Take advantage of those (admittedly rare) sunny summer days by spending a lazy afternoon snacking amid London‘s fine greenery.
No 1 The Garden Café
The refurbed café has a groovy ’60s interior and sunny tables outside. A monthly-changing menu offers snacks and full meals. Wine and beer too. Warning: a mention in our cheap eats issue saw the café overrun and some diners turned away.
The Garden Café, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, NW1 (020 7935 5729).Excellent food, organic and free-range products, and hearty, British cooking. In a hurry? Visit the offshoot Steward’s Room for cakes and ice cream.
Brew House, Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, NW3 (020 8341 5384).Great British breakfast, Modern British lunch and dinner, an ice-cream parlour, afternoon teas and snacks. If you prefer to picnic, it provides upmarket hampers with tartan travel rugs. Feature continues
Wholesome foods drawn from the global kitchen and presented with flair in a lovely setting. Free-range steak comes from a local butcher and is served with fresh horseradish.
Pavilion Café, Highgate Wood, Muswell Hill Rd, N10 (020 8444 4777).This self-proclaimed ‘Swiss-style chalet café’ has outdoor seating near the sports grounds and serves the best coffees and sausages in Regent’s Park. ‘Park Porker’ is its speciality free-range banger (£2.75). Non-pork options (sandwiches, soup and salads) are available at reasonable prices, as well as ginger beer (yes!)
The Honest Sausage, Regent’s Park, Broadwalk (off Chester Rd), NW1 (020 7224 3872).A local hub that not only serves meaty cooked breakfasts, a short lunch menu, cakes and kids’ meals, but stocks baby food and sun lotion.
Pavilion Café, Dulwich Park, SE21 (020 8299 1383).Offers good salads and pasta. The home-made chocolate brownies and special non-alcoholic fruit punch also come highly recommended (no alcohol served). On a fair-weather day, the terrace area of this café boasts a great view over London.
Alexandra Palace Garden Centre, Alexandra Palace Way, N22 (centre 020 8444 2555).Next to The Princess Diana Memorial Playground, this café is perfect for bringing the kids to. It even has its own ‘Playcafé’ menu and area.
Broadwalk Café, Kensington Gardens, Kensington Grove, W2 (020 7034 0722).The Serpentine Gallery’s annual architectural commission has become a summer event – this year, Portuguese architects Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have created an airy timber-framed shelter and used translucent polycarbonate to fill it with a soft dappled light. Catering is supplied by popular Shoreditch outfit Rivington Grill Bar & Deli – high quality but, by necessity, fairly basic. The pavilion will be open daily until October 2.
Serpentine Pavilion, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 (020 7402 6075).Eat2 is part of the Weavers Restaurant Trust, which helps disabled and unemployed members of the community attain NVQ qualifications (ie learn to cook, serve etc), which means there is an excellent and varied daily-rotating menu (from steak and kidney pie to basted salmon or African chicken stew) at great prices (£2.95-£4.95). The café’s decor represents members of all the different East End communities.
Eat 2 @ Weavers, Weavers Fields Community Space, Kelsey St, E2 (020 7729 3111).
Time Out London magazine (Issue 1825)|
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