Bloomsbury Coffee House

Russell Square is an inevitable part of student life in London. Most students can, on cue, moan extensively about the lack of characterful but cheap places to eat in the area - especially ones where you can use free wi-fi to your heart's content.

Bloomsbury Coffee House is a daytime basement café that solves this problem. Owned by a young couple, the café has two rooms, wooden floors and quaintly mismatched furniture and crockery.

The menu is short, but sufficient: three or four lunch options plus a selection of cakes, most made on the premises. On weekends classic breakfasts are served. Our full-bodied tomato soup with chorizo was almost stew-like, and the welsh rarebit was made with proper bread.

Our chocolate brownie was like a cake but somehow even better for it, and the pumpkin pie featured well-made pastry.

The 'coffee house' moniker is no false claim. The beans are from Allpress, and both our espresso and cappuccino were full flavoured and expertly made.

Bloomsbury Coffee House is a cosy place to hang out with your laptop, read a book, and nibble some cake. The prices are hard to beat too, and even better if you flash a student card for a 10 per cent discount.