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Peyton and Byrne
You may have your bags checked by security, but the Wellcome Collection is free to enter and its new cafeteria, bang in the centre of the foyer, is so easily accessed that it makes a fine lunch option for local office workers.
It is an offshoot of the teeny Peyton and Byrne kiosk in Heal's Tottenham Court Road building, but also much more. As usual with Oliver Peyton venues, the design has been carefully considered. Here it's neat chairs with square cushions in taupe, lime and hot pink, and low, sharply cut sofas. Blue and brown plates in the shape of Reuleaux triangles add a retro note that brings to mind 'Bewitched'.
The menu offers a choice of hot sandwiches, pies, terrines and hearty salads that are more of a meal than a snack. Our hot-smoked salmon sandwich was stupendous: properly ripe avocado, fresh baby spinach leaves and juicy slabs of fish layered in a noticeably high quality bloomer-style white roll, served with boiled and buttered Jersey royals and a fashionably cress-flecked salad. At £8.75 it was terrific value, too: one can pay £9.50 for a modest salad not even half as good in some trendy west London cafés.
Also fab-a-roony was the generous jaffa cake with dark chocolate cover secreting luscious layers of chocolate mousse and orange jelly - though choosing from the appealing display of sweets proved challenging, what with mile-high wheat-free chocolate gateau, deep brown tranches of treacle tart, cupcakes in fairground colours, crusty fig rolls and the sensuous curves of a golden pear and almond tart among the line up.
Interesting drinks include New Forest Cider, Luscombe lemonade and St Clements refreshers, Chegworth Valley juices, well-made coffee served in elegant crockery or takeaway cups, and a good variety of teas - something Peyton and Byrne regards as a special feature (and the number of red teapots sitting on tables during our visit indicated customers felt likewise). This cheerful spot is welcome indeed.
Jenni Muir
Time Out London Issue 1926: July 18-24 2007
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