers is an old warehouse building holding a selection of small shops, including jewellery, books and clothes and a cafe. It’s all young trendies, but there was room for our walking boots as well.
The bread looks nice and the cafe does a range of sandwiches and light meals, we choose to go for cake. The choice included at least one that was gluten-free. We went for one slice of apple and cinnamon cake and one slice of chocolate cake. Slices are huge and both were nice, although the chocolate was slightly on the dry side for my taste. We also had one pear juice and one decaf latter, £9.95 the lot.
Service was good and the loo’s were clean. One mark has been deducted because the scones are served with whipped cream, rather than clotted!
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