Costa Coffee, Heathrow Airport, Terminal 4

We were saying goodbye to my Step son and his wife as they were emigrating to Israel and obviously after all that emotion, blended family dynamics etc, we were hungry. Terminal 4 is very small, Heathrow Airport is a food desert and the outlook was not promising. Costa Coffee was bascially the only option apart from a Wetherspoons pub, which isn't really an option at all.

So, since I am now reviewign pretty much everything I eat outside of the house (althoug there is a lot to catch up on) here it is: the egg sandwich was pretty decent, no foliage just egg and mayo on soft brown bread. A slice of carrot cake was large, sweet and sticky, and the coffee is only really drinkable if youhave an extra shot. Pretty basic but not terrible, and apart from the fact they tried to put Vanilla syrup in my coffee, not a complete disaster at all.

Parties

The Garrison Pub on Bermondsey Street is a gastro pub, which we have stopped eating at as we have had too many dishes that were not properly cooked or that were cold. However, they have an excellent private room there which costs £50 to hire and which has a projector, space for 30 people, air conditioning and fantastic shabby chic decor. We had my Step son's leaving party there and it was an excellent venue. You can set it up however you like, we pre ordered some wine and then afterwards people fetched their drinks from the bar. You can order canapes but we (being cheapskates) made the bar menu available for people to order from if they wanted to. It was just right; chips, bruschetta, fishfinger sandwiches etc...I would heartily recomend it for a small party, film club or soireee type thing (which I beleive is popular again now).

I do not have a proper picture of the room so have posted one of Joff's head instead.

The Market Coffee House

The Market Coffee House in Spitalfields is an old style cafe opposite Spitalfields Market. It is family owned and so has a little more character than many of the other chain establishments around this area. This character shows itself through the look of the place, all wooden furnture and nooks and crannies, including a lovel old tiled floor down in the basement where the loos are. The food itself sells itself as 'home made', freshly baked rolls with egg, sheese, ham etc, and an excellent bowl of hummus with a huge slice of bread. It is all fresh tasting and not too expensive (egg and cress roll £2.50). The cake counter is pretty irresistible, so far I recommend the banana cake, although it does have chocolate chips hidden in it which I count as a bonus but Joff sees as an ambush, and the individual bakewell tarts. the coffee is good and strong (I think they use Monmouth) and there is always somewhere to sit. I have only one quibble and that is the service; the servers themselves are all very decorative adn look as though they have been bought in bulk form an art School but there are a lot of them and it seems to take them a long time to do anything, which isn't helped by the fact that they all seem to do the same thing at once. No system! This doesn't ruin the place by any means and it is fast turning into my favourite lunch spot in the area. I read on their blog that they are opening a restaurant this year, which is good news.

Bob Bob Ricard?

Has anyone been to Bob Bob Ricard? I would like to go and am keen to know what it is like. I am mainly attracted to the large variety of egg dishes on the menu, oh and the Champagne bell.