Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Marks & Spencer's Cafe Revive

I don't normally review sandwich places, but I was very impressed with my lunch today so I thought I'd mention it. As well as the usual array of posh ready meals (and basics like miniature tins of dog food for the strange people who do their entire weekly shop there!) some of the bigger food sections of M&S have a cafe section offering hot food. Setting wise, of course, eating inside a supermarket is a bit of bizarre experience. At lunchtime near Moorgate, I'd say the hustle and bustle was probably to manic for chilled people watching, and there was a longish queue for the food (you pay, get given a number receipt and wait). But, in a world of cold sandwiches and the odd jacket potato or toasted ciabatta, they offer a refreshingly diverse selection of hot meals. There's various burgers, pizza and specials which today included a red thai curry and a chili con carne. For me though, it had to be the cheese burger. For under £4, you get a nice, chunky roll with a good crust (none of your namby-pamby burger baps), filled with fresh tomato relish, salad, cheese and, of course, a burger. For an extra quid, the meal deal also adds in some luscious, crispy-coated, hand-made-looking and -tasting chips and a drink. That's not far off what you might pay for a McDonald's or Burger King, but taste-wise it's miles and miles away. My only quibble was that the burger could have been a bit less well done, but overall it was much nicer than most specimens I've sampled in gastropubs for twice the price or more.
Marks & Spencer's Cafe Revive, 70 Finsbury Pavement; London; EC2A 1SA; Tube: Moorgate or Liverpool Street (and other branches, including Canary Wharf)

3 comments:

Thistlemoon said...

Sounds like a great deal to me! I have found I rather like groceries that serve food, it tends to be better than fast food - both in quality and price AND just as fast!

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Maria Verivaki said...

On my last visit to london, iu was amazed by the simply food M&S stores. We paid about 20 pounds for four people and scoffed a range of ready-to-eat meals one night as we returned to london on a train from cambridge. it was one of the best 'fast food' meals we ever had.

Anonymous said...

Well I can say I'm not one to harp on about food but I had lunch yesterday at M&S, 4.95 for a cheesburger meal that was totally beyond my expectations. The burger was succulent and well cooked filled with real cheese and fresh salad, the chips chunky and hot and delicious. I throughly enjoyed my lunch so much that I'll be taking my mother to grab a bite before our movie treat next week.