Restaurants

By Veronica Simpson

Within the bland chain anonymity of Holborn, the Fleet River Bakery café positively bristles with individuality, from its jugs of own-made 'Italian' lemonade to its moist muffins topped with thick swirls of cream cheese and fresh raspberries. With a kitchen team that includes dedicated bread and pastry chef, everything in this generously proportioned all-day café is freshly baked or made on the premises – apart from a handful of bottled juices, wines and ciders.

A tranquil spot for delicious Monmouth coffees and pastries at breakfast and divine cakes at tea (I can recommend the ginger and walnut), at lunchtime the well-priced offer includes own-made soups (a roast squash and red pepper broth was spicy and flavoursome), sandwiches and salads accompanied by piles of smoked salmon and ham, or fresh quiche (cherry tomato and feta, for example). A South African kitchen-crew member has just introduced his own 'braai'-style barbecue offer (thick steaks and premium burgers) on Friday and Saturday lunchtimes for the summer; outdoor seating is imminent.

The decor is handsome, urban rustic – all 'greige' walls and reclaimed wooden floors and furniture – its custom a friendly babel of city suits and LSE students. Staff are cosmopolitan and efficient – a complaint, when my 'buttered' bread arrived thickly smeared with margarine, was dealt with swiftly and with charm.

Owner Jon Dalton, proprietor of the nearby Bloomsbury Bowling Lane claims to be 'anti-fakery – I hate all those places that claim to bake their own bread or cakes and do nothing of the sort.' His antidote seems to be going down a treat.

Time Out London July 2009