Bar Italia

Bar Italia, for those of you who have not yet visited, is a famous and long standing Italian coffee bar, with the emphasis on Italian. There are some tables outside which enable a good view of the comings and goings on Frith street and some stools inside so you can sit, feet dangling and listen to the waiters showing off. The coffee is good and strong, if not cheap (it cost £5 for two coffees yesterday). The place has been here for years and is open late, which means that many Londoners have a history associated with it, usually a well needed coffee after a late nights drinking. They also serve cakes and sandwiches, none of which i tasted, but which looked fresh enough. It makes a difference from the ubiquitous chains and the coffee really is good and strong enough to keep you ticking along for a day in town.

Royal Festival Hall

Company of Cooks have installed themselves in the terrace cafe area at the Royal Festival Hall and have made it an excellent place for lunch. There is plenty of space, much of it with a riverside view, and the place has a light and airy feel to it. It is not really a formal lunching kind of place but a good lazy Sunday or
Saturday destination. Excellent sandwiches on good, dense, seedy bread or focaccia with hummus and roasted courgettes. The cake is excellent and unusual, including a lavender cake with a wonderfully subtle flavour or, for Easter, a good rich, fruity simnel cake with generous amounts of marzipan. They also do seasonal salads and soups. Well made coffee and quick service make it one of my current favourites.

Nordic Bakery

The Nordic Bakery in Golden Square, is a relatively new Scandinavian bakery and coffee shop. It serves open sandwiches on dark rye bread (salmon tartare, egg and anchovy, cheese and gherkins) and, the real draw, warm, fresh and deeply enticing cinnamon buns. The interior, as you might expect, is clean and modern looking and yet, mainly because of the comforting and drool inducing smell of cinnamon and baking when you enter, it also immensely comforting. We escaped the hailstorm there and had tea in retro looking and oversized cups. The tea was perfectly brewed and reasonably priced, the smell was deeply delicious and the service friendly and efficient. In this part of London, tucked behind the generally overpriced and tacky Piccadilly, this is a rare find and i strongly you pay it a visit.