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National Café
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If you want a more casual alternative to Oliver Peyton’s National Dining Rooms on the other side of the National Gallery, try this, its younger sibling. It’s certainly a looker (thanks to designer David Collins), with soaring ceilings, glossy black woodwork and red leather seating, and the opening hours are friendlier too. A long, marble-topped bar runs down one side and in the back is a self-service daytime canteen. Whether you want to have breakfast before work, lunch or afternoon tea during a gallery visit, dinner with friends or an after-cinema cocktail, it can deliver. Pastries, eggs, granola and smoothies are served until noon, followed by classic brasserie fare such as steaks, pastas, burgers and boards of terrines, charcuterie or cheese. Recent highlights have included excellent Colston Bassett stilton, a textbook smoked haddock fish cake with poached egg, and creamy smoked mackerel pâté served with silverskin onions, tiny gherkins and toast. A few specials (chateaubriand, côte de boeuf) appear for the evening, and kids get their own menu – though they’d probably prefer the ice-cream sundaes (something of a speciality), especially the absurdly extravagant ‘National Catastrophe’. A welcome sanctuary from the tourist throngs.
Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009
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See also
- Oliver Peyton: interview
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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Details
- East Wing, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN
- Area: Trafalgar Square
- Tel: 020 7747 2525
- www.thenationalcafe.com
- Book online
- Category: Brasseries
- Travel: Charing Cross tube/rail
- Times: Breakfast served 8am-11.30am, lunch served noon-5pm, dinner served 5.30-11pm Mon-Sat. Tea served 3-5.30pm daily. Meals served 10am-6pm Sun
- Price: Main courses £8.50-£16.50. Set dinner (5.30-7pm) £14.50 2 courses, £17.50 3 courses
- Credit cards: MC, V
- Services:
- Available for hire: Restaurant available for hire
- Child facilities: Babies and children welcome: high chairs
- Disabled: toilet
- Function room: Separate room for parties, seats 30
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99puzzle99
Right then. Well I work in London and all that usual malarkey. I suppose I assume myself to be a general socialiser, not an out every night person....
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Re comment above - yawn. Grow some, etc.
This place is a veritable haven of bliss in a generally over-crowded and unplesant West End. Light & Airy - the service might on occasion need a little encouragement, but the quality and the price is spot on and the guy behind the bar really does know how to make a cocktail. Mine's a Negroni please.
Our London trip was great until we stopped at the National Cafe for afternoon tea. It was a Friday afternoon and things were pretty slow in the cafe. There were eight people in the cafe including four waiters, who were busy chatting. We were totally ignored. After 10 minutes of waiting, finally, a waiter stopped chatting and brought us a menu after we repeatedly tried to catch his attention. We were totally ignored again that. We waited for another 10 minutes, no one came over to take the order. We thought okay, maybe this is how the Brits serve their customers. Then two men dressed in sharp suits came in. The waiter immediately greeted them and brought them a menu. At that moment, we decided to walk out and the waiters didnt even try to stop and ask us what happened. Clearly, this is not a place that welcomes tourists. We've been to many restaurants in many countries. In terms of service, this is the worst experience we've ever had. We would give it a zero star if we could. We would never go back again and don't recommend this place to anyone.